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Spending Your Retirement Steps to Freedom We talked about the importance of setting goals. Step 1 Determining your retirement goals is one of the first objectives of retirement planning. What type of lifestyle do you want? How much income will you need to support that lifestyle? Will you need extra money for recreation or travel? Do you need to allow for the possibility of children or grandchildren living with you? Will you have major home repairs during retirement? Step 2 Next, identify your retirement income sources. How much income will you be receiving from your pension plans and/or Social Security? How much more can you expect from the funds accumulating in your tax-qualified plan and from outside personal investments? Step 3 Determine how much more you must save by the time you retire. This will depend on how much you can set aside on a monthly basis, as well as how much investment risk you are willing to accept. More on investments and risk is available in the Investment Types Course. Step 4 Finally, complete your own personal retirement plan, using the Retirement Planning Quick Report, to make sure that you are on track to live the life you've imagined. Whether you're just a few months or many years away from retirement, it's important to PLAN NOW! Now let's go through each of these steps. < PREVIOUS NEXT > #38599