The Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual retirement confidence survey has found that about 68 per cent of workers are confident about having adequate funds for a comfortable retirement, up slightly from the 65 per cent recorded last year.   Unfortunately some of the savings numbers in this report don't make me feel confident at all.

• Modest savings: More than half of workers saving for retirement report total savings and investments (not including the value of their primary residence or any defined benefit plans) of less than $50,000 (52 percent). However, the large majority of workers who have not put money aside for retirement have little in savings at all: Three-quarters of these workers say their assets total less than $10,000 (75 percent).

• Expected benefits unlikely to materialize: Many workers are counting on employer-provided benefits in retirement that are increasingly unavailable. Only 40 percent of workers indicate they or their spouse currently have a defined benefit plan, yet 61 percent say they are expecting to receive income from such a plan in retirement. Likewise, workers are as likely to expect (37 percent) as retirees are to receive (40 percent) retiree health insurance through an employer, despite the fact that the number of employers offering this benefit is declining

Visit the Employee Benefit Research Institute site for The 2006 Retirement Confidence Survey