To my mind, retirement planning is the most difficult and important financial challenge most Americans will ever face. And while I was eager to read the results of the 18th annual Retirement Confidence Survey, conducted by the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), the findings were mostly discouraging:

- Confidence about having enough money for retirement eroded in every age group and income level. Younger workers and those with lower wages demonstrated the biggest declines in confidence.

- Just 18 percent of all workers were "very confident" about being able to afford a comfortable retirement, down from 27 percent in 2007. This represents the largest one-year drop in the history of the survey. Meanwhile, only 43 percent are "somewhat confident" that they'll have enough money for retirement.

- Consistently, pessimism is on the rise: 37 percent of respondents said they are either "not too confident" or "not at all confident" that they could live comfortably through retirement, marking a seven-year high.

Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising. Times are, very obviously, tough. Most stock market indices have fallen from this time a year ago. The housing market has experienced a deep decline, the price of gasoline is hovering at $4 per gallon in some parts of the country, and medical costs are soaring. In this uncertain economic climate, it's not surprising that Americans' confidence about their ability to retire comfortably has declined significantly.

What's particularly concerning about this declining confidence is that it hasn't compelled people to save and invest more. The majority of workers have done some retirement saving: 72 percent said that they and/or their spouse had saved some money for retirement, slightly up from 2007 but down from the high point of 78 percent in 2000. But the wealth amassed by the average American remains quite low: 49 percent of workers said they have less than $25,000 in total savings and investments, excluding home equity or defined benefit pension assets.

And people consistently underestimate their retirement needs: A full 25 percent believe they'll need less than $250,000 for retirement, while another 16 percent believe they'll need between $250,000 and $499,999. To round out the picture, 23 percent think they'll need $500,000 to $999,999, 18 percent believe they'll need $1 million or more and another 12 percent don't know. Obviously, the wealth you'll need for retirement depends a lot on your lifestyle, but a retirement that lasts 25 or 30 years can require a lot more than this.

Some workers can look forward to a pension and most will receive some Social Security benefits. The disconnect is that 31 percent of those surveyed expect Social Security to be a major source of income - this despite the fact that the Social Security Administration suggests that "if you have average earnings, your Social Security retirement benefits will replace only about 40 percent" of your pre-retirement earnings.

Where does this leave us? The reality is that, when it comes to financing retirement, a good chunk of the money will have to come from your own resources - defined contribution plans like 401(k) programs, IRAs and Roth IRAs and personal savings. But as the survey results demonstrate, most people haven't given the realities of a financially comfortable retirement nearly enough thought or effort.

THE "SILVER LINING"

The EBRI survey results make for pretty grim reading, but there is a bright spot in this otherwise gloomy picture. As Dallas Salisbury, president of the EBRI put it, "If there is a silver lining, it's that Americans finally may be waking up to the realities of being able to afford retirement."

Nearly half of the workers responding (47 percent) said that they and/or their spouse have tried to calculate how much money they'll need to retire comfortably, up from a low of 29 percent in 1996. And when people actually estimate their future needs, they typically take some kind of action: 44 percent who calculated a retirement goal changed their retirement planning; 59 percent started saving or investing more. Those are two positive trends, but more people need to learn about the importance of retirement investing and start putting money away.

The bottom line? The lack of confidence about retirement Americans displayed this year may be intensified by the current economic picture; however, the survey demonstrates two critical realities - most Americans aren't doing enough in the way of planning for retirement and many aren't saving enough.

So what can you do? Start by answering some questions and making some estimates. When do you plan to leave the work force? What do you think your living expenses might be? What's your life expectancy? What sources of income (like Social Security and pension) can you can count on? Then you can begin to make some educated guesses about the capital you'll need to create your own retirement paycheck, and you can get started on the challenge of saving and investing to meet your goals.

If you have a retirement plan at work, like a 401(k) plan, start participating in it, or increase the level of your participation. If your company doesn't have such a plan, look into traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs. A financially comfortable retirement may seem like an impossibly steep mountain to climb, but there really is no alternative.

Take that first step - today.