Expecting to die young is not a retirement plan. It's tragic when it happens, but it cannot be relied upon as a reason to spend every cent in the present.

"Health and medicine are different now, and statistics are showing that people are living a decade longer. What happens if you don't die at 60?" says Certified Financial Planner Susan Hirshman, president of SHE Ltd., a financial services consulting firm, and author of "Does This Make My Assets Look Fat?"

Another investment adviser runs her clients' financial plans to age 100.

"We tell our clients to have their retirements funded 120 percent. I say, 'Listen, do you have an aunt or uncle who lived into their 90s?' People don't realize how much they really need to save for retirement," says Rosanne Roge, a Certified Financial Planner at R.W. Roge & Co. in Bohemia, N.Y.

The prospect of being a penniless 99-year-old should spur many people to save more, but procrastination persists.