How to plan for retirement: Whether you are several years or several decades from retiring, having a strategy can give you peace of mind that you’ll be prepared when the time arrives. You might consider seeking professional financial guidance to support your retirement planning, or you may feel comfortable managing it independently. Retirement isn’t just another phase of life—it often brings a significant shift in how we manage money. Many people move from receiving a steady paycheck to relying on their saved assets, such as pensions, 401(k)s, IRAs, or other investment accounts. There are several factors to think about when envisioning your retirement, including how long you plan to work, where you want to live, and how you hope to spend your time. To achieve a sense of financial stability and freedom, careful planning in advance is essential.

Retirement planning tips: It’s never too early—or too late—to start preparing for retirement. If you’re younger, you have the advantage of time to grow your savings, invest wisely, and plan how to enjoy your future years. Even if you make occasional mistakes or take a break from planning, the passage of time can work in your favor. If you’re approaching retirement or have already retired, it’s important to make the most of your remaining time and resources. With some careful adjustments, you can still enhance your retirement experience. Regardless of your stage in life, consider seeking guidance from professionals in areas such as: Investments, Taxes, Budgeting and cash flow management, Insurance options, Estate planning, Healthcare, social programs, and other services for seniors.

Post-retirement income ideas: Dividend-paying stocks are popular among retirees who want steady income after leaving the workforce. By investing in these stocks, you receive regular payouts from a company’s earnings—allowing you to earn money without selling your investments. These stocks typically come from financially strong, well-established companies with a consistent performance history. They can provide dependable income along with the opportunity for capital appreciation over time. Focus on firms with a proven record of maintaining or increasing dividends, even in challenging economic periods. Spread your investments across different sectors to minimize risk. Stock prices can rise and fall, so maintaining a balanced and diversified portfolio is key to managing market volatility.

Best businesses for retirees include opportunities that allow you to stay active, generate additional income, and find personal fulfillment. With the wealth of experience and expertise accumulated throughout your career, you can offer guidance as a consultant or mentor to younger professionals or peers in your industry. Establishing a consulting or mentoring business—whether conducted online or in person—can be a rewarding way to share your knowledge while maintaining flexibility and independence. Educating and sharing your knowledge through teaching or training is an excellent way to help others while earning additional income. You can launch online or in-person classes, offer private tutoring, or conduct skill development workshops based on your interests and expertise.

What to do after retiring from a job: Retirement is for those who feel prepared to step away from their careers and focus on new passions in life. After retiring, you might choose to travel the world or take up fresh hobbies that fit your new lifestyle. Understanding your options after retirement can help you create a plan that allows you to explore interests beyond work. In this article, we share examples of activities to pursue after retirement and offer practical tips to help you develop a well-rounded retirement plan. Exploring activities to pursue after retirement can inspire fresh and creative ideas for your retirement plans. Based on data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average age of retirement between 2018 and 2019 was 55.4 years. While individuals can choose to retire at any point during their careers, the timing of retirement generally depends on their financial situation and overall health.

Retirement planning for business owners is often overlooked as many entrepreneurs focus the majority of their time and effort on securing the success and longevity of their companies. In doing so, they may unintentionally neglect their own personal financial future. Consequently, some business owners fail to realize the level of foresight and preparation required to achieve financial comfort in retirement.“While business owners take pride in being knowledgeable and in control of their enterprises, personal financial planning can sometimes fall by the wayside,” explains Samantha Brown, Director of Relationship Management at RBC Wealth Management in the British Isles. “Their attention is usually centered on growing the business, which often results in limited planning for life beyond work. Many owners view their business as their retirement fund, depending entirely on its eventual sale to finance their later years.”

Retirement checklist for employees: A crucial part of building your retirement plan is deciding when you’d like to retire. While the financial advantages of extending your career are well known — such as delaying withdrawals from your savings, continuing to contribute to retirement accounts with the benefit of tax-deferred growth, and receiving a higher Social Security payout — it’s equally important to look beyond just the numbers. Consider your anticipated retirement age from multiple perspectives, including your overall well-being, health status, lifestyle goals, and whether your job remains manageable and fulfilling as you grow older.

Part-time jobs after retirement are a popular choice for many retirees for a variety of reasons. When exploring employment options, individuals may want to look for roles that suit their desired schedule and work setting. Although this discussion emphasizes opportunities for those who have retired, these positions can also be great options for professionals at any point in their careers. The jobs featured here provide different degrees of flexibility, involvement, and opportunities for continued professional development.

Investing after retirement requires a shift in strategy compared to your mid-career years. During your working life, you can afford to take on more risk in pursuit of higher returns. However, once you retire and begin drawing from your savings instead of adding to your 401(k), you have less time to recover from market downturns (see Guideline 4). Therefore, adopting a more conservative investment approach often makes sense. Still, being overly cautious can create its own challenges—such as the risk of outliving your savings or losing purchasing power due to rising costs.Even a relatively low inflation rate of 2.5% per year can reduce the value of a dollar by about 46% over a 25-year period. (See chart below.)It’s important to review with your advisor whether your current mix of fixed income and dividend-paying stocks can generate enough income to support your lifestyle throughout retirement, while also accounting for inflation and market fluctuations.

How much do you need to retire?: Our savings estimates assume that a person sets aside 15% of their income each year starting at age 25 (including any employer contributions), invests more than half of their savings in stocks on average over their lifetime, retires at age 67, and intends to maintain their pre-retirement lifestyle throughout retirement (see footnote 1 for additional details).With these assumptions, we estimate that having 10 times your annual pre-retirement income saved by age 67, along with other planning steps, can help you sustain your current standard of living after you stop working.That 10x target might seem high, but you have decades to reach it. To stay on course, we recommend aiming for the following milestones: 1x your income by age 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, and 8x by 60.