OK before I even start I want to give you a fair warning. I'm in a mood today. It's Friday. It's been a tough week. I'm tired because I didn't get to bed early enough last night and I didn't sleep well. That's all the right ingredients for a soapbox session, don't you think?

How much money do you make? How much do you want to make? Is your answer to the second question greater than your answer to the first? Sure it is. It's human nature to want more than we have. If this weren't true we'd never have bothered to come up with the free enterprise system.

Suppose that today or tomorrow or Monday you go to work and your boss pats you on the back, congratulating you on a job well done. He gives you a raise exactly matching the "How much you want to make" number above. OK, mark that one as complete. Another lifetime achievement in the books.

But not really. You know it's only a matter time before you're right back where you started. You'll once again want to make more money than you currently make.

Your retirement is going to be like that too.

The only difference is you are now co-starring in the roles of both you and the boss. You get to both want a raise and decide whether to give it to you. Unfortunately, being the boss means you also have to deal with the reality of what you can afford to pay yourself.

Being the boss has its advantages. In the very special case your employees can't quit and go find a higher paying job if you don't have the budget to pay him/her what he thinks he's worth. You might even encourage her to moonlight to take some of the pressure off you and your budget. After all, you're the boss. Your primary duty is to manage the budget. You can sympathize with your employee's problems but you can't own them.

If things get really tight, you'll even cut your employee's pay if you have to. And you might have to because if there is no company there is no boss. Just a destitute former employee.

Have I carried this far enough to make my point?

Whatever it is you're saving for retirement is enough to fund some standard of living. Whether it's princely or pauper-like is immaterial. It will be what you can afford. You'll want more. You always will. And only You, Inc. will be able to decide whether you deserve more in return for your contributions to the company.

There, I'm feeling better already.