A whopping 72% of workers age 60 or older are putting off retirement because they feel they can’t afford to retire, according to a new Harris Interactive/CareerBuilder study.

And it appears women are more likely to stay on the job than men — 76% of women said they plan to work longer because they can’t afford to retire, compared to 68% of men who said they’ll stay in the workforce.

Luckily for most (71%) of those who want to keep working, they enjoy their job and don’t want to leave.

Some other reasons older works say they want to stay on the job:

• To collect health insurance or other additional benefits they need (50%)
• They think retirement will be too boring (24%), and
• They enjoy feeling needed (15%).

Many older employees now plan to work years past the traditional retirement age to recoup lost savings. And as the age of your workforce increases, so do workers’ health problems. Two ways to keep costs under control:

1. Plan for their future

As employees age, health factors can become an ever-increasing barrier to productivity.

So the sooner you introduce your employees to wellness programs, the more productive they’ll be in their later years.

Employers with well-established wellness programs are seeing lower rates of diabetes and heart disease among their older workers than other comparable organizations’ 40-and-over employees.

2. Tell them to speak up

Older workers are less likely to suffer workplace injury (usually because they are taken off the front line and given safer jobs). But when they do get hurt, they recover slower, create costlier claims and are less likely to return to work.

That means employers must place a heavy emphasis on early identification and intervention. Encourage employees to seek treatment as soon as any symptoms of injury or illness are discovered.

The key to getting workers to take action: Assure them they won’t be discriminated against when they become ill.

One thing to be aware of: Shortly after getting this message of prevention out to workers, odds are the level of reported injuries and illnesses will increase. But don’t worry, this trend will reverse itself in time.

President Obama wants legislation passed that would require all businesses to offer automatic retirement accounts. The devil’s in the details.

The plan, part of a tax package aimed at middle- income Americans,  would let employees automatically enroll in direct-deposit IRA accounts and expand matching tax credits.

The White House released the plan accompanied by a Government Accountability Office  estimate that about 80 million Americans don’t have retirement accounts through their employers and 63% of low-income workers have little or no savings at retirement. Here are the details of the plan:

• Workers who don’t opt-out would automatically enroll in a retirement savings account probably through payroll deductions into one of several investments including what’s known as a “stable-value fund” consisting of special U.S. savings bonds and a “target-date fund” that automatically shifts investments from more aggressive assets to more conservative ones as a worker gets closer to retirement.
• The accounts would be the same as Roth IRAs where taxes are paid upfront.
• The accounts would have the same annual investment limits as traditional IRAs: $5,000 for employees under the age of 50 and $6,000 for those 50 and over.
• Employers would have access to a government Web site that would help them find a bank, brokerage firm or mutual fund company to administer the accounts.
• Contract employees would be eligible for the plan.
• Workers who join the plan would get a tax credit that matches 50% of the first $1,000 of contributions by families earning as much as $65,000; families that earn up to $85,000 would get some fraction of that credit.

The National Small Business Association, which represents 150,000 members, has already issued statements opposing the plan. Among the NSBA’s reasons for opposition:

• The plan would create another layer of administrative burdens on owners.
• Many small businesses that don’t use a payroll contractor or have direct-deposit would find the plan impractical to run.

Democrats in the House and Senate say the plan could be enacted before the end of the year.

Assuming it’s truly an either/or situation, most financial planners say it’s better to focus on creating a retirement nest egg.

Why? Because holding assets like 401(k)s and IRAs don’t affect a student’s eligibility for financial aid. In fact, participation can help cut out-of-pocket college costs, because it reduces net income.

Secondly, there are plenty of unknowns that could affect students’ needs for funds. Will they attend a public or private school? Will they receive a scholarship? Will they attend a trade school or community college?

And unless the employee or spouse is in line for an old-fashioned pension, retirement savings will largely fall on the employee’s shoulders.

Social Security may help a bit. But unless employees participate in 401(k) and/or an IRA, most will someday be faced with three unpleasant options:

• delay retirement
• don’t retire at all, or
• retire to a lower standard of living.

5 helpful funding sources

As expensive as college can be, there’s at least the potential for some wiggle room in paying for it.

Some sources:

• Low-interest loans for tuition, books, etc.
• The student may qualify for a scholarship or grant
• The employee’s parents (the student’s grandparents) may be in a position to offer assistance
• Cheaper state schools or community colleges, and/or
• The student may work and contribute to his or her own expenses.

Most of the 2009 retirement plan limits are unchanged because the Consumer Price Index didn’t meet the statutory thresholds that cause them to increase.

Here are IRS’ annual cost-of-living adjustments that apply to how much employees can contribute to qualified retirement plans, and other related items:

• Maximum 401(k), 457(e)(15) elective deferrals – remains at $16,500 for 2010
• Catch-up contributions for 401(k), 403(b) and 457 plans for employees age 50 or over – $5,500 in 2009 and 2010
• SIMPLE deferrals – $11,500 in 2009 and 2010
• Catch-up contributions for SIMPLE plans – remains $2,500 in 2010
• SEPs [408(k)(2)(C)] – is unchanged from 2009, at $550
• Maximum compensation for benefit accruals [401(a)(17) and 404(l)] (plan year and limitation year limit) –$245,000 for 2009 and 2010
• Max. annual additions/benefits [415(c)(1)(A)] (limitation year limit) for defined contribution plans – 100% of compensation or $49,000, the same as in 2009
• Max. additional additions/benefits [415(b)(1)(A)] (limitation years ending after 12/31/09) for defined benefit plans – remains $195,000 in 2010
• Highly compensated employee under Section 414(q)(1)(B) – will be unchanged in 2010, at $110,000
• Key employee-officer in a top-heavy plan – remains $160,000 in 2010, and
• Definition of a “control employee” for fringe benefit valuation purposes – will be $95,000, unchanged from 2009. The compensation amount under Section 1.6121(f)(5)(iii) remains at $195,000 in 2010.

Click here to see the full IRS announcement on  adjustments.

Investment-adviser Web site motleyfool.com recommends you avoid these five mistakes to give yourself a better chance at building a comfortable nest egg:

1. Procrastinating. Those who fail to plan … well, you know the rest. A surefire way to make mess of retirement planning is to avoid retirement planning. Putting it off “for a couple of days” soon turns into a couple of years, and the next thing you know, you’re pawning that gold watch for a couple of cans of tuna — and not the fancy albacore, we might add.
2. Skipping an employer plan. If your firm has a 401(k) or similar plan and you’re not in it, hit yourself in the face with your fist. If your firm has a matching-contribution plan and you’re still not in it, use a baseball bat instead of your fist. You’re missing out on tax savings, compounding and free money. If you have the money taken right out of your paycheck, you’ll hardly miss the amount after a while.
3. Saving for college first. Look at it this way: If you put all your spare money into a college fund for your kids, do you think they’re going to fund your retirement? Good luck with that. That’s not to say you shouldn’t try to save for your children’s education, but your retirement is the first priority.
4. Investing too conservatively. The recent market meltdown was enough to scare anyone into putting money into only the safest — and lowest paying — investments. Most advisers say that’s a mistake, especially if you’re more than five years from retirement. Putting your money in blue chips is OK, however. Better there than in ultraconservative holdings.
5. Investing too aggressively. This of course  is the flip side of the too-conservative approach. Some may feel they have to catch up — quickly — for recent market losses by taking chances on risky stocks. Don’t do it. Stick with solid, moderate-risk investments. And the diversity rule is: Don’t put yourself in a position where the failure of one part of your investments dooms your whole portfolio.

Here are four ways to hold off rising retirement plan costs now:

1. Revisit and compare. The first step is to determine exactly how much your firm is paying (administrative fees, management fees, etc.), as well as how the plan has performed. Next, do a side-by-side comparison with the competition.

Reason: It’s true that most retirement plans have struggled over the last year, but certain plans have had much more positive results than others. Enlisting the help of a benefits consultant or an outside advisor can also be very helpful here.

2. Renegotiate, renegotiate, renegotiate. The market has hurt everyone — including retirement plan providers. The last thing they need is to lose valuable customers, so many will be open to renegotiating your current rates.

Key: For better deals, come to the renegotiation process armed with bids from the competition.

3. Check out small-business-friendly providers. Certain retirement plan providers base fees on factors such as service offerings and the number of plan participants — regardless of what assets are in the plan.

For small firms, especially those with lots of assets, this type of fee structure can be extremely beneficial.

4. Bundle services. Does your provider have any major price hikes in the works? If so, it may be worth it to try brokering a deal with one of your other service providers.

For example, a NY-based company was hit with a $3,000 charge to reinstate its 401(k). Instead of giving in, the firm opted to change providers. It went with the company that handled its payroll, which offered a discount. The company ended up saving $500 a year.

The analysis is called the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). It was  released this year by the Federal Reserve Board, and provides detailed information about household income, savings, wealth, benefits, investment and demographic characteristics of a representative sample of U.S. households.

According to the SCF:

• Nearly 30% of households in the sample have no personal retirement wealth. These tend to be lower-income workers — the DC account or IRA is empty for 52 percent of households in the lowest earnings quintile versus about 8 percent in the highest quintile.
• Even among middle- and upper-income groups, retirement wealth is generally inadequate. No more than 15 percent of households in any quintile have wealth equivalent to four times their annual earnings or more. Converted into a steady income stream, even this level of wealth alone would probably not be sufficient to support a financially comfortable retirement.
• Adding Social Security, which could be sufficient for some low-income households, may not significantly improve retirement prospects for many households above the lowest earnings quintile.

What’s worse is that many older employees seem oblivious to the problem; they think they’re doing OK. That suggests that financial planning is a key noncash benefit employers could provide.

Click here for more info and a chart showing retirement savings among the employees in the test sample.

Fidelity Investments analyzed the 401(k) accounts it oversees — all 11.2 million of them — and reported in the most recent quarter that about 5% of participants increased their contributions, while 3% lowered theirs.

That’s good news for 401(k) managers, since in the previous three quarters, Fidelity reported that more people decreased their contributions than increased them.

More good news: Fidelity noted that its average 401(k) balance rose 13.5% in the second quarter, to $53,900.

On the down side:

• Fidelity’s research shows the  portion of companies that have cut or eliminated contributions rose to 9%  in the second quarter, from 7%  in the first quarter.
• While T. Rowe Price Group reported that the number of employers that have cut or ended matches has held steady at 7 percent since the spring, Vanguard Group said the portion of companies that have cut contributions to plans doubled to 10% in the second quarter from 5%  in the first quarter.

• Automatic enrollment. You know how this works — all new hires are signed up for the 401(k) program. If they decide they don’t want to participate, they have to complete the opt-out paperwork. Just the exercise of going over the forms often gets workers thinking about the pros and cons of retirement savings. And companies get an opportunity to sell youngsters on the merits of the program.
• Tailored advice. Sure, your plan probably offers participants some financial guidance. But younger employees have a specific set of concerns, like saving for a first home and budgeting money for college loan repayment. If your 401(k) vendor can show them ways to juggle their current obligations and contribute a little something to their 401(k), young employees are a lot more likely to sign on for the long haul.
• Show ‘em you can take it with you. One of the most common misconceptions younger employers have about 401(k)s: They think it stays with the company if they change jobs. So it’s important to emphasize that what they dump into their retirement fund is theirs no matter where their career may take them.