One of the distinguishing features of living in retirement is the premise that you have income but not a job. For this to become a reality, you will need to pay ahead during your working years. Some have described this process as “buying” your retirement. Think of it as similar to buying a vacation. You can't really go until you have the money set aside. There are many high-ticket items in life for which it is not unreasonable to take out a loan, such as a house or a college education. Unfortunately, funding a retirement does not lend itself to a loan. Funding your retirement amounts to the biggest purchase you will ever make. Achieving it can be done with:

• Hard work

• The right knowledge

• Determination

• Solid savings habits

• An achievable financial plan

It will be up to you to put together a plan for accumulating enough resources to take care of your expenses later in life. And “later” can run for a long time. Someone choosing to retire at age fifty-five could very easily still be alive and active twenty-five or thirty or more years later. Is it possible to support thirty years of not working from thirty-three years of employment? Maybe. But it would be a challenge.

Saving Early

Don't count on finding a sugar daddy (or sugar mama) or some long-lost rich uncle to come to the rescue when it's time for you to retire. It is your responsibility to take care of your own retirement. Most likely the only way you are going to be able to do it with any predictability is by putting away a portion of your earnings on a regular basis. In other words, you have to start saving.

Luckily there are a wide variety of investment opportunities and resources to help you accumulate the resources you will need. The trick is to get the best overall return from as many sources as are available to you.

For you to put together a comfortable retirement, you will need to have money coming in from some combination of the following income sources:

• Social security

• Pensions

• Personal Savings

• Investments

• Earnings

You can consider these factors if you are young and just starting in a career, or as an older individual thinking of a job change. When you are seeking out jobs, be sure to inquire about the company's 401(k) plan. If they do not offer many investment options, be sure your salary is high enough for you to set aside money to invest or save.

Obstacles to Saving

There is not much in American culture that rewards developing a consistent habit of savings. Credit card solicitations come pouring in the mail slot daily, promising preapproval and low introductory rates. Try watching the evening news without seeing several car commercials offering you a chance to get a new vehicle with no down payment and for less than three hundred dollars a month. The car ads are only one example of the overwhelming number of offerings to consumers promising short cuts to happiness.

If you have a couple of kids to feed and clothe, the “must have” list can become astronomical when their urgent pleas wear you down. While it may seem difficult to save when faced with the temptation of impulse purchases, if you make a commitment to saving each month, it can be done.

If you own or rent a home, drive a car and live with offspring, your monthly bills likely include:

• Rent or mortgage payments

• Phone and utilities

• Insurance and taxes

• Groceries

• Clothing

• Repairs

• Dentist/doctor/prescriptions

• Car payments

• Supplies for home and school

• Lessons/sports gear

• Personal care

If you have a pet, that is another entire category. While “savings” is on the list of most people's monthly expenses, it really should be the top priority of your monthly payments. There is terrific pressure when you try to make a paycheck stretch to cover all of the necessities of life, without even factoring in money set aside for fun. These pressures make saving all the more important. If you commit to setting money aside for saving before you dole out cash for all of your other expenses (for example, by setting up direct deposit so that a percentage of your paycheck automatically goes into a savings account), you will find it easier to make saving a regular habit.

Setting Financial Goals

Wherever you are in your life you should take time to write down goals or milestones you hope to achieve. You don't have to be conservative with your dreams. Perhaps start a card file with a separate goal on each card. Be specific: The twins' college fund, a new car every five or six years, a Disney vacation when the twins are seven, adding an in-law suite to your house to take in an aging parent in fifteen years, stop working at age sixty-five. On each card, spell out the steps you will need to reach the goal as well as what you expect the goal to cost. Sort the goals by the time frame you think you will need to follow.

As you look over the goals, weigh each one individually and decide if each is something worthy of the hard work and disciplined savings that would be required to achieve it. Are you willing to take on extra employment to produce more income to reach a particular goal? What would you have to give up to do that? Set your priorities realistically. Some of the dream cards may have to be put at the back of the pile for the time being.

As a family, revisit your goals every couple of years to see what may need adjusting. Of course, there will always be the surprises that you cannot foresee that will throw off even a well-thought-out plan. Just be sure, once the crisis has been addressed, to take the steps you need to get back on track.