For example, in my family, as our kids got older and our household income increased, we lived well below our means so that we could pay for college.

Once the college expense was gone and the kids were out on their own, my husband and I were living very well on much less than we earned.

We knew we would not need 80% of our pre-retirement income in retirement, so we looked at a different way of setting our retirement savings goals.

The online calculators at most financial websites take in a few pieces of information about you and give you a very large, rather arbitrary number as your savings goal. There is so much more to your life than what they consider! It is in their best interest to give you that very large number. Who gets to hold onto your money for all these years? They do!!

The financial services companies benefit from having your money in their institutions. Their business will suffer if we all start to remove our money at the same time, or in very large numbers. The baby-boomers are a huge group of investors and savers who are just beginning to retire or preparing to retire soon. So the financial institutions have to find ways to encourage people to delay retirement or to encourage younger people to save more.

So, how do you know what the real answer should be for your retirement goals? Read the pages of this website to learn how to build your own “real people” plan.

Money and retirement income aren't the only things you need to think about as you plan for retirement. On this site you can find suggestions for other things that are just as important to contemplate before you retire. Many of the non-financial plans you have will affect your financial needs in some way.

Do you have plans or dreams for retirement yet? Maybe you plan to start a new business you've been dreaming about? Or maybe your dream is to get out and enjoy the sunshine and become more active for your health. Perhaps your dream is to chart a course for far off places and travel around the world. Some of these dreams will require a lot of money, others not as much.

This site is about a real-life approach to retirement planning, such as how to determine if you have saved enough, what you need to do before you retire, ideas for spending your time in retirement, and stories by other real people who have already retired. And there is the section on building your own personal retirement plan, taking into account all of the things that make you and your family unique.

Have you decided to plan early retirement? Do you plan to downsize and move to a smaller home? What about a different city or state?

I hope this retirement planning website will become useful to you as you figure out how to plan for your own retirement.

You may also benefit from stories by real people that can serve as lessons to all of us. If you know of a story like this, please share it. You'll find a place to do this on the Real People Stories page (see the menu on the left).

For fun, share your bucket list or read about bucket lists on the left menu Bucket List link or those by other real people at Real People Bucket List

New! Comments