Retiring Comfortably

You see yourself laughing with friends on a boat, perhaps, a merrily clinking drink in your hand, with a little paper umbrella, recounting stories to captivated friends? Snapping photos of the Great Pyramid or strolling through some exotic, colorful bazaar? Or maybe you’d like to do nothing but play golf everyday and lunch in the sun? Well, we hope we’re not the first to tell you that Social Security isn’t going to cover that stuff. When it comes to clichés, we try to avoid them like the plague, but here’s one that is most definitely true: Failing to plan is planning to fail.

To enjoy your Golden Years to their full extent, you absolutely have to prepare for them, and the sooner the better. Fortunately, retirement plans such as IRAs, 401(k)s, and 403(b)s are excellent vehicles for doing just that. Also, if you’ve been paying off that big house that got you through your full nest period, there’s a way to make that house start paying you back: the reverse mortgage. The Internet is a great resource in these areas as well.

And once you are retired, that doesn’t mean you can slack off on all the financial tricks and skills you’ve gained or you could very well end up spending your “retirement” greeting people at your neighborhood supermegacenter. That’s why we have a chapter on great ways of managing your money in retirement.