After hearing adviser after adviser say my generation is screwy with their savings, I decided to buckle down and set up my company-sponsored retirement plan.

Somehow, it was magically already in place. I'd been contributing for a year to my company's pre-tax plan. I'm not exactly sure how this happened, as Ihave no recollection of setting it up when I hit my one-year eligibility mark. It's been a long year, apparently.

Of course, when I entered my projected savings into a retirement calculator, I came up severely short.

A coworker of mine expressed similar concern for her own retirement planning; although she puts money into a savings account, she has yet to set up her company-sponsored plan. It can sometimes be a confusing process, with little reprieve other than raising your hand in desperation and asking for help.

Kelly Sprecher with Wells Fargo expressed a sentiment that I believe is echoed throughout my generation: I don't need a financial planner becauseI'm not really worth enough financially.

But she admitted that she's at a point where she probably should see a consultant. In fact, it's the younger generations that may benefit more from the assistance that comes with professional planning.

Obviously, we need it. Even the older generations, who didn't have the benefit of 401(k)'s and company plans but seem to be savings savvy, struggle with having to work a little longer to make sure their savings stretches far enough. If those generations are putting in their time until their late 60s, where does that leave the under 40, spend more, save less crowd?Working until we're dead.

So take these advisers' advice:See a professional when you begin to realize you need more for retirement. Invest in your company sponsored program as early as possible. Save in higher-interest accounts.

If your company doesn't have its own plan, many financial planners encourage the younger generations to invest in a Roth Individual Retirement Account; these accounts take already taxed money, which allows the holder to remove money tax-free later on. The contributions into the Roth IRA are not tax-deductible, as in a traditional IRA. So you're paying today's taxes on money that'll be taken out much later, which could potentially have been taxed more in the future with a traditional IRA.

Unemployment

A few new statistics of note were released in North Dakota last week.

First, unemployment continues to remain well below the national, non-seasonally adjusted April national average of 5 percent.

The state's unemployment rate for the month of April was 3.3 percent, .7 percent lower than March and .1 percent lower than April 2007.

For the Bismarck region, which includes parts of 10 counties, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April was 3.2 percent, compared to 4.2 percent in March and 3.4 percent in April 2007. The Bismarck metropolitan statistical area, which includes part of Burleigh County and Morton County, had a 2.9 percent unemployment rate, down from 3.7 percent in March.

The city of Bismarck posted a 2.7 percent unemployment rate, down from 3.3 percent.

"Construction is the big mover of the unemployment rate in our state,"in April, said Michael Ziesch with Job Service North Dakota. Ziesch said April unemployment rates are always lower than March's due to increases in employment in the construction and, occasionally, the manufacturing industries.

The Fargo region experienced a drop to 3 percent for April from 3.4 percent in March; Grand Forks dropped to 3.6 percent from 4 percent for the same time period.

Williston and Dickinson regions continued to post the lowest unemployment rates in the state, at 2.1 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.

Land for wireless

The Public Service Commission said residents continue to replace land lines with cell phones.

The PSCreported that 23,000 more wireless phones were activated in North Dakota in the last year, an increase of nearly 6 percent over the last year. But land lines decreased by 3.4 percent. Wireless phones in the state continue to exceed the number of land line phones.

Commissioner Tony Clark attributes the rise to expanding wireless networks and more towers in the state.

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)