It is National Save for Retirement Week

Did you know that more than half of U.S. workers have less than $25,000 saved for retirement? This statistic is shocking when you consider most people don't have full pensions provided by their employer and Social Security will pay out very little in retirement. To help build awareness around the importance of saving for retirement Congress has designated October 18-24 as National Save for Retirement Week.

The importance of saving for retirement can't be stated enough. We are living longer, dealing with higher health care costs, and fighting inflation, so we need to save more money and make it last longer than ever before. The only way to do this is to start saving. Save early and save often. To see where your retirement savings stands, try this 5-minute checkup.  After entering in some basic information you'll see how you're doing and whether or not you should make some changes.

And don't forget to check out many of the retirement planning resources here:

• Retirement Planning 101
• How Much Money Do You Need to Retire?
• 6 Retirement Planning Mistakes to Avoid
• Taking a 401(k) Loan