Two weeks ago was National Save for Retirement Week in the United States. The occasion is not celebrated with the fervour of Christmas or Halloween, but then saving is a more sombre process than consuming or scaring.

NSfRW is more than just a week when nobody gives anybody a gift, although in the world of savings it is better not to give than not to receive, if you see what I mean.

NSfRW week is an initiative led by the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) – a snappy title for an organisation.

The purpose of the week is "to raise awareness about the importance of saving for retirement and to encourage America's workers to be proactive when it comes to their retirement savings".

The week is the first Congressionally endorsed, national event formally calling on employers to promote the benefits of saving for retirement and to encourage their employees to take full advantage of employer-sponsored plans.

The effort has gained broad acceptance and exposure since it was introduced and passed as a US Senate resolution in 2006 and again in 2007.

NSfRW, which ended on October 27, didn't exactly set the world on fire.

One of the few organisations making much of a fuss was Nationwide Financial, a banking group, which asked consumers: When was the last time you thought about your retirement?

"We're not talking about where you plan to travel," Nationwide said, "we're talking about the green you're going to need to pay for your retirement dreams."

The company revealed that 50 percent of US citizens are worried about not having enough money when they retire. This prompts the question, not asked by Nationwide, which is: what are the other half worrying about instead?

Or does the other half not worry about anything, i.e. are they the glass-is-half-full half?

"We encourage Americans to use NSfRW as an opportunity to discuss their retirement savings strategies and take action now to save the money they need for retirement later," Nationwide said.

The company helpfully came up with some activities consumers could use during NSfRW to help the retirement dreams they have today become realities in the future.

For example, ask yourself how well funded your retirement dreams are. The Centre for Retirement Research at Boston College estimates that almost half (44 percent) of Americans are in danger of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living once they retire. Obviously, no one has researched the Bermudian number, which might be around the same.

Nationwide offers a handy way of finding out which side of the divide you're on, at www.nationwide.com/rscore. It's a free interactive questionnaire that takes about eight minutes to work through (they do all the work) and tells you at the end how ready you are to retire if the information you gave was right. You don't need to prepare, just take the test and see what you learn. The test is based on American norms, and if you end up with a high score, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're on the gravy train for the rest of your life. But the site is useful and worth a visit. Anything that helps demystify the world of savings is a good thing.

Having mentioned that I bought an apartment in London, I thought I'd quickly update you because I am learning more about money by owning a home than I thought I'd ever want to know. Maybe I can pass on something helpful.

I saw the flat for five minutes in July and bought it thereupon. Last week, I saw it empty, and mine, for the first time. I had planned to just move my junk in and buy a bed, but on inspection, the apartment was revealed to be dowdy. For instance, the window frames need repainting. For instance, I hate the living room floor and radiators throughout. For instance, the entrance hall, small though it is, is wasted space in a small apartment. Etc.

So, for better or worse, I have chosen to renovate in London while living in Bermuda, surely a recipe for disaster. A friend who is helping, because unlike me he is not a complete greenhorn in such matters, is harvesting estimates. I could be looking at spending an amount of money it might take two or three years of hard work to recoup, assuming the villagers don't show up at my front door with pitchforks in that time.

This news was delivered to me this evening and it came as a shock. It's money that doesn't absolutely, positively have to be spent (a type of money more usually known as savings) and it's money that I won't get back, because the next owner isn't going to want the ridiculous number of bookcases that everyone says I should have.

So I face amending a lifetime's principles. I can't say I'm thrilled at the prospect, but not to renovate the apartment would mean that I'd have a rathole in Bermuda and an incipient rathole in London, and that just sounds like a bad idea.

Setting myself up for a fall - have you seen the movie "The Money Pit"? – I'm going for it (at least as of this writing. Who knows what tomorrow will bring?).

It'll take a year to unfold and won't start until March, by which time I shall try to have made a dent in the likely total costs through a savings programme. For a while, it's going to be National Savings Week every week for me. Worst case, I'll write a book called "Financial Ruin Made Easy".

If you see a pony-tailed guy on the streets in Hamilton begging for 50s and 100s, that'll be me. Please give generously.