Struggling to Save for Retirement? This Number Could Help You Get on Track

Get ready to get motivated to save more for your future.

When you're deep in the throes of life and bills and your career, retirement might be the last thing on your mind. And that's understandable. It's also easy to see how retirement savings might fall by the wayside when you're busy juggling expenses like your mortgage loan, car payments, and basics like food, the cost of which has gone up exponentially over the past year. But it's actually really important that you save for retirement steadily and consistently through the years.

If you've gotten off course in that regard, here's a wake-up call that might motivate you to refocus on building a retirement nest egg.

You don't want to face a financial shortfall

Seniors commonly need 70% to 80% of their former income to live comfortably in retirement. These percentages might seem high, but when you think about it, a lot of the expenses you face during your working years are going to be present during retirement.

Granted, your home might be paid off, and you may not have a job to commute to. But otherwise, most of the bills you find yourself paying as a worker are apt to stick around once your career wraps up.

You'll still have to keep the lights on, put food on the table, and have some means of transportation. And even if you own your home outright in retirement, you'll have to continue covering the cost of property taxes, homeowners insurance, maintenance, and repairs (the cost of which might increase as your home ages).

As such, that 70% to 80% estimate may be more accurate than you may have initially thought it to be. And if you think Social Security will get you the point of being able to replace 70% to 80% of your former income, think again.

Many workers are shocked to learn that the average Social Security beneficiary today collects just $1,827 a month. That's roughly $22,000 a year, which is probably not 70% to 80% of your annual salary.

If you want to be able to get anywhere close to the 70% to 80% mark, you'll need to build independent savings. And knowing how little Social Security pays might motivate you to get back on track and start focusing more on contributions to your IRA account or 401(k) plan.

Make long-term savings a priority

When you're managing a host of bills, it's easy to grow lax with regard to funding your IRA or 401(k). But if you don't save steadily in one of these plans or a similar one, you might end up seriously short on retirement income.

That's why it's a good idea to put the process of saving for retirement on autopilot. The good news is that 401(k) plans effectively force you to do this, since contributions are deducted from your earnings off the bat. But you can create a similar setup by finding an IRA with an automatic savings feature and then arranging for contributions to happen seamlessly so you don't have to think about them or actively move money over yourself.

When you're years away from retirement, saving for it may not be a priority -- but it should be. And if you want to set yourself up with enough income to enjoy your senior years to the fullest, then it's imperative that you find a way to continuously pump money into a long-term savings plan.