Let me now add a dose of reality. If you live in a $300,000 house, paid for or not, your lifestyle generally will reflect your economic condition. With rare exceptions you will not find a Bentley in the driveway of a $300,000 house. If you can get the house paid off as quickly as you can, you will be able to maintain that lifestyle when you retire. Those who pay it off quickly can build liquid assets for their retirement, those who don't might take a reverse mortgage when they retire or simply supplement what ever else they may have by borrowing against the house (equity that is now your savings account) or maybe they will sell it, put the money in the bank and move to a rental.

I see too many people with large retirement funds struggling through life, for what?

To create a large estate for your heirs, some additional tax revenue for the government or to compare Roth IRA balances at a cocktail party? I wouldn't, and I do believe if you sit down and inventory your current and future life you won't either.

The biggest part of your retirement is your health. Would it be too much to pray that everyone should have reasonably good health until the end? I certainly pray for that on a daily basis but it is out of our control. As a friend of mine has said for years, if after all the care he has taken for himself, the herbs and vitamins he has swallowed, the miles he has jogged, the food and beverage he has passed on consuming, he is stricken down prematurely (what ever that is) it would be really chicken ---! Frank Sinatra answered that in one of his better songs "That's Life".

You need a good overall plan to face the uncertainty ahead which would include long term care, health insurance or Medicare supplementary insurance, and most of all a healthy outlook on life. My remedy for the blues is to look at the natural beauty that we live with: the mountains, streams, trees, golf courses (I slipped that one in) and realize we have nothing to fear from a Creator who brought us all this.

Now as I end this piece I want to hammer home once again what most people forget: You need to get through life before you can retire. When you do retire you just might find out why everyone loves their grandkids, and aren't as fervent about their own kids. You might find the things we take for granted now are the things we will treasure then: good friends, a quiet walk with your spouse, a chance to smell the roses and the thrill of the start of a new day and the beauty of the setting sun.

You really don't have to set a lot of monetary assets away to enjoy your golden years. All you really need is a great outlook and just enough to see it through.

Roger Schlesinger's Mortgage Minute is heard on hundreds of radio stations and daily on the Hugh Hewitt radio show and Michael Medved shows. Roger interacts with his hosts and explores the complicated financial markets in order to enlighten his listeners and direct them along their own unique road to financial freedom. Roger is the President and founder of Manhattan West Mortgage.