Workers, particularly older workers, are slow to embrace new technologies to help them manage their finances. About half of workers reported using a desktop or laptop with a direct Internet connection (53 percent) or with a wireless connection (46 percent) to help manage their finances. But much smaller percentages said they use smart phones (20 percent), a smart phone app (12 percent), or a tablet computer (11 percent) for this task.

Even among those who use these technologies, only a minority feel very comfortable performing various tasks related to financial management online. Roughly 4 in 10 reported feeling very comfortable shifting money from one account or investment to another online (41 percent) and using calculators online to assist with financial decisions (37 percent), only 19 percent felt comfortable purchasing financial products online and just 10 percent said they are very comfortable obtaining advice from financial professionals online.

The percentage of workers who were confident about having enough money to comfortably retire has remained stagnant over the past few years. Only 14 percent of workers in the survey said they were confident they would have enough money to retire comfortably and 38 percent said they were somewhat confident. Twenty-three percent said they were not at all confident.

Many workers are not thinking about retirement at all because more pressing financial problems are getting in the way. Forty-two percent said that job uncertainty is the most pressing financial issue facing Americans today and just 28 percent were confident they would have paid employment as long as they need it.

Debt was a major problem for 62 percent of workers and very few workers and retirees were confident they would be able to pay for their own medical expenses in retirement.

"In today's study, versus 20 years ago, we are seeing more than three times the number of people expecting to work in retirement, yet when you look at the retiree results, those retirees had to leave the workforce before they were ready to leave the workforce," said Greg Burrows, senior vice president at Principal Financial Group. They had to leave because their job skills were irrelevant or they had to care for an ailing relative. A large percentage of those surveyed believed they could just work longer, but retirees who were interviewed claimed they didn't have that choice, he added.

The workers who were saving the least were those who make $35,000 a year or less, according to the report. Two-thirds of workers, 66 percent, reported they and/or their spouse have saved for retirement, which is a substantial decline from the 75 percent measured in 2009. Fifty-eight percent said they or their spouse are currently saving, compared to 65 percent in 2009.

A large percentage of workers said they have little to no savings and investments. In 2012, 30 percent said they had less than $1,000 saved. Sixty percent reported that the total value of their household's savings and investments, excluding the value of their primary home and any defined benefit plans, was less than $25,000.

The best way to get people to save for retirement and boost their retirement confidence is to offer automatic enrollment solutions with a company-sponsored defined contribution plan, Clark said. This works particularly well with auto escalation, which increases employee deferral rates by at least 1 percent a year.

Another effective tool is online retirement calculators. "One of the things we uncovered that is consistent across clients is that when participants use online retirement planning tools….they will take positive action, increase their deferral or increase their asset allocation," Clark said.

His advice to plan participants is to save at least 10 percent of their income. "Put as much as you can in your 401(k) plan. If it doesn't fit into a 401(k) because of IRS limits, start saving elsewhere. If you save 10 percent of your income in any reasonable asset allocation from the time you start working, statistics show you will have an adequate retirement nest egg."

The Principal works with financial professionals like Clark and those who sponsor retirement plans to help them with their plan design. One of the things the company recommends is to start participants at a higher deferral rate, like 6 percent, rather than the typical 3 percent, Burrows said. "As we look at the analysis of our own data, individuals who started at 6 percent, more than half will save at a double-digit saving rate, including an employer match," he said.

Another idea is to redesign the employer match to get people saving more, Burrows said. If an employer matches 50 percent of the first 4 percent deferred, companies could try to maximize that match potential by changing the match to 25 percent of the first 8 percent deferred, he said. That way, employers aren't spending any more, but participants are saving more to get the employer match.