Retirement Planning by the Decade

Retirement Planning in your twenties is a great time to begin. Maximizing your 401K match and paying off your debt are key financial planning objectives during the decade.

Retirement planning in your thirties presents the true need to save more with the competing realities of increased expenses due to a growing family. Before the college bills come due, increase the amount you save for retirement and keep an eye on appropriate long-term investment strategies.

The decline of defined benefit pensions and the uncertainty surrounding Social Security are just two of the various important changes to today's retirement compared to a generation ago. Learn what you can and should do about the new retirement. Your retirement planning must change.

Understand the key considerations, including taxes and lost future investment growth, when taking money out of your 401K or IRA prior to retirement.

If you're a late starter or are just finding yourself behind your retirement planning goals, the catch-up provisions just might provide you with the ability to make up for lost time.

Many people seek to retire at age 62 but can't actually afford to retire so young. While not necessarily the most attractive step, the action most likely to be successful is to delay the date you retire. A three year delay can mean up to a third more available to you after you retire.

Shortly after your 70th birthday, you will be forced to begin withdrawing money from your 401K and regular IRA. The exact minimum withdrawal mandates is called your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). Learn how to calculate your RMD and view the Uniform Life Expectancy tables.

In an ideal world, you'd retire with a large portfolio. Alas, you may not live in that ideal world. Does that mean you can't retire? Hardly. Here are six tips for retiring on less.

With all the focus on the monetary aspects of retirement planning, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture: your happiness during retirement. Learn some of the big issues of retirement that have little to do with money and add your own suggestions for the community.

Different people envision retirement differently. More than a certain amount of money, tell us what retirement means to you.

Since the year 2000, the retirement planning landscape has undergone some dramatic changes. Learn the five biggest retirement planning stories of the last decade.

Even late starters to retirement planning have options. Whether by taking advantage of the 401(k) and IRA catch-up provisions or by strategically delaying your retirement date, you can still achieve a comfortable retirement via solid last-minute planning.

Although you're a long way from retirement, your 20s are still a great time to begin preparing. With a solid understanding of your goals, you can take advantage of opportunities such as IRAs and 401(k)s while you're still young.

You've finished schooling and are now firmly entrenched in the "real world." You may have begun to acquire grown-up things too, like a family car and a house. But where are you with regard to planning for your financial future? Here's a good summary of what you should be thinking about while you are in your 30s.

With a couple of decades of earnings behind you and about the same amount ahead, your 40s are perfect time to both evaluate your progress to date and to make solid plans for your future.

You can sense retirement is coming. Are you ready? Here's what you should be thinking about as you prepare to wind down your working years.