5 Retirement Facts

The Retirement Center section of The Motley Fool has a great article about 5 things you need to know about your retirement.:

"1. This isn't your parents' retirement.
Your retirement will be very different. You will live longer, and you'll have a more active (read: expensive) lifestyle. Your parents may have survived on 70% of their pre-retirement income (perhaps you've heard this common rule of thumb?). But that's probably not enough for you."

And once again we see someone mention that our retirements are going to be much different than our parents. I think this is the most important thing that people need to know about retirement planning. We're going to live longer and have better health (hopefully) and that means we'll need more money.

Retirement for a lot of people may not mean completely stopping working. If you're in good shape financially, then it's really a great time to start a new career or business on a part time basis or give back to your community by doing charity work.

Take for example, my father. He bought 3 acres in the country and is growing grapes and making wine. I don't know if he plans on ever starting a wine company and selling the products of his labor but he's definitely enjoying the labor. He said to me recentely that now that he's retired, he's never worked this hard in his life.

These ideas are detailed futher in the book The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life.

If you can prepare yourself mentally and financially years before retirement age, then when you do quit your 9-5, your golden years can really begin.