Retrieve sugar id before save

[fedepia]

hello people, how are you? i have a before save hook for Accounts module, and need to get the account id before save it.
How can i do this? Any suggerence?
Thanks!!

[Superman]

echo $bean->id;

[fedepia]

thanks a lot!

[smcnally]

echo $bean->id;

I'm working with this method of retrieving the record id to no avail:

I've tried:

        $contact = new Contact();
	$contact->first_name = @$_REQUEST['first_name'];
	...
	$contactid=echo $contact->id;

and

        $contact = new Contact();
	$contact->first_name = @$_REQUEST['first_name'];
	...
	$contactid=$contact->id;

neither return any value.

I wonder what I'm doing incorrectly.

thanks for your help