Will Flannigan's loan payments soak up one-fourth of his editor's salary.

Here’s what Will Flannigan, 26, would like to do with the $401.58 he pays on his student loans every month.

• Save.
• Buy a house: the mortgage payment on a house he looked at was the same as his rent, but renovating or fixing anything would be unaffordable.
• Replace his 2006 Ford Focus – it’s red but he calls it a “lemon.”
• Buy new clothes – thrift shops are standard.
• Eat dinner out at someplace other than a fast food restaurant.

Flannigan is getting married in August – to a woman who pays about $250 per month for her college loans.

Three out of four people now paying off student debt – whether graduates or their parents – are just like Flannigan: they’re delaying important life goals in order to make their payments, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive sponsored by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA).  About 40 percent also said they have delayed saving for retirement or buying a car, to name just two deferred goals.

This survey, which was random and based on telephone interviews, illustrates the reason behind the growing concern among financial advisers, 20- and 30-somethings, and their parents that paying for a college education has become a burden with financial implications for years, even decades.

“It’s indentured servitude – that’s what it is,” said Flannigan, a Kent State graduate (2010), whose loan payments equal one-quarter of his salary as the online editor of Farm and Dairy, in Salem, Ohio, near Youngstown.  Payoff horizon for his $62,000 loans: more than 25 years, according to his loan documents, he said.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported data in April that confirms student debt is affecting homeownership, as the AICPA survey also found.  People with more education are more likely to own homes.  But for the first time in more than a decade, the Fed said, 30 year olds without any student loans are more likely to own homes – or borrow money to buy cars – than those with a history of borrowing for college, who are more educated.

Perhaps the biggest hit to Will Flannigan may be to his aspirations.  He would love to pursue his dream of being a journalist in a city like Manhattan, where there’s more opportunity than in his small town.  But he feels strongly that he can’t take an early-career risk, with a loan payment that comes around every month.  (In 2011, while unemployed, he asked the bank that gave him a private student loan to defer his payments; the bank told him that he had to have a job to obtain a deferral, he said.)

For many graduates, student loan payments hit them like the proverbial Mack truck: 61 percent surveyed did not understand the ramifications when they took on the debt, according to the AICPA poll.  Harris interviewed 237 respondents who were either graduates or parents making payments on their children’s behalf.

“I see it all the time with my clients,” said Ernie Almonte, a Rhode Island CPA and chair of the Financial Literacy Commission for AICPA.   The average student loan debt for all U.S. graduates in 2012 was about $29,000, according to finaid.org, which tracks the data, but some students Almonte talks to have $100,000 or more in loans.

“That’s a mortgage without a house.  It can have a major negative effect on their lifestyle when they get out of college,” he said.  To prevent this situation, he cautions parents and their future college students to remember that entering college isn’t just a life choice – it’s a major financial decision.  He’s a big proponent of community college for two years to reduce the total cost of a four-year education.

For prior blog posts about student debt, read “Frustrations of Managing Student Loans” and “Student Debt Binge: How Will It End?”

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This is hardly surprising, since prior research has estimated that only about 10 percent of all workers are contributing the maximum $17,500 per year that everyone, regardless of age, is allowed to contribute under IRS guidelines for 2013.  Since the vast majority never reach that cap, the “catch-up” 401(k) contribution enacted to encourage people to save more when they hit their 50^th birthday – an additional $5,500 per year – is largely irrelevant to them.

But the catch-up contribution data, which Fidelity culled from its 401(k) client database representing some 12 million workers, are yet another reminder of a fundamental problem with the U.S. retirement system: Americans simply are not saving enough to ensure their financial security in old age.

In short, members of the Me Generation don’t seem to be doing a great job of taking care of Me.

The evidence is compelling: the typical older household enrolled in a 401(k) plan at work has saved about $120,000.  That’s probably not even enough to pay for their health care in excess of what Medicare will cover.   Many workers have no 401(k) savings at all.  Despite having too little money in the bank and prospects for a long life, very few people are feeling any urgency to save more.

So who is taking advantage of the additional tax deduction for catch-up contributions?  Sixty-two percent are men, and 38 percent are women, according to Fidelity.

These catch-up contributions may be concentrated among higher-income households.  Those who make them are saving a hefty share of their salary: 21 percent of men’s earnings, on average, and 23 percent of women’s earnings – these amounts do not include the employer match.

To read the IRS guidelines for catch-up contributions, click this webpage.

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That’s among the reasons the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College started this blog in May 2011.  The blog’s focus is not financial products but financial behavior: what people do, why we do it, and how we can do it better.  At its two-year anniversary, the Squared Away Blog hopes that it has become a reliable source of information for a growing number of readers of all ages who struggle every day to save and invest for their own or their children’s futures.

It’s important to explain to readers what “reliable” means for a blog housed at a university think tank.  First, it’s about credibility.  We are not selling anything.  The blog is supported by a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration, which has an interest in making sure Americans get good financial information.

Second, Squared Away routinely covers the latest research – our own or others – about financial behavior, or we use it to inform other articles you’ll read here.  That’s because empirical research, which uses statistical analysis to figure out what’s really going on, is critical to understanding and tackling our personal finance challenges.

Research establishes that there are better and worse ways to manage one’s money, whether paying down a credit card or investing your 401(k).  This research sometimes contradicts or tempers the advertisements and information flowing out of the influential and pervasive financial industry.

This blog is for people of all ages.  Americans work in a DIY retirement world, requiring us to pay more attention than ever to our finances.  Retirement is a shaky prospect for more than half of Americans, who may experience a drop in their standard of living when they stop working.  Financial management must now begin for college students before they start their careers: the surge in borrowing to pay for an education has financial implications that we’re only beginning to understand.

Our supportive readers have been critical to making this blog work, increasing our exposure through Facebook, Twitter and word of mouth.  And you have strong opinions, which we’ll continue to encourage in the comments section at the end of each article.

For now, below are links to our readers’ 10 favorite articles so far in 2013, according to our online analysis of blog traffic:

• It Pays More Than Ever to Delay – about Social Security
• Young Adults Adrift in an E-Spending Ocean – about online shopping
• Olen Explains ‘Pound Foolish’ – about financial advice
• Future Retirees Don’t Grasp Health Costs – about a large looming expense
• Questioning Wall Street Convention – it’s about what you need
• Jobless Boomers: How They Survive – about how they pay the bills
• Unemployed Boomers Resist Retirement – about efforts to keep working
• White-Black Wealth Gap Nearly Triples – about a grim 25-year trend
• Corporate Match Falls With Auto Enrollment – about the profit motive
• To Live Cheaply, See the World – about something other than money

Rolling Stones, 1969.

There is nothing better that most people can do to get what they’ll need in retirement than delaying when they start collecting Social Security.

The recent PBS documentary, “The Retirement Gamble,” sounded the alarm for many viewers who may be ill-prepared for the financial challenge of a long life – and not much retirement savings in the bank.

To address this growing issue, financial advisers often emphasize retirement-survival strategies to their baby boomer clients.  These strategies revolve around the complexities of figuring out how much to save, how to invest, or the best way to spend one’s 401(k) assets post-retirement.

But the real problem facing most Americans is that they have meager balances in their 401(k)s – or none at all.

Putting off when one claims Social Security “is the best deal in town,” concluded an analysis by Steven Sass, program director at the Center for Retirement Research, which supports this blog.

There are a couple of ways in which future retirees can afford to delay: by working longer or even by using their 401(k) savings for a few years, post-retirement, to pay the bills.

In either case, the payoff is enormous.  Take someone who’s 60 and could get $10,000 per year by claiming Social Security today. That would increase to more than $13,000 per year by waiting until 66 and to more than $17,000 by waiting until 70.

Further, Sass’ analysis showed, the financial benefits of holding off for one, two, or several years is equivalent to a higher rate of return than any insurance company annuity is willing to pay these days.

Sass’ article on this topic, “Should You Buy An Annuity From Social Security?,” was published on CRR’s website last year, prompting several people to call the Center seeking information about Social Security’s annuities.  Social Security doesn’t actually sell annuities, but Sass was making the point there is another way to think about how to address the individual retirement crises unfolding in homes around the country.

He calculated the value to retirees of delaying Social Security, compared with buying an insurance company annuity.  An inflation-protected annuity’s yearly payments range from 4 percent to 5 percent of the upfront purchase price for men and women who buy them in their early or mid-60s.

The value of delaying, in comparable terms, is at least 6 percent per year – every year for the rest of the retiree’s life.  It pays more than ever to delay, too, because interest rates are low and insurers are paying less.

Some readers may already be composing comments in response to this article, such as 1) I’m tired of working; 2) I am not going to live very long and want to travel; or 3) I don’t know how long I’ll live.  (Who does?)

Yes, delaying Social Security requires sacrifice for folks plotting their escape from the labor force.

But here’s another tradeoff that should be just as stark: A few more years on the job versus many years of want.

Sanofi has succeeded, judging by Plan Sponsor magazine’s designation of the U.S. division of the French pharmaceutical giant as 2013 “Plan Sponsor of the Year.”

In corporate America, 401(k) plans are now the norm: in 2012, only 11 of Fortune magazine’s 100 largest companies still offered a traditional defined benefit pension, according to the consulting firm Towers Watson. But Sanofi U.S. had strong motivation for designing a 401(k) that is generous compared with typical 401(k)s.

The company has “highly technical, highly specialized, highly skilled [employees] that we have to recruit for and retain,” said Richard Johnson, senior director of benefits. “We wanted to ensure our employees had adequate retirement income.”

Squared Away recently interviewed Sanofi executives about their plan’s details, shown below, which readers can compare with 401(k) plans in their own workplaces. We hope you’ll post a comment on Facebook and let us know how, or whether, yours stacks up.

Here how Sanofi compares with other 401(k)s:

To ensure that employees participate in the 401(k), the company automatically enrolls everyone into its plan. Although they can opt back out, most stay. The company also made it more difficult for employees to use their 401(k)s as emergency funds by limiting the number and frequency of loans they can take out of their savings.

“Their 401k is very generous, very robust – a fabulous plan – and they see it as part of their compensation package,” said Francisco Negron, head of T. Rowe Price’s retirement plan services for clients, which include Sanofi.

The plan redesign last year followed 2010 improvements on the investment side, including reducing the number of mutual funds that employees can pick for their investments. This change was intended to minimize confusion over what to invest in. Low investment fees – 0.33 percent of assets – also mean employees can keep more of their savings for retirement.

“With the size of our plan, we have the ability to negotiate” fees, said Ed Grass, treasurer.

As good as Sanofi’s plan design is, however, a 401(k) remains a complex animal. When someone retires, the challenge changes from building up and investing one’s savings to figuring how to spend it. In contrast to defined benefit pensions that issue a fixed pension check every month, 401(k)s pose a host of confounding questions: How fast can I spend my savings? Should I save it all for a nursing home? Can I afford to travel? What about taxes? Inflation? Are the investments I picked still okay?

Sanofi retirees have various options: withdraw all their savings at once, periodically withdraw funds at their discretion, or set up regular cash withdrawals each month, quarter, or year. Sanofi offers employees some help, in the form of an online calculator to guide drawdown strategies and an annual webinar.

But retirees at any company with a 401(k) remain at risk when making complex decisions about spending their precious savings. A few big mistakes over the next 10, 20, or 30 years, and one of two things can happen: the retiree runs out of money or is over cautious and doesn’t spend enough, forgoing opportunities to enjoy retirement.

Readers: what type of arrangement does your employer have and how does it compare with Sanofi’s? If you’re retired, how are you managing your accumulated savings?

Sheila Taymore, 60, of Salem, Mass.

But selling it was emotional: she and her first husband had raised two sons in that house in the seaside town of Swampscott, north of Boston. Her decision to move was triggered by a recent divorce and came about two years after the death of her mother.

“I walked around and cried and said, ‘Who cares about this house?’ I make all this money, and all my money was going towards my house,” said Taymore, a Comcast Cable salesperson – last year was her best year ever.

She is like millions of U.S. baby boomers struggling, often imperfectly, to prepare financially for their imminent retirement. Wall Street may tout investment savvy as critical to ensuring a comfortable old age, but less lofty decisions can be more helpful to those with too little savings and too few working years left to make it up.

Taymore is also planning to delay her retirement to age 70. That will give her a larger monthly check from Social Security and fewer years of retirement to pay for. That was an easy call, she said, because “I just love my job.”

Thoughts of downsizing to a less expensive condominium came after a friend urged Taymore – on her own for the first time – to take a hard look at her finances. The numbers did not work. Moving started to make sense emotionally, too, when she recalled what her mother had stored in the nooks and crannies of her childhood home, such as locks of baby hair and school grades. “I don’t want to be like her,” she said.

In a single day, on January 18, Taymore sold her three-bedroom house and closed on a dingy condo, around the corner from the shops and restaurants in downtown Salem, Mass. She moved into a hotel for five days while transforming her fifth-floor condo in a 120-unit building into a sunny living home with a Japanese motif. A mezuzah, the traditional Jewish ornament secured to the door frame, still greets her guests, just as it did at her old house.

For most U.S. households approaching retirement, their home equity is a major asset, though less than they’ll receive over time from Social Security.

Taymore can’t fully account for the $110,000-plus in cash proceeds from selling her house for $335,000 and paying off the mortgage and equity loan. Moving expenses – paying off a $24,000 home equity loan, realtor fees, last-minute fixes requested by the buyer, a plumber, light fixtures, the hotel – don’t fully explain it.

But Taymore estimates her $182,000 condo has slashed her housing expenses roughly in half. Her mortgage payment is $900. Her monthly condo fee is steep – $469 – but includes heat.

Equally important to Taymore, downsizing has brought some peace of mind about her finances. Well, except for her penchant for new clothes, which she’s trying to get control of. Taymore has just $60,000 in her 401(k) – more than most but still not enough. “I need to save more,” she said.

And have no doubt she will: when she decides to do something, Taymore says, “I make it happen.”

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Canadian and European governments provide universal health care to their citizens, but this country has relied heavily on employers for health insurance, and only about two-thirds of them provide it. It’ll be fascinating to see how health care reform changes our decisions about work, starting a business, college, and individual finances when more Americans have access to coverage in 2014.

Research years ago established the influence of employer health insurance on the workplace. When employees are covered at work, job turnover is lower – workers know health care is a big thing to give up. There’s also newer evidence that people on the disability rolls, who receive health care as part of that federal benefit, are more likely to go back to work if they live in a state with better access to health insurance in the private market.

Retirement is another big decision driven by one’s health insurance options. Medicare eligibility at age 65 can trigger the decision, new research shows: people working for employers without any health benefits for their retirees are more likely to retire at 65, according to a paper by economists Norma Coe of the University of Washington’s School of Public Health and Matt Rutledge of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, which supports this blog.

“We interpret this finding as evidence that Medicare eligibility persuades people to retire, because they can begin receiving federal health coverage,” Coe and Rutledge write.

People select their retirement dates for a host of reasons: fed up with work, physically unable to work any longer, yearning to travel, or finally able to afford retirement after paying off the house. The most common retirement age, hands down, is 62. But age 65 is also popular.

Financially, the decision to retire by age 65 may not always make sense for a U.S. population that is living longer, hasn’t saved much, and could use the bigger monthly check that comes with delaying Social Security benefits a little longer. An early retirement date is a decision that can reduce a retiree’s financial well-being for decades.

A key reason Medicare coverage often serves as a retirement trigger is that, right now, obtaining coverage elsewhere is difficult given that employer health coverage for retirees has been declining. Such coverage plummeted to only one in four large companies last year, down from two out of three in 1988, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research institute. Health benefits are even rarer at small companies.

But Medicare may not maintain its influence on the retirement decision forever. If the Affordable Care Act, after its full implementation in 2014, provides more access to reasonably priced health coverage outside of the employer-employee relationship, then we may not see so many people holding out for Medicare. At that point, your 65th birthday may be just another date.

How does health care coverage influence your work and personal finances? Readers can email their thoughts in the comment field provided below.

Full disclosure: The research cited in this post was funded by a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) through the Retirement Research Consortium, which also funds this blog. The opinions and conclusions expressed are solely those of the blog’s author and do not represent the opinions or policy of SSA or any agency of the federal government.