EVERY seven seconds in the US, someone is turning 50. Today I'm contemplating my seven seconds of fame.I'm not one of those people who think 50 is the new 30. It's more important for me to eat well, exercise and get a good night's sleep than to see a Bruce Springsteen concert or stay out late. It's funny how your metabolism slows down just when your children seem to be speeding up.

One of the few things I'm accelerating is my saving. I'm optimistic about building a new personal prosperity, my replacement term for retirement: something I don't plan to do. With two children younger than 12, I'm saving for college educations and have no intention of stopping work entirely. In my view, new personal prosperity is a life plan that's flexible, affordable and what Benjamin Franklin would say is "useful".

I'm in my peak accumulation years, financial planners say, and I'm ahead of the curve a bit. Most Americans my age have saved about $100,000. I've done considerably better than that and look forward, now that I'm 50, to "catch up savings" of an additional $5,000 a year in my 401(k) plans to max out at a total $20,500 annually.

Although I have saved prodigiously, it doesn't make me feel too comfortable since I have seen the social safety net unravel in the past 30 years. I'm not sanguine about the future of public retirement and medical programme. That makes me want to fully fund my tax-deferred vehicles.

The US Social Security programme, precariously funded by a huge kitty of government IOUs stashed away for future retirees, is due to go into deficit mode by 2017, the Social Security Board of Trustees warned this year. That unfunded obligation is $100 billion higher than last year. The Medicare hospital insurance trust fund is in much worse shape: Spending will exceed assets by 2013.

I would like to see the government do for Social Security and Medicare what most big pension funds do. It's a bad idea to have all your investment in one security — even if it's technically guaranteed.

The Social Security system could diversify and boost returns for a portion of its portfolio by investing in passive mega-funds of most US and international stocks, bonds and real estate.

If Congress ever gets its act together on Social Security and Medicare funding, I just might see my $2,550 a month retirement benefit when I start taking Social Security at 70, though I'm saving as if it won't be there.

Retirement accounts also need to be consolidated. I have five different forms of tax-deferred accounts and it's a headache. And generous tax credits or subsidies for low-income savers are essential if we are to encourage everyone to save.

My goal is to set aside 15 percent to 25 percent of my gross income every year. Unlike the conventional wisdom of Wall Street, though, I have no fixed goal of how much to save by a certain age or a specific rate of return.

Instead, I look to beat inflation in my portfolio by at least two percentage points a year. I'm doing that with a 16 percent return over the past three years. Inflation has been running at 2.7 percent annually in the US.

I know my performance is lacklustre and I should be even more diversified with private equity and alternative investments that run counter to market cycles.

After having speculated in tech stocks, platinum and palladium as a callow youth, my high-rolling days are behind me. I'm more interested in beating inflation with a mostly passive diversified portfolio.

My inflation hedge is a 10 percent position in Treasury- Inflation Protected Securities and commodities through the Pimco Commodity Real Return Strategy Fund. I also own funds that invest in Real Estate Investment Trusts, US stocks, and international shares and bonds. They are all relatively low-cost, well-managed vehicles. I try not to pay more than 0.50 percent annually in management expenses.

At 50, I'm modestly convinced that I won't live forever. If I survive to be 100, I'm truly middle-aged now. But Social Security's actuarial tables give me another 26.32 years.

For life insurance, I have a 20-year level term policy. With a premium that stays the same every year, that's enough to cover college expenses until my daughters leave the house, I surmise. My other savings would leave a decent nest egg for my survivors.

Last year I bought a reasonably priced disability policy through my alumni association that will pay me $4,000 a month in the event I can't work.

My wife and I have wills and a living trust, estate-planning documents that set aside funds and appoint guardians for our daughters if necessary. We also have a fully funded health savings account.

For short-term emergencies and property taxes, we keep about a year's salary in a money market and short-term bond account. We also use these funds for vacations and big purchases.

The simplest cog in my prosperity plan is to save regularly and stay out of the most expensive kind of non-deductible debt.

We despise high-interest, short-term debt of any kind. We own both of our cars and pay off our credit cards every month, earning us frequent-flyer miles and college savings. One credit card will provide airline tickets for an anniversary-birthday trip to Spain.

Does turning 50 give me the blues? Absolutely not. Life is a joyful ballet of art, heartbreak, learning and celebration.

Later this summer, we're off to see Madrid's Prado Museum, Granada's Alhambra Palace and see the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona, three things I have always wanted to visit. Hopefully I won't feel compelled to sing or dance on our sojourn. I would like to make it to 51.

(John F. Wasik, author of "The Merchant of Power," is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)