In your 30s, financial challenges for many include buying a house and raising children.

• Buying a house should be the top priority for thirtysomethings, with retirement savings a close second, recommends Terry Felton, an Edward Jones stockbroker on Mercer Island.

"Then (you can) buy all the toys and discretionary things."

Further reading:

"The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke," Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi, Basic Books, 2003, $26. Bankruptcy expert offers creative suggestions for maximizing the power of two incomes; targets those who overextend on mortgages and fail to save.

"Kitchen Table Investor: Low-Risk, Low-Maintenance Wealth-Building Strategies for Working Families," John Wasik, Henry Holt, 2000, $14. Usable ideas for incorporating savings into any budget while minimizing risk.

The nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute has lots of links and tips: www.choosetosave.org

"Financially Fearless by 40: Simple Strategies for Upgrading Your Thirtysomething Lifestyle," Jason Anthony, Plume, 2003, $14. Weddings, babies, houses: How to navigate them while maintaining a savings plan.

More resources

• Finds it tough to save now for retirement plus 3-year-old son Wyatt's college education. First-year business gross: $34,000.

• Saves $100 per month in SEP IRA (a retirement savings plan for the self-employed); she opened it 18 months ago in a Washington Mutual stock fund reporting gains of 8.8 percent annually for 10 years. If she continues with no increase in savings, she'll have $82,000 at 65.

"I think I'll just keep working," she says.

How's she doing? Her commitment to monthly savings is admirable. But she shortchanged her retirement security in cashing out her first retirement account.