What do I need to prepare for the golden years?

It is important to prepare financially for retirement. Doesn't seem important to many people when they are young and starting a family. I took early retirement and was terribly bored at first. Financially we are in a position where I can enjoy my life and enjoy plenty of free time. Am in my middle 60's now and can get around like a youngster. Take care of the grandkids as needed, drive all over, visit a local casino, work on crafts, meet friends for lunch or dinner and overall enjoy my life. Retirement can be a fun time. I happen to be very fortunate to have married a man who knew how to invest, save and make a nice living. Overall, I don't consider myself old and our kids don't look at us like old folks. We spend time with them as well and have fun. So again I would suggest keeping ahead of the game of life and start saving or investing early.

I think about retirement all the time! However, I am also a realist and understand that we are likely going to live well into our 80's (given the state of healthcare and advancements in medicine). So retirement in your 50's sounds great but creates lots of interesting problems. What to do with all the free time? Travel, hobbies etc all cost and will eat into your nest-egg in a hurry. Will I miss working? The interaction with people? A reason to get out of bed every morning? I would like to move from a high pressure career position to a simple job later in life.... when the demands of putting the kids through college, paying off the heavy mortgage etc are past, I still want to be out in the world, interacting with people but able to set a slower pace, flexible work hours and easy into my golden years - not just stop abruptly. I have heard that people whom are long-term workers that retire and move cold-turkey into the rocking chair on the porch tend to die early! You need a purpose to live. Find something that will keep you active, maybe even keep making some supplemental income to bolster your pension, SS or retirement income and enjoy a slower pace. Fit in your travel etc into this lifestyle and get the best of both.

Honestly, I am not thinking anything about retirement so far. I'm more focused on helping my parents, because they're old and they need my support. And also, I'm just enjoying my life on a daily basis. I have long term plans though, but now I'm only thankful that I have a social security when that time comes.

At my age now, I still feel that my life hasn't started yet! Can you believe that? I feel that I need a lot more to achieve before I could really say that I could retire and be happy and be satisfied. I still do a lot of things that a 20 or 30-year old woman does. I feel so young at heart. But I would also want to do some changes in my life coz, really, I am not getting any younger. So hopefully, I start eating healthier food, do some exercise and also would want to have vacations as well.

I think it's a good idea to plan and prepare if we can. Times are tough economically right now and it's hard to just be able to provide for our needs now. So I just try to do things small.Like I need to save more now. And then when I get older I will try and set money aside for retiring. I would like to travel more too. So I think that in some areas of life we have to sacrifice in order to do other things later.

What you can do is save each month an amount for the time you are retired. Use a separate account for that and don't use the money. Besides of this I would advice you to travel now, live now. If you are young, dream of holidays, places you like to visit you will expire this all different as when you are old. Also it's not said you will be able to travel when you are old (perhaps you can't walk anymore or...). And who says you will get old? What is old btw? I think you should live now, now is already the future also and it's better to get old and have great memories of the things you have done, as to find out life just passed by, you have no great memories, you never did what you dreamed of and you saved, and saved and saved but that day did never come. So save for what you like to do and do it.

Sometimes, it seems worrying whether we shall be able to plan much for our sunset years. With higher cost of living, higher education costs, Higher education fees, marriage expenses etc, things look so difficult. Yet, with financial planning and prudent management, we can do a lot more if required. We need not panic, and act accordingly.

I had made plans for the future, but what with all the bills going up I have no chance in saving towards the futur at all. I feel that there are a lot of people that made plans for their future, but with the way prices are going up on every thing we have no chance of looking further than a few months a head.

50s is still young! It's unlikely you wouldn't be able to enjoy yourself at that age. There are even people in their 70s, 80s and 90s who climb mountains, run marathons etc. I heard about one man who sky dived on his 100th birthday. There are also people who have poor health, and they feel the effects of aging, of course. I think, basically, if you look after yourself, if you eat well (you don't NEED vitamin pills if you get them from food), exercise, and keep your mind active... you will stay young even when you're old :)