THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995              TAG: 9501050419
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: COX NEWS SERVICE 
DATELINE: ATLANTA                            LENGTH: Short :   33 lines

REPORT SAYS FEW TRYING TO SAVE FOR RETIREMENT

For most Americans, there's one life to live.

And they want to live it to the hilt, without worrying about setting money aside now for their golden years later.

So says a survey released Tuesday by two nonpartisan interest groups, the Public Agenda Foundation and the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Only 29 percent of the 1,100 Americans surveyed by telephone in August often thought about retirement, the groups said.

One reason: Nearly two-thirds said ``paying for the necessities'' prevented them from thinking about retirement, let alone amassing a nest egg.

One essential part of modern middle-class life apparently is eating out, according to the survey, which was paid for by Fidelity Investments.

Even though 68 percent said they could eat out less often to save, only 18 percent said they were likely to make the sacrifice.

Most also were reluctant to pare spending on clothes, vacations and ``extras'' for the kids.

Ironically, those with household incomes of $25,000 or less were more willing to cut spending to build a nest egg, the survey said.

KEYWORDS: SURVEY RETIREMENT by CNB