Retirement saving is easy, but most avoid it

Survey suggests many lack financial confidence

There’s a hot new consumer finance survey to help us all put our behaviors into perspective.

ValuePenguin.com, which provides advice on people’s financial decisions, hired a top marketing research firm, OnePoll, to run a big, broad survey on consumer financial behavior.

Fact: Retirement saving is simple, like losing weight. Sadly, as with shedding pounds, most people just won’t do it. The cheesecake equivalents look too tempting.

Investing is slightly more complicated, like appropriate exercises that won’t injure you. But with investing, smarts or cleverness aren’t as key as wisdom — which is why brilliant 20-somethings on Wall Street screw up every decade and always have. They can’t prioritize wisdom over IQ.

Self-analysis often is off the mark. Otherwise, most folks’ finances would work perfectly since they would fix what wasn’t working for them. I can’t tell you how to see yourself correctly. But I can tell you how others see themselves. Then you can ponder how different you are, or aren’t.

So, where do you fit in? The new survey, called “Financial Fails ” tells the tale. For example, 20 percent of us openly admit to spending more than we earn every month. Cheesecaked! Less than one-third of us put money monthly into retirement accounts. Worse, amazingly, 12 percent of us shop online drunk. Hooched! You can’t make this stuff up.

Seventy percent claim to know what we make and spend — implying 30 percent don’t. Then, 25 percent don’t have a savings account, 28 percent haven’t a basic investment account, and almost 80 percent of workers don’t have a 401(k).

All this you can fix yourself. It’s simple self-discipline. I’ve written lots here on 401(k)s. In this super strong economy for employment, stronger than any in decades, if your firm doesn’t have a 401(k), you should job hop elsewhere for one, while the hopping is good.

So how do you compare to others when it comes to financial behavior? Yes, there are exceptional entrepreneurs who create super wealth. But if that’s not you, you need to build the foundation for a sturdy retirement.

Seventy-eight percent of us worry often or sometimes about our financial situation. Generally, worrying accomplishes nothing. Part of it comes from a lack of knowledge. Here things get wacky. Categorically, younger people think they understand investing. As we age, our confidence in fathoming investing shrinks. That’s gaining wisdom! Behavioral scientists have long demonstrated humans tend toward over-confidence and that over-confidence wrecks investing.

Not only do 80 percent of people 25 to 34 years old think they understand investing — 80 percent of people 18 to 24 do, too. That is simply scary because as Bill Baldwin, my former editor at Forbes magazine, always said, “Most investment mistakes are self-inflicted.”

In total, 30 percent of us don’t think we know how to invest. It isn’t surprising then that 29 percent of us have a financial adviser and 71 percent of us don’t. But unless you’re in the top several percent of us in wealth you probably don’t need an adviser. Over the course of any year, there is more than enough right here in USA TODAY’s Money section to educate you on building the basics you need — and how to invest it all without being overly complicated.

After that it’s up to you; just like diet and exercise.

GETTY IMAGES GETTY IMAGES Many Americans don't know how to plan for retirement.