Thinking of Retiring?

Think lifestyle planning. It's the Key to your future.

Low returns from fixed investments, governments in cost-cutting moods, pressures to take early retirement - most employees are having to re-think the whole concept of retirement and how they prepare for it.

In some cases, whether you like it or not, you may be forced into retirement because of corporate downsizing. If you haven't done some careful lifestyle planning, you may find yourself without sufficient funds to pursue your goals.

Most retirement consultants recommend that people look not only at what kind of lifestyle they want but also at what they don't want. They suggest you study the whole picture - career, finances, family, health - when setting lifestyle priorities. For example, you may find you need a continuing form of work to maintain the lifestyle you wan tin your later years.

Flexibility is the key when times are changing, and here are some strategies:

• Gather financial information. Find out all you can about such matters as unemployment insurance, regulations, tax law, and financial planning in general.
• Create a master plan. Study all the components of your plan and see how they relate to each other. Then approach the decisions you have to make in the right order to ensure they lead to where you want to go.
• Network. Build a network of knowledgeable people in the community - friends, your bank manager, financial planners - that you can test your ideas on before taking action.
• Rehearse. Test parts of your plan in small ways before making big commitments. For instance, take a month and live the lifestyle you think you want for retirement. Is it really what you want?

It's never too soon to start planning for retirement so that you can approach it with the maximum information and the least risk.

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