Are you saving enough? To answer this question, you might need a detailed analysis to compare your future income with your future lifestyle, but it does not hurt to compare your saving speed with your peers. According to a newly released AXA Financial Services research (also mentioned by CBS MarketWatch), working Americans between the age of 25 and 44 save an average of $547 a month while people at the age of 45 or more save an average of $834 while still working. For the total working Americans, the monthly saving averages at $687.

Now the "average" is misleading here. For example, in 2004, I saved an average of more than $5,000 per month; this will demand a handful of other people to save nothing to make the "average" math right.

Actually, in the accompanying PowerPoint deck (slide 63), it was mentioned that the median monthly saving for working Americans is only $389 (compared to the average of $687).

The study thoroughly compares how Americans think and work towards retirement with many other countried, and the PowerPoint deck actually includes many more interesting datapoints. Below are some numbers for working Americans as a whole:

- Age people would like to retire: 55 (Slide 12)

- Actual retirement age: 63 (Slide 12)

- At what age do people consider somebody as old? 73 (Slide 31)

- What standard of living do you anticipate in retirement? (Slide 42)
18% see improvement,
49% see stablity,
33% see decrease.

- Will your retirement income be sufficient? (Slide 43)
9% say completely sufficient,
52% say sufficient,
28% say insufficient,
10% say completely insufficient.

- What's the total of your retirement income? (Slide 45)
Average: $2,198
Median: $1,637

- At which age do people prepare for retirement? 34 (Slide 49)

- What arrangements have been made for securing (future) income after retiring? (Slide 60)
Saving - 76%
Savings Plan with Fiscal Advantages - 69%
Life Insurance Policy - 66%
Pension Savings Plan - 55%
Contribution to Insurance Policy/Pension Fund - 55%
Real Estate Investment - 46%