Are you on track to meet your retirement goals? If you re unable to answer or would rather avoid thinking about it, you re not alone.

In a 2012 retirement confidence survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 56% said they determined their retirement savings needs by guessing. The fact is this percentage is much higher than it needs to be. Recordkeepers and administrators have made enormous strides in creating tools and calculators, such as Milliman's PlanAhead For Retirement??, which work to align retirement saving strategies to estimated required retirement savings needs. Of those surveyed who have utilized a calculator to estimate required retirement savings, 59% reported saving or investing more as a result.

A retirement calculator's primary objectives is to take the information provided about current retirement plans, offer a rough assessment of retirement readiness, explore possible changes in current investment or savings strategies, and project how those changes could affect retirement outcomes. Contrary to popular belief, these calculators have not been created to scare plan participants into contributing more but rather to educate and bring an awareness of how that lump of money sitting in your 401(k) account will translate to income at retirement. No matter what your age or profession, it's important to take the time to utilize a retirement calculator to estimate required retirement savings in order to avoid finding oneself unprepared when nearing retirement.

Here are a few quick retirement calculator dos and don'ts:

Do:

o Be realistic about your retirement age and life expectancy
o Be honest about retirement expenses; it's OK to plan to travel or buy a sports car after retirement but make sure to factor those costs into the expenses
o Periodically review your investment strategy and consider speaking with an investment professional to make sure it matches with your retirement strategy
o Continue to check back and update your information even if retirement calculators project that you are on track to meet your retirement goals

Don t:

o Change your inputs just to get a successful projection; changing life expectancy to age 50 just to attain an on track projection, for example, does not do any good, nor is it realistic
o Panic if the projection says you re not on track; most calculators will offer suggestions and even allow adjustments to variables to see how each change could affect retirement savings
o Rely on these calculators as a sole basis for your retirement planning decisions they are for educational purposes only