I suggest you start your plan now using this plan to get started. Tweak it so it works for you. I have a nice cover page with a picture of a red gate and the title "My Retirement Plan". You can use a picture of yourself or family, your favorite pet, your house or the house you want. If you have a partner who'll be sharing retirement with you make it a joint Plan - use "our" instead of "my", "we" instead of "I"
When do you start planning your retirement? Today. It's not set in stone. Revise it as you mature, as your family changes, as the world changes.
Mission Statement
Write a few words about what you want out of retirement. Here's a suggestion: My retirement will be spent in pursuing my own interests, maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle, and contributing positively to my neighborhood. If work is available, I will continue to work in order to supplement my savings, pensions, and social security income, but only if the job supports my physical and mental health.
My Retirement Team
Include yourself, your partner, your relatives (if you want), friends, neighbors, church, insurance agent - it's your team include who you want - list names - addresses and other contact information are optional
Goals and Objectives
List your goals and objectives for retirement. Do you want to start a new career? Learn to play the drums? Do as little as possible? Write it down. Make a "bucket list".
Opportunities
This is related to Goals and Objectives, but not the same though you could combine the two. List what you'll have opportunities to do that you didn't have before. After retirement you may have time to read more. Loaf more. Spoil the grandkids. Pursue a hobby.
Location
Where do you want to live in retirement? My plan says "Undecided", but I really should have a general area in mind. Or at least the attributes of the place where I want to spend my retirement. (There's no law that says I have to stay there when I get there.)
Key Issues
These are Issues that will affect your retirement. What's going to hinder your retirement? Unless one is filthy rich, ones issues should always include finances. Other issues might be health, possible boredom, or fear of lack of mental stimulation. Make plans on how to overcome the issues.
Financial Plan
I said it was a big part of retirement so you have to face it sometimes. How well you plan your finances now will affect the execution of the rest of the plan when the time comes.
For this part of the plan, start out with a paragraph of your general financial philosophy.
Then prepare two tables, one for the Projected Monthly Income and one for the Projected Monthly Expenses. These will need to be updated as you get closer to retirement and know where you'll live and what you'll be doing. There are many budget templates on the Internet. Pick one you like and tweak it to suit your own needs. Remember these are estimated projections, but do the best you can at the estimates.
You can easily find budget spreadsheet templates on-line and tweak it to suit yourself. For example, you can get help in building one from W.I.F.E. (Women's Institute for Financial Education); Microsoft Office has several budget templates if you have an Office application or suite as does Open Office; and About.com has several. Do a Google search to find others if you don't like those.
Pre-Retirement Preparations
This is a list of what you need to do to make your plan work. It will vary greatly depending on your age. The first thing you might want to put is Save Money or Build a Retirement Fund. You should add Make a Will and Make a Living Will, and you might want to add Pre-funeral Planning.
The biggest problem I've found with Retirement Planning is the more I think of it, the less appealing my job becomes.
