Retirement planning tools and guidance

1. About useful calculators and sources for further guidance and information on retirement.
2. What the key tricks for planning your after-work life are.

1. Understanding how much you have and how much you will need
2. Understand the income options available to you for retirement
3. Making effective plans

There’s a lot of information and many useful tools out there to help you with the various aspects of planning for your retirement. Here’s a quick guide to some of the most useful ones.

• Read the Department of Labour's Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement.
• Use the CFPB retirement calculator to find out the best age to claim Social Security Benefits.
• Calculator.net helps you decide payment methods based on your retirement age and monthly income. 
• Find free advice through the Pension Rights Centre. 

• Pension Wise offers free, impartial government guidance about your defined contribution pension options.
• This retirement checklist from the Money Advice Service helps you prepare for retirement.
• Which.co.uk’s retirement article includes a video on how much you will need in retirement plus figures taken from their own research on the average amounts spent by retirees.
• The J.P. Morgan Guide to Retirement is a valuable source of information on retirement topics and options you may consider. 

• The Pensions Advisory Service offers an overview of different pension options.
• The U.S. Department of Labor gives an overview for different retirement plan benefits and savings. 
• TailorMade Pensions discusses UK pension options for US residents. 

• This Money Advice Service list can help you find a regulated retirement adviser.
• The Pensions Advisory Service will speak to you directly about pensions.

In a nutshell, there are plenty of great tools and useful guidance as well as advice out there to help you with nearly all financial aspects of retirement. Should you still have questions, feel overwhelmed or unsure, there are specialised independent advisors that can fill any remaining gaps. 

However, with everything you have read, learnt, thought about, and worked through with us so far, you hopefully feel much better equipped regarding this crucial subject of retirement and this very important topic looks much less daunting than before. Have a look at some of the tools we have mentioned above and you will see how it all becomes much more tangible and concrete once you get into it.