MPR has a story on colleges that hope to ease tight budgets by offering incentives to employees for taking early retirement. Among the perks being offered to older workers: Health benefits and cash payouts.

The hope it that near-retirees with bigger paychecks will leave and schools won’t have to lay off younger, (read: cheaper) employees. Although as a younger employee with decades of work ahead of her, I’m sure my counterparts in the higher education field appreciate it!

Frankly, I’d be surprised if many employees, especially professors protected by tenure, would leap at the opportunity given the economy and the stock market’s performance of late. But if the pot is sweetened enough….

What would it take for you to retire early by choice? What types of benefits would you need? Could you swing it financially? And aside from money, would you even want to leave your job if you think you could live to 90?

This just in from a survey commissioned from ING Direct:Four in 10 Americans believe the current economic climate will force them to retire up to 10 years later than originally expected, or not at all.

There’s not a lot of detail in the release about how that sentiment breaks down by age — I’ll try to get more details and update soon. The survey of 1,223 adults was conducted in mid-Februrary and as I’m sure you know, things have taken a turn for the worse since then.

As someone in my early 30s, I figure I won’t retire until I am 70, if not later. A 30 year retirement period is not sustainable for most people today and I figure the likelihood of such a prolonged vacation is itty-bitty for my generation.

Given my age and my commitment to taking a long-term view, I doubt the events of the last 15 months will set me back a decade or prevent me from retiring at all. But I admit I haven’t run the numbers. That might just be too depressing. I’ll keep my head in the sand for another few months, thank you very much.

Is your retirement on track despite the downturn? Are you planning to retire with a smaller portfolio, or postpone the start of your golden years until things settle down? If you’re younger, like me, are you staying the course? Saving more? Less?

Eliminating a 401(k) match is an easy way for companies to cut expenses without cutting employees. But new research from Fidelity finds that companies offering the equivalent of 3 percent of a participants salary increased worker participation by 9 percentage points. Add in immediate vesting to the 401(k) plan, and that number jumps to 11 percentage points.

When an employer ditches a match,  almost half see a decrease in participation and/or deferral rates. That’s the exact opposite of what needs to happen, as I wrote in this recent column.

Fidelity found that the match had the largest impact on workers in their 30s and 40s. Because of many competing expenses, it’s easy for workers who have their match snatched to say “forget it” and put the cash towards kids or home improvements instead.

How about you? Would you chuck your 401(k) contributions if your employer dumped its share? Or would that prompt you to save even more?

Oh, I know the Garrison Keillor “above average” business is beaten to death in this frozen tundra that we call home. But I can’t help but make the reference once a year….

The Employee Benefit Research Institute says that 55.3 percent of the country’s full-time workers ages 21- to 64 participated in a workplace retirement plan. In Minnesotans are above average, with 64.4 percent of workers participate in a workplace plan. Our neighbors in Wisconsin topped the list with 67.7 percent of workers enrolled in retirement plans.

Curious? Here’s the list of all 50 states.

My fear is that in this economy, more and more companies will ditch 401(k) matches and other savings incentives in the name of cutting expenses. If that happens, promise me you’ll keep contributing, maybe even upping your contribution by a point or two or three? If your total contribution (your cash plus matching money) into a retirement plan isn’t a double digit number, I’d take a close look at whether you’re on track to retire.

By the way, for you maxer-outers, the 2009 maximum contribution rate for 401(k)s increases by $1,000 to $16,500. Those 50 and older can contribute $5,500 above and beyond that.

While I’ve been slaving away on a story about what local economists and investment analysts think this bailout ultimately means for us, T. Rowe Price launched its new retirement income calculator.

Take it for a test drive and let me know what you think….if you can stand to look at what your portfolio’s value is these days. I’ll weigh in later.