Start saving as much as you can as soon as you can to secure a comfortable retirement, right?

Not so fast, according to research by several economists, cited by Accounting Today. Most young people should not save for retirement, a paper in the Journal of Retirement argued. Based on a benchmark known as the life-cycle model, the authors posit that, because “high-income workers tend to experience wage growth over their careers, … maintaining as steady a standard of living as possible therefore requires spending all income while young and only starting to save for retirement during middle age.”

In other words, these workers should spend what they can early on, such buying a home early and paying down the mortgage, as opposed to putting all of their eligible earnings into a retirement savings plan.

“Realistically, oftentimes there truly is minimal savings capacity until wages rise enough when children become adults, are working and are no longer bankrolled by their parents," financial adviser Kevin Brady, of Wealthspire Advisors, told Accounting Today.

The paper also argued that lower-income workers should not save as much because Social Security will suffice. “For many, perhaps most, people in the bottom half of the lifetime earnings distribution, it is optimal to spend out their retirement wealth well before death and to live on Social Security alone after that,” an abstract of the paper said. "Very low earners may find it optimal to not engage in retirement saving at all.”

Needless to say, the paper’s findings are not universally accepted.

“There is no replacement for lost time if young people fail to begin saving for retirement early,” Emmanuel Eliason, a financial planner in Centennial, Colo., told Accounting Today. Catherine Valega, a CFA in Winchester, Mass., called the paper's findings "the dumbest strategy ever."

Many Americans do not have retirement savings, according to Census Bureau data quoted by Accounting Today. Only 34.5 percent of working individuals born between 1956 and 2005 have a 401(k), 403(b) or similar plan; 18.2 percent of them have a Roth plan or a Keogh plan; and 13.5 percent have a pension. Almost half of private-sector employees from ages 18 to 64, or 57 million people, do not have the option to save for retirement at work, an AARP study found.

A section of the omnibus appropriations bill before Congress attempts to alleviate that situation somewhat. The legislation would require automatic enrollment in retirement plans under certain conditions, increase the age for required minimum distributions to 75, allow student loan payments to be treated as retirement plan contributions for the purpose of company matches, and allow for withdrawals for emergency expenses, among other provisions.