For as long as man has left any record of his hopes and aspirations he has expressed his desire for a long life. But as people live longer and more and more of them retire from work what is their potential for living a good life? Can the retirement years be as satisfying as the working years? This is the question facing millions of Americans, and it may be the question which prompted you to take part in a retirement preparation program. (more…)

Almost all people don’t really know what excessive spending may hurt them in the long run. When they are closer to retirement, they get much smarter about what things really cost them. For this “born again” financial savvy person, cost is not just the some amount of money being paid for buying things, or even any associated interest costs. The cost is really in lost of potential savings that could have been compounded into very meaningful numbers needed in retirement (more…)

In the simplest sense, a retirement plan is your formula for determining what you want your retirement source of income to be and how you will finance that income. That retirement money doesn’t accumulate overnight; on the contrary, you will probably have to stick to your retirement plan for most of your adult life. Working on your retirement plan is called retirement planning.

Your retirement plan involves at least three things:

Goals : The first step in retirement planning involves setting realistic goals for your retirement. You probably have a vision of what you want your retirement to be like, but you also need to have a reasonable expectation about the lifestyle you’ll have when you retire — a practical and realistic goal of what retirement can be for you. (more…)