My good friend called to let me know about the Your Money highlight where couples and families lay out their challenges and goals, and financial planners draft solutions.

It did not escape me that all but one of these couples earned more, and their retirement accounts were decidedly smaller. However, one couple did start their retirement plans a year younger than we did. One family bought a house in 2005 for $300K and its market value zoomed to $450K. I bought a house eight years ago and it hasn't reached $450K yet. It's somewhere between $368K (buildings and land assessment) and $416K (OFHEO estimate).

Most of the advice was save for retirement. Even the one couple of tenured professors who one'd think has no real problems: $750K in retirement, $87K in taxable accounts, is less than twenty years from retirement and must provide posthumously for a child who isn't likely to be self-supporting as an adult.

The article isn't too helpful for Saving Advice.com regulars, many of whom I regard as kung fu budget masters, except I will throw in a little-known resource I found nine years ago and somehow lost among my bookmarks:
Bud Hebeler's Analyze Now website, which has free programs you can download for financial planning festivity.