Planning for retirement should be a mandatory course taught in high school these days...okay, I'm being a little flip-pet, but honestly, with the state of our Social Security system even the very young should be thinking about making their "own" retirement plan.

I think that planning should begin in your 20's. It is at this age that you have the best ability to teach yourself something you will stick with over the years. Whether this is diligently putting money into a 401K, or simply going into your local bank and setting up a high yield savings account, you should begin the work young so that you don't have to work at it when you're old.

By the time you are in your 30's, you will probably have a family and saving will become more difficult. This little cushion that you have created while in your 20's should not be touched, rather you should create a budget that you can live with and continue to put something away each month. Perhaps this would be a good time in your life to take the money that you have saved and start "investing" it into something that might yield a little higher benefit. You might want to purchase Real Estate and receive a monthly rental income, or you might want to go to a Financial Planner and have your money put into stocks, bonds or other investments.

By the time you are in your 40's and 50's, you will most likely be looking seriously at what you will have saved up by the time that you are ready to stop working. These days, it seems that it is not uncommon to see a person in their late 60's working, and most of the time this is not by choice. This would be a good time to make sure that your investments are doing well, and if they aren't you will want to reinvest your money into something with a better yield.

Hopefully by the time that you are 60 years old, the idea of retirement will be more than a dream. If you have planned your entire life, stayed away from credit card debt, maintained decent if not good credit, then you are probably going to be all right. Don't count on the government to give you money for retirement, save yourself!

Learn more about this author, Sarah Williams.
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