Websites help tackle the task of funding retirement

What does it cost to retire? The answer depends on many factors, including your age and expectations for what life should be like in your older years. These sites help sort out the details.

• Brace yourself: Two million dollars saved for retirement ought to be the goal for current twentysomethings, according to this report at U.S. News & World Report. Even with decades to work toward it, that’s going to be a daunting number for most people. The article insists it’s doable by saving in every way possible and retiring later than age 65. http://is.gd/ZutNhJ

• Just five steps to a secure retirement? That’s the suggestion of the headline on this posting at personal-finance site Kiplinger.com. It has been a volatile decade in the stock market, so how do individual investors dig out? For many people, one of the few answers is to boost contributions to their 401(k) or IRA accounts. You probably qualify to contribute much more than you think to these, especially if you’re over 50. http://is.gd/574sq0

• Never enough: A page of retirement “planning tools” at the retirement site ThirdAge.com includes several helpful items on the “how much is enough” question. It says to start with the premise that “no nest egg is ever too big.” That, and the ongoing economic crisis, might discourage some people from even trying to build that nest egg, but the article here insists it’s important to ignore the bad signs and save, save, save. www.thirdage.com/retirement

• Starting late: Here’s a bit of advice for retirement-planning procrastinators. Forbes.com says it’s going to be tough, but it’s best to take the hard medicine of a “retirement catch-up.” And lest you think the magic of compound interest won’t be of help unless you started saving in your 20s, the article notes that “even if you’re in your 50s, you can still take advantage of the magic of compounded returns. That’s because — actuarially, anyway — your retirement is likely to run upwards of 20 years.” http://is.gd/vWJkPS