I try to max out a Roth IRA each year. I like this type of account, which I’ve referred to as the little black dress of personal finance, because of its versatility. It’s designed for retirement, but since it’s an after-tax account, you can take your contributions out tax free at any time. That makes it a great save for emergencies, save for a big ticket item account.

Although, of course, if you have all of your money in aggressive stock funds, you could risk losing some of your principal and not having it available if you need it. So I have another smaller emergency savings account too.

Anyway, this weekend I received a statement for my 2007 contributions to my IRA. In 2007, you could contribute $4,000; this year it’s $5,000. You can contribute to an IRA for the prior year through tax day– aka April 15th. So my monthly contributions in January through March actually went towards my 2007 limit. Confused, yet?

So the statement said that I saved $4,000.95 for tax year 2007. But the max is $4,000. How annoying is that? I blame it on my mid-year attempt to save exactly $4,000 through dollar cost averaging. Clearly, I goofed on my math, which is no surprise since I often make tweaks to my finances at night when everyone else is asleep and I have the time, but not always the brain power.

I called A.B.C. mutual fund company and told them of my situation. The woman said she couldn’t tell me to do nothing on the recorded line, but that she’s never heard of the IRS flagging a return because a person saved .95 cents too much in a tax advantaged account.

If I wanted to, she would send out an excess contributions form, which would guide me through the calculations to determine how much I earned on that .95 cents and what penalty or taxes I would owe. That sounds time consuming on several levels.

With the contribution limits for IRAs indexed to inflation going forward, I hope that A.B.C and other fund companies that undoubtedly have thousands of customers who wish to max out their IRAs by automatically socking away a sum each month will streamline this process. Anyone know a company that does make this easy?

For those of you who want the whole excess contributions enchilada, here’s IRS Pub 590 .

The surveys on retirement pile up like an early-spring blizzard and are about as annoying. But they do what they’re designed to do: Get people to start thinking about retirement planning. The hope too, is that you’ll use their financial products and advisers to plan, of course.

The first is from Mass Mutual. The most interesting finding in their survey of 17,000 individuals:

More money saved does not equal more confidence. Only 44 percent
of high savers expressed confidence when making their investment
decisions, compared to 54 percent of low and medium savers.

What’s your number?

A lame ING survey (sorry ING, love the “high interest” savings account, but…) found that:

Americans view numbers relating to their sense of identity and their closest personal relationships as most important to them. The numbers frequently mentioned as significant are their own birthday (cited by 26% of respondents) or someone else’s birthday (22%). Other important numbers include a Social Security number (16%), a wedding anniversary (16%), a phone number (13%) and the number of children or siblings in one’s family (12%).

Only a small fraction (5%) consider a financial number, such as their retirement nest egg, as being among those most important to them. ING to the rescue.

The retirement game

The winner of the shameless attention grabbing non sequiter is Lincoln Financial, who did a survey that found 72 percent of Americans will spend less than one hour making their March Madness tourney picks this year compared to the 87 percent of respondents who plan to spend up to five hours in March thinking about retirement planning. I don’t buy it.

Who comes up with this stuff? And is it only so that their executives can make bad sports-money analogies (you know, crossing the finish line=retirement, get some skin in the game=start saving for retirement….)

I take a look at the headlines on Investment News daily and noticed one a few weeks ago that caught my eye about young workers and employee matches.

The story was based on data released from the Employee Benefit Research Institute last year that said 71 percent of full-time workers ages 21 to 24 were not enrolled in their workplace retirement plans.

Not that every employer offers a match. But if yours does, the “.50 cent for every dollar you put in” match which is most common, is more lucrative than you’d think. Invest $100 and that’s $50 for free. Over and over and over again. Not bad. Those matches are getting more generous too: One in five companies plan to increase matching dollars, according to Hewitt Associates.

The Investment News story quotes Brian Jones, a 30-something adviser and author I’ve spoken with in the past who works with young workers. He suggests that workers getting started should ask their parents to help them save for retirement if living expenses make it nearly impossible for them to do it on their own.

I think it’s a great idea in theory– especially since starting early is one way to amass lots of money without major sacrifice. But I don’t know if that’s realistic considering many parents are unprepared for retirement and need to save that money to fund their looming golden years.

I think the right way to save for retirement is skip a few iTunes downloads and head to happy hours at the cheap bars, not beg mom and dad to fluff up your nest egg. They already hatched you and fed you worms for 20+ years (forgive me for taking that too far, but it’s Friday).

The idea that being in debt impacts one’s ability to save for the future is certainly no surprise. But a Securian study that addresses America’s debt, attitudes about debt, and how they feel owing money has affected retirement plans is pretty interesting.Take a look here.

They found that 7 of 10 retirees currently have debt. The survey does not count mortgages as debt, which I find to be peculiar and also frightening. Whatever happened to the idea of retiring the mortgage when you retire from your job?

Debt is also the main priority for the majority of those surveyed. Not retirement savings.

It also found that most consumers are philosophically against debt. Sixty-eight percent believe that financial irresponsibility is to blame for debt. Yet 82 percent of those surveyed said they have some form of debt.

I have debt– a student loan. And I’m sure many of you out there have car loans (which we may take on soon) and credit card debt.

Do you consider debt a normal part of life? Is it shameful? Do we rely too much on debt? Should mortgage debt be retired when you do?

Share your thoughts about debt in this country. Are we in too deep? Are you?

We have a week for everything in this country, don’t we? America Saves Week aims to: “increase awareness that people need to save money, reduce debt and build wealth,” according to the America Saves Week web site.

Can’t say I know of anyone blissfully unaware of those issues, especially these days.

Anyway, in addition to savings calculators, the site also has a list of savings tips. Submit your own and you could win a $50 EE Savings Bond. It’s not much, but have you heard that every little bit adds up?

The sponsors held a conference call yesterday during which an earnest group of government and nonprofit leaders involved in the campaign talked about the importance of saving.

Now don’t get me wrong (here’s my disclaimer before my mini-rant), I’m a huge believer in the need for people to start saving already and am glad that the issue is getting a lot of attention. But I’m frustrated. Study after study comes out beating the retirement shortfall drum. Yet the stats and the solutions fail to sink in.

Some of it, of course, comes down to money. Not everyone makes enough to afford to live well, let alone save. But some of it is systemic and societal. When a reporter on the conference call asked the officials what they thought of the stimulus package and the message it sends from an indebted nation to indebted citizens, my ears perked up (yes, I admit I was looking at the best dressed Oscar pics).

Boy, did this group dodge that question like an actress trying to avoid Joan Rivers on the red carpet. Most were silent. A couple trotted out the typical, start saving early, teach kids about money lines. Another brushed off stimulus as an issue economists are best left to worry about.

I’m no economist, but I am worried– that these oh-so-trendy, dime-a-dozen financial literacy and savings efforts are failing to inspire those that need it most. And we’ll all pay in the long run.

Anyone have any bright ideas?