How much are YOU saving?

I recently read an article about saving for retirement. The article gave some basic rules of thumb for people of various age groups. For example, it said that people in their 20's and 30's should be saving at least 10% of their income for retirement, and people in their 40's (my age group) and 50's should be saving at least 15% of their income. Most articles these days, that are about investing point out what types of investments that should be in one's portfolio. This year's market volatility and especially the stock market disaster year of 2008 pointed out (to most people's chagrin) that even when you have a well diversified portfolio, you can lose money in your account. The basic plan for diversifying one's portfolio is to have a proper mix of stocks, bonds, and cash for someone with your risk level (meaning are you aggressive or conservative or somewhere in between?). In recent years, people have further diversified their accounts by also adding real estate and commodities to the mix. But in 2008, all of these investment asset classes lost money (except US Treasuries, if you were lucky enough to get in early). So what to do? Put all your money in cash? Bury it in a coffee can in your backyard? For starters, make sure you're saving enough. The real key to having money to spend in retirement is to save money for retirement. The average U.S. citizen is saving less than 3%! At that rate, most people will not even keep up with inflation and cost of living increases. So yes, it's important to periodically rebalance your portfolio, but it's critical that you save more than the average. Do what it takes to save that extra 7-12% needed to get back on track for your retirement. Unless, you see yourself wearing a spiffy blue vest and telling people, "Welcome to Walmart!"