Retirement and Baby Boomers

I find the following AFP report on 'boomers' interesting. First, their vast numbers will have a wide ranging effect on society when they retire. And the first from that generation will soon retire in January 2008.

The most obvious would be the enormous funding required for social security payments. As I mentioned in my last posting, social security accounts for 39% of a typical retiree's income during retirement.

The second important transformation would be a new meaning they lend to retirement. The new generation of 'retiree boomers' will likely hold a different view of retirement lifestyle than their predecessors'. As more retirees spent their retirement by continuing to remain active in life through holding on some kind of jobs after retirement - whether out of financial necessity or otherwise, gone were the days when retirement simply means doing nothing. Hence, the new generation of retirees should be healthier, more active and by their sheer numbers would still have their clout on the country's economy and even politics. Read more of the report below and enjoy..

Retirement and Social Security Q&A

For a majority of us, social security is going to be a major component in our retirement planning - a major source of our retirement income, our all important retirement nest egg. It is so important in fact that according to American Social Security Administration 2004, social security represents 39% of a typical retiree’s retirement income. You can read more about it here.

So, important questions like when to apply for the benefit and how to go about doing it are important indeed. And lucky you, both of these questions are answered here in the following report. So enjoy!

Prepare For Retirement: Students Get Lessons In Handling Money

I have always believed that having the necessary financial skills and knowledge early in life will hold a person in good stead later on when they retire.

It is therefore very heartening for me to read about the interest and effort of 42 college students in Colorado, analyzing various financial issues from debt to retirement planning during their Personal Financial Planning class.

With solid financial knowledge, people will be better equipped to deal with any financial issues that may arise in life and be more prepared for their retirement.

Read more about it in the following report.

Unique Holiday Gift for a Child: Assistance Toward Retirement Security

If you are looking for a truly meaningful gift for your newly born child or grandchild, what could be more meaningful than a gift of investment program for the child's financially secure retirement?

Through the power of compounding interest, an initial investment of as low as $5,000 would give the child a financially secure retirement when he/she reaches age 65.

You can read the whole report below.

Why a Retirement Business May Be For You

People come back to work after retirement, whether as an employee, a self-employed, or going into business or even as volunteer workers are usually due to one or more of the following reasons:

• Financial reason.
• Bored/nothing worthwhile to do.
• Need contacts/peer groups/sense of belonging to a community.
• Love of what they are doing/find their life purpose/true calling.

While working at a retirement job may satisfy the above reasons, working at your retirement business may easily accomplish these purposes too and with a bonus to boot! – The possibility of achieving your more meaningful retirement lifestyles. Of course there’s a risk involved too as you may not be always successful. But then again if you do your homework right and evaluate your options carefully you’ll be able to tilt the odds in your favor somewhat.

Working at your retirement business may means accomplishing the following:

• Freedom – a retirement business gives you freedom. You set your own terms: all the “what”, “when” and “where” you want to work and even the payout you want to have. When you’re successful, you’re also on your way to financial freedom. You have the potential to earn more as a business owner than an employee - the potential to design your own lifestyles.

• Control – Working at a retirement business gives you more control of your endeavor, which you do not have the luxury of when you’re working for somebody else at your retirement job.

• Feeling of achievement/satisfaction. Though you may get both whether you’re working at a retirement job or at your own retirement business, financial wise however, you have a better chance of achieving it by working at your own business rather than at your retirement job.

If you have been thinking about starting a retirement business of your own, now is the time to take action. You have the choice of starting either an online/Internet or an off line business. While there are merits and demerits of both business models, I prefer an online model to an off line one. You can read and get tips about starting an on line business by visiting my web page on Retirement Internet Business here.

Struggling to Retire? Planning Size of Nest Egg is Key to Financial Security

Though it is never too early or too late to start thinking about retirement, planning early for retirement make you better prepared to retire. And you'll have more time on your side to let your retirement funds grow as well as to recover from any investment mistakes that you might have made.

And people who plan the size of their retirement nest egg early on as well as those with access to workplace savings plans such as 401(k)s are better informed and prepared to retire according to a recent AARP survey just released. Read the report below for more.

Tensions Arise In Marriages When A Spouse Retires Or Starts To Work At Home

You may be financially prepared for retirement, but have you already considered the soft side of it - the non-financial side of retirement planning. Most people don't.

The following news article highlighted a common issue faced by retiring couples, especially when one of the spouse at home full time.

Read the following news article, absorb the advice/tips/guides it provides and use them to prepare for your own retirement.

If you are a webmaster or publisher, feel free to embed it on your site.

Top Retirement Savings Mistakes

Here's another good advice from a retirement expert on common mistakes to avoid in saving for retirement. These common mistakes like not starting early enough, not curbing your spending and not diversifying your investments will cause you a hard time later on when you try to make up for the shortfall - when you are already nearing retirement.

Considering A Retirement Job During Your Retirement?

Retirement is perceived as a time to take things easy as well as for you to enjoy your newfound freedom from work commitments. This is the time for you to indulge in your favorite activities and passion that you didn't always have the time for while you were working. As such, retirement jobs may be considered a misnomer but a survey conducted by Merrill Lynch found that 76 percent of baby boomers plan to do some kind of work during retirement. Many are planning active retirements that include a variety of jobs. An interesting question here is what drives people to seek for work after retirement? I'm listing a number of reasons why retirees go back to work here. And I'm sure you can also add other reasons to the list.

Many people become bored, restless or plain frustrated with little or nothing to do while in retirement. For these people, having a fulfilling retirement is about selecting new activities that continue to physically and emotionally fulfill them. For most, this may mean going back to work at retirement jobs after retirement - albeit at a reduced level of involvement.

Work gives a sense of purpose that everybody needs. That includes a place to go, peer contacts, responsibilities to discharge and a sense of camaraderie. Once retired, those needs don't simply go away - they just have to be filled in some other ways. One way to address this problem is to find your retirement job and start work - AGAIN!

Not having enough money during retirement might force many soon to be retirees to continue working well past their retirement age. And one of the main reasons people want retirement jobs is the chance to earn supplemental income and to add additional funds into their retirement savings accounts. By phasing their retirement for a few years, their retirement nest eggs will benefit from the injection of those extra years of savings into it.

Still, others will continue to work at some kind of retirement jobs simply for the love of it. These people find their true calling and sense of purpose while working at their new retirement jobs. They may not go for the money however, rather for the satisfaction that the job provides. These people might make use of the skills; experiences and expertise accumulated over the years while working at their previous jobs and use them to help others as consultants, motivators, mentors and coaches etc.

So what about you - do you need a retirement job yourself? If you're looking for one, finding your perfect retirement job is not going to be a problem. You can just go to http://www.retirementjobs.com and look for one.

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Considering A Loan From Your Retirement Purpose 401(K)?

Your 401(K) is your savings plan for your retirement. Its purpose is to provide you with a means of having some income to take care of your living expenses during retirement. Your 401(K) is not your financial lifeline for your current financial difficulties. However that is exactly what almost 1 in 4 of Americans are using their 401(K) for. Read the accompanying article and absorb the advice that the message is trying to put across. Enjoy!

Planning For Retirement

Here's a good video for you to consider adding to your list of retirement planning tools. However as with most tools, it won't do you any good if you don't use them. So use this as your guide, tool or tips for planning your retirement. Finally follow the advice and start planning for your retirement early - the earlier the better!. ENJOY!

Blogging and Retirees

In my recent article on Blogging For Retirees, I've discussed about why blogging is one that retirees can become involved in during their retirements. In the article I cited several compelling reasons as to why blogging is recommended for retirees. One of the most common problems faced by retirees is having too much free time, bored and having nothing worthwhile to do to fill up the time. And rather than becoming a couch potato after you retire and endangering your health, why not take up blogging as it can be one way you can spend your time by being productive. Here are several advantages of blogging that I can think of and I'm sure you can find your own reasons too:

• Make better use of your idle time. This is important as numerous studies done in the past revealed that most retirees become bored after the initial excitement of retiring wears off. What better way of making good use of your free time other than blogging.
  


• You should be active in your retirement life. Your body still needs you to be active as you age, otherwise, you'll grow old faster. Reading and writing are two simple activities that you can do in order to exercise the brain and keep you mentally active and sharp during retirement. Blogging can serve this purpose quite well.
  


• Properly done and with enough commitment, blogging can be a source of additional income for you.

Now if you've thinking about doing blogging and find yourself not quite sure how to start, here's a good free course on blogging that you can participate. I found out about this free course brought by CNET recently. Go and register for the course at Build Your First Blog HERE!

The lessons are easy enough to follow and comprise of the following:

• Articles or lessons broken down into 6 segments / installments.


• Lesson assignments - after each lesson you are given an assignment to test your understanding of the lesson covered.


• Classrooms and post comment sections - a platform for participants to post comments, ask questions or just to share experiences. This section is moderated by a CNET leader.

You can get the following benefits by participating in the class:

• The lessons are free, easy to understand and you can participate at your own pace. You only have to register in order to participate.


• Each lesson comes with a classroom session. You are encouraged to participate and post comments, ideas and query relevant to the lesson. You gain by not only getting your query answered, you can also see what issues, others are having. In short everyone benefits from the course. It speeds up the learning process as any one can contribute their own ideas/resources for the mutual benefits of all class members.
  


• You'll meet a diverse range of people here, from all ages and occupational background as well as retirees looking for something to do in their golden years - either to fill up their free time or for additional income streams.
  

At the end of the lessons you will most probably have your questions on blogging answered. You'll be able to gain the necessary knowledge and will be able to build you own blog, know how to choose a hosting service and be on your way to write your own blog and can start taking steps to make your blog noticed. Not only will you be enriched with new knowledge, you also have an added bonus of making new friends as well. I myself have participated in the course and find it a very enriching experience. So for you retirees or would be retirees out there if you haven't participated in the class already, here's the link again to Build Your First Blog.

So my dear readers, I hope you find this article useful. For further resources on retirement please go to my website Retirement Resources Site HERE!

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Huge impact of Baby Boom retirements

Here's a good food for your thought - for you retirees and would be retirees out there. Enjoy...!

Planning For Retirement - Who Are These Financial People?

In the course of planning your retirement you'll probably meet a number of people in the financial industry field - each with their own expertise and role to play in your planning. These professionals who trade their skills and expertise for a living derive their income from fees they charge or commissions they receive. They must have acquired the expertise and/or trained in the field they specialized and passed the required examination in order to practice. Their activities are regulated by a supervising and regulating body in the country they operate to protect the interest of consumers.

Let's now take a look at the four financial Industry professionals that you'll most likely meet.

Financial Planner For Retirement or Retirement planner.

The first and most likely financial industry professional you'll want to consult for your retirement planning is a Financial Planner. A Financial Planner is a practicing professional who helps people to deal with various personal financial issues through proper planning in order to achieve his/her client's financial and lifestyle goals. Quite often this entails delving into such diverse areas as education planning, planning for retirement, investments, insurance requirements, tax planning, risk management, estate planning and business succession planning for business owners.

In carrying out the planning function, the Financial Planner is guided by the financial planning process to create a detailed strategy tailored to his/her client's specific situation and meeting his/her specific goals. For you as his/her client, this process involves gathering relevant financial information, determining your goals in life, examining your current financial status and coming up with a strategy or plan as to how you may achieve your goals given your current situation and future plans. One of your more obvious and specific goals of course is planning for a retirement life-style that you desire.

Quite often, for your specific retirement purposes you should consult a Financial Planner who specializes in retirement planning. He/She might also designate himself/herself as Retirement Planner or Retirement Advisor.

Stock Broker

The second professional you'll likely want to meet especially if you decide to include stocks in your investment portfolio for your retirement is your Stock Broker/Stock Broker Representative or Remisier/Dealers Representative as they are sometimes known in some other places. A Stock Broker is a qualified and regulated professional who buys and sells shares and other securities on behalf of investors. Most Stock Brokers are actually registered representatives who work for a stock broking company. Stock Brokers earn their incomes from commissions on the securities that they buy and sell.

In addition, a Stock Broker may also offer advice to their clients on which stocks, mutual funds(unit trusts), etc. to buy.

Mutual Fund(Unit Trust) Sales Person(Agent)

A Mutual Fund Sales Person is another likely financial industry people that you'll want to see if you decide to diversify your investment for retirement and build a portfolio. A Mutual Fund Sales Person is someone who is licensed to sell mutual funds(unit trusts) only. They cannot sell stocks or bonds.

He/she works for a mutual fund company or a mutual fund dealer. A Mutual Fund Sales Person receives a salary or a fee for selling funds from mutual fund companies.

Insurance Sales Person/Agent

This is another person that is in your best interest that you should meet. An Insurance Sales Person/Agent is a licensed professional who helps individuals, families, and businesses select insurance policies that provide the best protection for their lives, healths, and properties.

Insurance Sales Agents are representatives of insurance companies. They are commonly referred to as "producers" in the insurance industry and they sell one or more types of insurance. The more common types of policies they sell are property and casualty, life, health, disability, and long-term care. Property And Casualty Insurance Agents sell policies that protect individuals and businesses from financial loss, while Life Insurance Agents specialize in selling policies that pay beneficiaries when a policyholder dies. Depending on the policyholder's circumstances, a cash-value policy can be designed to provide retirement income, funds for the education of children, or other benefits.

Life Insurance Agents also sell annuities that promise a retirement income. Health Insurance Agents sell health insurance policies that cover the costs of medical care and loss of income due to illness or injury - which obviously is an important factor to consider for your retirement planning.

An increasing number of Insurance Sales Agents are offering comprehensive financial planning services such as retirement planning and estate planning. They also may involve in "cross selling" of several financial products to their clients. Thus, besides offering insurance, many of them may become licensed to sell mutual funds.

In closing those are the four most likely persons that can help you with you retirement planning. In planning your retirement you may need the services of only one or two of them at the most, as some of their functions may overlap. It is however advisable to seek recommendation from others as to who is the best person that can help you with your retirement planning.

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Emotional Side of Retirement Planning

Preparing for retirement should include more than financial planning. You have to be emotionally prepared for it as well. Money is no doubt an important issue in retirement - in fact I think the most important one. However, equally important is your psychological preparation - a non-financial plan that suits your personality.

And psychological preparation means knowing about yourself and what fulfills you among other things. It addresses the emotional aspects of retirement - the inevitable psychological adjustment process that must be made. Other things include closely examining your individual personality traits, wants and aspirations. For example: Keeping busy attending to your garden is not enough. Feeling appreciated, important, valued, needed, challenged, connected as well as knowing what is fulfilling for you is important to success in retirement.

Many people became bored, restless or plain frustrated with little or nothing to do while in retirement. Some even went into depression even though they were financially prepared for it. For some, having a fulfilling retirement is about selecting new activities that continue to physically and emotionally fulfill them. They need to think and plan what they are going to do with all those hours that used to be taken up by work.

In my previous posting You Are Not Yet Ready To Retire - So What are Your Options, I wrote "….for some people a sudden transition from a working environment to a non-working life during retirement may pose an emotional burden, which can do more harm than good. This is usually associated with attachment to holding a job for all of one's working life so much so that when one is released from a job, feelings of doubts about one's self worth and capability creep in". This is all due to the loss of identity when one disengages from a career in which one has spent many years and which defined one's identity to a life void of work. For many working people, a job fills the largest percentage of their lifetime, and work colleagues become an important part of their community. When one retires, one loses all of the sources of fulfillment one enjoyed from work. It's normal for a retired person to feel a sense of loss and displacement when a significant portion of his/her identity goes away.

Work gives a sense of purpose that everybody needs. That includes a place to go, peer contacts, responsibilities to discharge and a sense of camaraderie. Once retired, those needs don't go away - we just have to learn to fulfill them through a different set of activities. One way to address this problem is to find new "work", whether paid or unpaid.

So in closing readers, ask yourself what is your life purpose and what excite you and use the answers to guide you to find your preferred activities for your retirement. You may find the answers if you look hard enough within yourself. Planning for retirement means more than just knowing about your financial picture. It's also about knowing yourself and what fulfills you. In short, it is a holistic approach to retirement planning, which if you're fully prepared, will spare you the headache and frustration later in life.

You can access to more retirement resources by visiting my website:-http://www.retirementresourcessite.com

Stages of Retirement

Retirement is the next stage of your life, which needs proper planning and adjustment to your previous life routines. When planning for retirement, it is important for you to start planning on how you are going to cope with your new role as a retiree for the next 30 years or so of your life.

Experts are divided on how many stages of retirement retirees go through. Some say 6 stages while others say 5, 4 or 3. To be safe, I'd say that retirees would go through at least 3 main stages of retirement as follows:

Phase 1: First Stage of Retirement.

This is the active retirement phase and first stage that every retiree goes through. This First Retirement Stage involves a transition to a new way of living and requires a period of adjustment. For most people, this is the most liberating period of their lives, as they would no longer have to put up with the daily commute to work and work commitments and have all the time in the world to do whatever they have wanted to do. As this period starts from the time they began retiring and until perhaps they reach 69 years of age, most retirees are physically and mentally capable of leading a fairly active life, not much different their pre retirement years. While in this phase, some retirees will be very busy doing many of the leisure activities they never had time for previously, like traveling, visiting with their children and grand children or just meeting up with their "lost" long time friends. Some will also indulge in their favorite past-time activities like playing golf, gardening, or learn new skills. For some, active retirement may include working. It may be part time job or consulting related to their previous job or even going into business for themselves.

With this active life-style, it is not surprising that retirees would use a big portion of their retirement nest egg for the purpose.

Phase 2: Middle Stage of Retirement

In this passive phase or the Middle Stage of Retirement, life more or less settles into a more predictable pattern. Now with already advancing age (70 - 84 years as some experts say) the body may no longer able to cope with the brisk and active life-style of the first stage and has to slow down. Typically in this stage retirees' expenses for basic necessities will decline. However, expenses for medical and health care will increase due to deteriorating health.

Phase 3: Final Stage of Retirement

In this final phase, things stop working well, both physically and most likely financially. In this phase retirees will most probably be dependent on others for their day-to-day living due to disability or illness. As their health fails, some have to move to assisted-living facilities or in with relatives. This Final Stage of Retirement can be crushingly expensive if long-term care in a nursing home or at home is needed.

So my dear readers those are the 3 Stages of Retirement that retirees go through. Knowing the retirement stages that you're likely to go through will make you better equipped to plan on how to deal with them later on in your own life. For more info on retirement resources, please visit my Retirement Resources Site here!

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A Look At Major Retirement Concerns

Retirement may mean different things to different people. However, the most commonly held view is that retirement is the time to take things easy as well as for you to enjoy your newfound freedom from work commitments. This is the time for you to indulge in your favorite activities and passions that you didn't always have the time for while you were working.

When it comes to retirement, people seem to share similar concerns about the subject. Here are four of them:

Money and Finances

This is by far the most important concern facing people who are planning to retire. As people now live longer, not only must they be concerned about accumulating enough money to retire comfortably, they must also think about how to make that money last longer - perhaps for another 30 years or so.

Not having enough money during retirement might force would be retiree to continue working well into his/her sunset years. As the most common perception people have about retirement is for one to take things easy and to relax, the thought of having to continue working in order to bring in the money is something that they are not looking forward to.

Aging and Health

Aging and health are often interrelated and are other major concerns for people when they prepare for retirement. With advancing age, people who are retiring are more prone to health issues than people of younger age. As people still want to be active and enjoy their life when they retire, concerns about aging and health issues might curb their ability to do just that.

Independence

Another concern for most people, independence during retirement is about the ability to go about one's daily routine without needing help from others. Directly related to the issues of aging and health above, one should be in a fairly good health in order to be independent.

Loneliness

This is another concern for people, especially for couple that is planning to retire. The lost of a life partner is a major cause for loneliness. And the prospect of having to live alone one day is daunting enough, especially when they have been living together all these years.

In conclusion those are the four major concerns that I've managed to compile for you, my dear readers. These concerns are likely to face people when they retire. When planning for your retirement years, it is very important that you anticipate those concerns early and come up with a plan on how to at least mitigate them. In this way you are more prepared to deal with them when they arise.

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You Are Not Yet Ready To Retire - So What Are Your Options?

Welcome back!

In my last posting I discussed about whether you are ready or not to retire. If you are then CONGRATULATION! - all's well and good. If not, don't despair as this is not the end of the world and there are options for you to consider that you can do something about it. And in this posting I'm going to share with you what some of those options are. So enjoy!

Phasing Your Retirement

If you have an income gap to fill in for your retirement (which is the shortfall in income that you need for retirement and what you're capable of achieving when you retire), one way to do it is to phase your retirement. In other words, consider continue working for a few more years, rather than stop working altogether when you reach retirement age. You'll be pleasantly surprised how much working for an additional 2 or 3 years will do to your all important retirement nest egg - which might add up a tidy sum of several hundred thousand dollars to it (Your retirement nest egg will benefit from the addition of those extra years of savings into it while delaying its withdrawal - which is only possible when you still have income coming in). What you're actually doing here is to sacrifice and trade off the first few years of your retirement years by still being in employment for a more meaningful and better retirement later.

So if you prefer this option, discuss with your employer for you to continue working for a few more years. Employers are now more accommodating and you may continue to use your skills, expertise and not forgetting your maturity and experiences to contribute to the organization in exchange for a few more years of income. In fact you may be doing your employer a great favor as more employers nowadays are facing difficulty in finding replacement workers, especially for executive positions and jobs that require years of training. You gain by still being gainfully employed and your employer gains by foregoing the need for increasing training costs for new workers, which in turn translate into better bottom line for the company. A win-win situation for both parties for sure!

What if your employer isn't keen to extend your service? Then, its time to move on and find yourself another employer. And you might find better luck in the health care, teaching, consulting, retails, small businesses as well as customer services as these sectors of employment are known to be more willing to accept senior employees and that include retirees. After all with modern advancement in medicine and health care an average man of 70 years old of today is still considered young and can still contribute and be productive to his/her employer.

Also, rather than stop working completely or continue with full time employment for a few years, you can also do part time job. You'll appreciate how much that extra income will do to your retirement nest egg. Nowadays, many seniors take part-time jobs after retiring, not only to keep busy but also to earn money on the side. Others modify their schedules to keep their jobs, but at a reduced level of involvement.

For some people a sudden transition from a working environment to a non-working life during retirement may pose an emotional burden, which can do more harm than good. This is usually associated with attachment to holding a job for all of one's working life so much so that when one is released from a job, feelings of doubts about one's self worth and capability creep in.

For these people, it is wise to take his/her time to be fully retired(read phased retirement). And by engaging in some form of part time job at the beginning stage of one's retirement years not only raise one's standard of retirement living a notch up later, it also come with an added advantage of giving these potential negative emotions time to dissipate or to subside as one goes longer past retirement age. So as you can see, not only retirement financial planning is important, you should take care of your emotional retirement planning as well.

Use Your Skills, Expertise & Past Experience To Generate Income

Your expertise, skills and work experiences are your valuable assets that can be very profitable to you. Why not use it to your advantage and earn some retirement dollars. You can become consultant in areas where you have the necessary expertise and experience and can start earning your fees by advising others. In the same way you can go into teaching or coaching others based on your skills and experiences acquired while working.

Turn Your Hobby Into Income Producing Venture

If you have a hobby you can turn that too into income for your retirement. You can turn these hobbies and passions into money making hobbies or passions by selling your works or start charging people for services. Two examples of hobbies where you can turn them into money making past-times or ventures (whatever you prefer to call them) are photography and painting. I'm only giving you two examples here, but I'm sure there are many more you can think of.

If you have a passion for writing that could be another source of income for you. You can become a copywriter and write sales copy for advertisers and others from on-line and / or off-line businesses. And there is no better place than the Internet where you can trade your writing skill for money. You can find numerous sites in the Internet, where you can submit your writings and be paid for them. Writers are needed to write products reviews, articles for ezines and by website owners who outsource their jobs to others like you. You can also write your own blogs and monetize it to earn money. Or you can become a ghostwriter and write ebooks and articles for other people. Other related jobs which can bring you money include proof reading assignments and by becoming virtual assistant to other site owners. I hope you can see what I'm trying to show you here. That you are only scratching the surface. The opportunities are unlimited - the sky is virtually the limit here. What you need is a little creativity and imagination and you'll soon be on your way to a profitable second employment - which not only give you the money you need but the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment as well.

Indulge In Profitable Business

If you have been wanting to go into a small business of your own but did not have the chance as you were working prior to your retirement, here's the chance for you to pursue that ambition and make it happen. While there are both on line and off line businesses that you can choose, I would rather recommend an on line business due to its twin appeal of ease of starting and its requirement for only a small investment/capital outlay. With the Internet, starting an on line business is a breeze as you only need a computer and an Internet connection to get started.

There you have got it all - some of the options that are open for you to consider to fill in the gap of income that you require and income that you have.

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Are You Ready to Retire?

If you have planned for your retirement, follow the plan religiously and constantly reviewing and adjusting it from time to time, chances are you are ready for your retirement when the time for you to retire arrives.

If you have not, then you have some work cut out for you to do before you're ready to retire the life you desire, which obviously is a lifestyle better than or at least equal to your pre-retirement years. If you are from this group you should revisit and reassess your financial situation while taking into consideration the time left before you are due to retire. This means you have to take stock of your current assets (including savings from your 401(k), pensions, social security etc.) and investments and from there determine the amount you have to save monthly until you are due to retire. This will be your projected nest egg, from which you can derive your income in the future while in retirement by withdrawing a fix amount every month for the next 30 years or so. And experts recommend that you withdraw not more than 4% from your nest egg each year for you to last the stipulated time.

As a rule of thumb you'll need between 70% and 80% of your pre-retirement income to live the same lifestyle post retirement. And this is the same amount that you must be able to withdraw from your projected nest egg every month which you have already determined earlier. If you're not meeting this then the shortfall is the amount that you'll have to find ways to fill in as additional income. And if you're still unsure how to work out the figures do not worry as any basic retirement calculator will be able to do the job for you. A retirement calculator will make your job easier in calculating your retirement target under various financial scenarios and is a very useful tool to have. You can get your free retirement calculator NOW!

In my next post I'll share with you the various options available for you to fill in the gap between what you need for your retirement years and what you're able to provide currently.

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Blogging For Retirees

First off what is a blog?

Simply stated, blog is actually an on line diary or journal that is published in the World Wide Web where the writer would keep a running account of events. Or, in the words of one famous and successful Internet Marketer "a blog is really just an on line journal that displays a series of posts, displayed in chronological order. These posts are typically written in a conversational, informal tone, and don't contain any overt advertising messages".

The most common forms of blogs are personal and business blogs. Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as politics, travels, fashions and therefore classified as political blogs, travel blogs and fashion blogs and so on and so forth. Your blog is your means of expressing yourself to the world. It is a very powerful way of branding yourself and a very effective means of building a relationship with your readers.

OK, What to blog on?

There are countless topics out there to blog on. You can write a blog on any subjects. However, choose a topic that you have a passion for as your theme. You will be more motivated to write on something you are passionate about and will less easily to give up when you find yourself run out of ideas. As an example, retirement is the theme for this blog and I write on anything that touches on this topic. To me retirement means having the freedom not to work while being financially free to do anything I want. Retirement has thus become my passion. And if you think you are not good at anything to write about, think again. Everybody is good at something and so are you. You just have to think long and hard about it and the idea will come. Perhaps, you can use your knowledge and skills you gained while you were working and before you retired to write a blog on.

What if you cannot write?

Writing a blog is not like writing a book. Here there is no format to follow, no particular rules to obey. What you need is common sense. As an online diary, treat it as such and just write what you want.

Why blogging is good for you?

As a retiree, you now have all the time in the world to do your things. You're no longer bound by your work before retirement. No more time schedule to follow. And what better way to keep you occupied and mentally active than by writing your own blog on something you have knowledge and passionate about. A research done by a well-known brain researcher has revealed that those who are retired but stopped being physically or mentally active would tend to age faster than those who are still active. Reading and writing are two simple activities that you can do in order to exercise the brain and keep you mentally active and sharp during retirement.

Blogging can also become you source of income as you can use it as marketing tools to promote your business, products and services. Today, many of the better-known Internet marketers have their own blogs which they use to keep customers informed of what's happening. Many marketers use a blog as a way to promote their upcoming product launches and to dialog with their visitors.

How to profit from your blog?

You can monetize and earn money from it, which in the long term when you're really good at it can be your source of income. Already there are large numbers of bloggers out there who are earning full time from their blogs.

Want to know how to do this?

Check out Tay's blog where she writes about how you can make money blogging, optimize your blog for search engines, generate traffic, promote your blog, and much more. She is currently holding a contest where you can win a free month of advertising on her blog. Take a look at this post for details.

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New Jersey Couple Claims $48 Million Jackpot

How's this for your dream Retirement Plan. A word of caution here - don't bank on it as your source of retirement income though. Studies have shown that those who do not have the necessary prosperity consciousness to go with it will eventually surrender it back. However, who doesn't want to have a cool $48 million as his/her retirement present- as what this lucky retired couple found out. Enjoy your viewing!

The Unconventional Financial Planning For Retirement

Now that I've got your attention on the subject matter, let me go over what is meant by the Conventional Financial Planning first. I'm throwing away all the financial jargon here and try to explain it as simple as I possibly can. The Conventional Financial Planning is the normal and the well-accepted route of Financial Planning process. Simply put, the process begins by first determining the kind of post retirement life that you want - which is your retirement goals and objectives and from there determine the amount of your nest egg. This nest egg is your source of income during your retirement life and from which you withdraw a fix amount monthly to suite your intended lifestyle. These monthly withdrawals should cover all your monthly living expenses for the duration of your expected retirement life. As an example lets say that you are an average male American of 65 and you have just retired. From the statistic available, a 65-year-old American man today has a life expectancy of 16.4-years, has about 50/50 chance of living to 85 and a 25% chance of still being around at 91(please refer to my previous posting on Life Expectancy and Retirement). That means you might live another 15 - 30 years after quitting work. To be on the safe side however, you have to at least plan on living for another 30 years and factor that into your Normal Retirement Planning.

For the sake of simplicity however, it is the accepted norm that you will require 70% - 80% of your pre-retirement income to enjoy the same lifestyle - post retirement. It would however be prudent to exceed this norm a little bit as my research revealed that though you'll incur less expenses for some e.g. no more commuting to and from work, you'll likely incur more on health and medical expenses. Also you'll need to set aside some unexpected and emergency expenses as well as some capital expenditure that you'll undertake. It could be a house or car purchase or whatever that will be.

Having decided how you want to live your retirement life and figuring out the amount of nest egg that will make it possible, the next obvious step is to determine how are you going to achieve that goals and objectives. You do this by determining the assets you have and how much your current income exceed your current expenses and save or invest a predetermined portion of that surpluses into your retirement nest egg. The long and short of the process is that you can use a number of ways or a combination of savings and investment vehicles to achieve your goals of achieving the required retirement nest egg. You may have to adjust down your expenses here if you find your current surpluses is short of what you need to save or invest every month. And Now that is what I call the conventional way to Retirement Planning.

Now instead of the Conventional Retirement Planning already mentioned, there's another way to do it. The unconventional way is in using empowering information and implementing certain strategies to achieve financial abundance and independence that you desire. This could be your shortcut to your dream retirement life. I won't go into details what the info and strategies are as you can download and get all the 10 strategies outlined in this special report from my blog here for you to judge it for yourself. You can get your FREE report here. Let me warn you that the information in this special report is so powerful and potentially life-changing that if implemented correctly will enable you retire early. This special report is valued at $97 retail but you can GET IT FREE by clicking on the golden key above. And for those who are already retired or about to retire you may find this unconventional retirement planning especially appealing to you. Here's the link again to get that special report for free. Click here.

When Retirement (Old) Age Not A blessing -Cont'd

In my last posting, I've highlighted the plight of retirees in Singapore whereby as a results of longer life span and increase cost of living many are living on insufficient savings. To be fair, the trend is not confined just to Singapore alone as this is a global phenomenon and many other countries are facing the same problem too. I mentioned Japan and Germany as the other countries in the same situation.

Although increasing the retirement age as what is being done by Singapore will help reduce the problem somewhat, the proper solution to tackle the problem in my opinion lies in educating the populace on the importance of retirement planning and wealth creation in our everyday life. As a start it would be a step in the right direction if the subject was taught in schools. With greater awareness on the importance of retirement planning in our life, each of us will then be able to plan and and better manage our own life during retirement. Its about time that each of us take our own responsibility in managing our own retirement life and not depend on the government.

When Retirement( Old) Age Not A Blessing

This is what I picked up from a local paper The Star today as reported by its reporter Mr. Seah Chiang Nee, based on the island republic and rich state, Singapore.

The report told that that wealthy Singapore has unfolded a strategy to deal with the plight of a growing number of financially strapped retirees who live for 20 years with insufficient savings. As a results of better lifestyles the people in the city state are living longer today - 82 years compared with 66 years in 1970. But according to the report not everyone finds it a blessing. Singapore, according to the reporter has one of the fastest growing ageing population in Asia. Further, with the rising cost of living, especially in the health care, senior citizens who have little education, money or family support are becoming the country's rising disenchanted. The retirement age is 62. The report also mentioned that at last count there were 400,000 Singaporeans aged 60 or older, but only 73,000 or 18% of them were working.

The main theme of the strategy according to the reporter is to get Singaporean to carry on working beyond 62 years, the retirement age in the city state and increase age old savings so that it can last longer. Now payout has been increased by 1 % to 3.5% to the Central Provident Funds(401 (k) scheme equivalent) deposit of up to S$60,000 with the rest remaining at 2.5%.

My main point of highlighting the report is to increase the awareness of the correlation that exists between retirement age and longer life span. This report is also consistent with my earlier findings on the impact of longer life span to retirement age and their consequences. As mentioned in my previous posting on " Life Expectancy and Retirement Age", there are tendencies for the governments to adjust the retirement age upward to cater for the longer living population. This will put the pressure off of the pension burden on the governments. From my research, Singapore is not alone as most developed countries of the world are facing similar problems. Japan and Germany are another examples.

Retirement Issues And Solutions

Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. To support living during retirement, a retiree needs to accumulate enough assets. This could comprise of cash, savings or other class of assets. Not enough cash inflow during retirement is the single most important challenge that retirees face today.

The rule of thumb is that you'll need 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain the standard of living you had when you were working. But many are not even achieving this.

And even though you might satisfy the rule, increase in medical expenses due to old age and that occasional spending splurges that you're likely to take from time to time, like say going on that dream holiday vacation that you've been longing to go or even going to that fancy restaurant will all take out a big portion of your retirement savings - which can cause you a bit of problem later on.

Also, people are living longer now. Life expectancy at birth in the United States in 1900 was 47 years and at the end of the century, it was 77 years. And a 65-year-old American man today has a life expectancy of 16.4-years, about 50/50 chance of living to 85 and a 25% chance of still being around at 91. That means Americans will now live another 15-30 years after quitting work. Chances are many will outlive their money before they outlive their years.

The answer to the problems is for you to be prepared. Have a plan. Nobody in his right mind plans to fail. But when you fail to plan, that is precisely what you'll get. Plan for your retirement years to suit your retirement objectives. And start early. Starting early will give you a longer period to achieve your required retirement objectives - which may translate into a more affordable and less excruciating saving plan.

With proper planning you'll arrive at your destination with confidence and secure - not anxious.

The above article is an extract of my lens article on Retirement Issues And Solutions. For full version of the article please go to:http://www.squidoo.com/retirementresources/

And want to write your own lens? Then follow this link: http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/referral/Invroz

Life Expectancy and Retirement Age

While I was researching contents for my retirement website Http://www.retirementresourcessite.com (still under construction), I was bugged by the following question: Is there a correlation between life expectancy and retirement age? Or put it another way, is life expectancy for population of a given country being taken into consideration by the power that be to formulate a retirement age for that country. After all shouldn't retirement age be higher for countries with higher life expectancy population than countries with much lower life expectancy. It would make sense for countries with high life expectancy to also have higher retirement age, as this would tackle rapid population ageing and spiraling pension costs associated with worldwide trend of people living longer.

Retirement age as I found out varies from country to country but not much. For United States the official retirement age is 65.0 However, workers may opt for early retirement at age 62.0 and is eligible for withdrawal of the social security benefits. At retirement age of 65.0 the life expectancy of American male is 16.4 years and 19.4 years for female. For Germany the retirement age is 65.0 compared with life expectancy at 65.0 of 16.0 years for male and 19.6 for female. By the way plans are underway in Germany to raise the retirement age further to 67.0 years. In France, the official retirement age is 60.0 years with life expectancy at age 65.0 of 16.9 years for male and 21.3 for female. In Japan the retirement age is also 65.0 as compare to life expectancy at age 65.0 of 17.8 years for male and 22.7 female. For Singapore the retirement age is 62.0 years, while life expectancy at age 65.0 for male is 16.0, while female is 19.2.

A couple of countries have revised their retirement age upwards. - India from 58 years to 60.0 years. Compare this with life expectancy at birth of 62.2 years. And Malaysia from 55.0 years to 56.0 years with life expectancy at birth of 72.8 years

From the statistics gathered above the highest gap between male life expectancy and retirement age is France with 21.9 years followed by Singapore with 19.0 years. Japan is next (17.8 years), Malaysia (16.8 years), The USA (16.4 years), Germany (16.0 years) and India (2.1 years). The high gap posted by France, Singapore and Malaysia is due to their lower retirement age, while for India and also Malaysia positive adjustment to the gap is in order due to the use of life expectancy at birth instead of life expectancy at age 65.0 that are used for other countries.

Ok… So what's the verdict?

With the risk of being accused as too simplistic, I think there is some correlation between life expectancy and retirement age. And there are tendencies for the governments to adjust the retirement age upward to cater for the longer living population. This will put the pressure off of the pension burden on the government. Besides, nowadays the senior population is comparatively young at age 70.0 and many can still contribute to the country. Also being gainfully employed for a few more years would increase their retirement funds as well as defer their withdrawal for a few more years - all to the advantage of the retirees.

You can read my Squidoo Lens article on RETIREMENT ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS at: HTTP://www.squidoo.com/retirementresources/