I was flipping through a newspaper for Will County businesses that comes to the office, and stopped when an article titled "Financial Focus: Retirement Savings" caught my eye. I started reading it and a couple of things jumped out at me. The author does not cite references, but he quotes a survey that says "only 26 percent of the adults surveyed think they could accumulate $200,000 in net worth in their lifetime" and "A whopping 21 percent of those surveyed said winning the lottery would be the most practical strategy to accumulate several hundred thousand dollars".

Those are disappointing statistics. Are they right? Well, in the case of the second, obviously not - since winning the lottery is next to impossible. Oh, I know, people DO win...but the odds against ME or YOU winning are astronomical. In the case of the first, I believe it is overly pessimistic to think that anyone can't build up wealth of $200,000 over their working years. It can be done, and I believe by almost anyone.

I know there are a lot of people living a paycheck to paycheck existence, but what would happen if your employer was suddenly required to withhold an extra 50 bucks a check? Or your salary got cut by that much? Or another expense popped up that cost you that extra 50 bucks? Most people would FIGURE OUT A WAY to live without that money. They'd figure out a way to pay the bills and put food on the table and not get evicted, I think. Would it kill someone to make 100 dollars a month less?

The best way for most people to do this is to defer that 50 bucks per check into a tax-deferred IRA. You'd never see it and you likely would not miss it. Or you might miss it, but you'd work around it. Think of it as another expense.

If you could earn 7 percent a year on that $1200 dollars a year, this article says you'd have $121,000 after 30 years. That would go a long way to accumulating that $200,000.

Obviously, debt is crushing, and heavy debt with high interest, ie, credit cards, is the worst. If you're already in this position, you should use only one card, and cut up the rest. Then concentrate on paying off the cards one at a time. Start with the smallest, without regard to the interest rate. Make minimum payments on all the others. Then when that one is paid off, put the money you've been using to pay that one off toward the next one, and so on and so on. When they're all paid off, you probably just have a big balance on the one card. Now put whatever resources you can to paying it off. Once it's manageable, then save more.

The other suggestion made in the article is to take advantage of employers' 401K plans. This is free money, if you participate. Employers have to match up to some set percentage of your contributions.

I know, some of this is easy for me to say. I have had rough patches but generally my profession provides for a decent lifestyle. But it's the only way to do this.

Can't start with 50 a paycheck? How about 30? Anything to start off. Increase it later. Make paying yourself a priority. And the money you're spending on those lottery tix? Save THAT, too.

Good luck.