Today, I present The Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide to help you on your journey to retirement, regardless of what stage you’re at in life.

Why today? 

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the strong subscriber growth over the past few months, and am humbled by the exposure this blog has received.  A sincere “Thank You” to each and every one of you who have recently joined The Retirement Manifesto team!  With so many new readers, I felt it was a good time to compile this Retirement Planning Guide from relevant articles I’ve written over the past 3 1/2 years.

A highlight in recent weeks was winning the “Academy Award” of blogging (The Plutus Award) for the Best Retirement Blog. In addition, I spent an afternoon filming a YouTube show with The Money Guys (see below), which resulted in a surge of new subscribers to this blog.

I also did a podcast with Stacking Benjamins, appeared on the New Retirement show,  and was a guest on Better Money Decisions.  Yeah, it’s been busy since my retirement a few months ago!

Bottom Line:  My readership has grown from the recent coverage, so I’ve compiled this Retirement Planning Guide to help new readers find the most relevant content on my site, all with the goal of Helping People Achieve A Great Retirement (my byline).

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The Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide

I don’t expect you to read Every Article Written, though I welcome anyone who’s willing to match “Rick N”, a reader who recently sent me an email saying he’s just finished reading every article I’ve published! Wow, I’m impressed, Rick!  Thanks for your commitment!

Rather than ask you to imitate Rick, today I present The Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide, a compilation of my top articles to help you, wherever you are in your journey to retirement.

The Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide, to help you on your journey to retirement. Click To Tweet

How To Use This Guide

Simply scroll to the section which best represents where you are in life, pick 1-2 articles which interest you, and click on the related link.  If you like what you find, come back and click a few more.  Simple, right?  I hope you find this guide helpful as you chart your journey.

Let’s get started…

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Mid-Career Or Earlier

Congratulations for reading a retirement blog in the middle of your “earning years”, you’re ahead of the majority of your peers!  Continue to learn, continue to save and continue to focus on what’s important.  Pay attention to “balance” in your life, and start growing your retirement savings while you have time for compound growth to work in your favor.  Here are some articles to help you as you work to build your wealth.

• The Building Block Series
  • Block I:  The Levers Of Wealth
  • Block II:  Compounding – The Most Powerful Force In The Universe
  • Block III: The Net Worth Statement – How Much Fuel Is In Your Tank
  • Block IV: Asset Allocation – Where Should I Put My Money?

• How To Retire In 15 Years (regardless of your age):  The simple math behind early retirement.
• The First 6 Steps To Financial Wealth:  Things we’re teaching our daughter, as she starts her first real job.
• Infographic:  Personal Finance Goals For Every Age:  See if you’re on track, for your age.
• The 10 Commandments Of Personal Finance:  10 principles to apply in your personal finance life.
• 4 Keys To Building Wealth:  Spend less than you earn, invest the difference, and do it for a long time.
• Where Should I Put My Money?  What I’m doing with my money, helping you decide what to do with yours.
• Why Is Asset Allocation Important?  A foundational article on the concept of asset allocation.
• 18 Lessons I Learned From My Dad:  A tribute to the things my Father taught me about Life.
• The Dilbert Principles Of Personal Finance: An Infographic to share some finance basics.
• So You Want To Be A Millionaire:  Realize the impact that small spending decisions can make.

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5+ Years From Retirement, Starting To Think About It

Retirement is starting to enter your mind, but you realize you’ve got quite a few years left before you’ll achieve Financial Independence. It’s been proven that the more time you spend thinking about retirement, the smoother your transition will be.  Congratulations for starting to think about your retirement while you still have plenty of time to make it happen.  Here are some helpful articles as you begin to think about planning for your retirement.

• The “When Can I Retire” Series
  • Part I:  The Spending Plan.
  • Part II:  The Retirement Income Plan
  • Part III:  The Contingency Plan
  • Part IV:  Putting It All Together

• The Ultimate Pre-Retirement Checklist:  5 Years To A Great Retirement.  Every step you need to take.
• 5 Steps To Take Within 5 Years Of Retirement:  Take these steps, and you’ll be well on your way.
• The 10 Commandments Of Early Retirement:  Want to retire early?  Follow as many of these as you can
• I’ll Never Be Able To Retire:  A Fact-based view of the retirement crisis.  How bad is it, really?
• It’s Never Too Late To Start Saving For Retirement:  They had nothing saved at Age 49, yet retired at Age 63.
• Are Baby Boomer Retirements Doomed?  Unfortunately, the answer for many people is “Yes”.  Deal With It.
• 7 Signs You’re On The Road To A Great Retirement:  7 simple tests to determine if you’re on track.

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2-3 Years From Retirement, Time To Get Serious

You know it’s getting close, but you’re not quite sure when your retirement date will be.  Use these articles in the retirement planning guide to begin fine-tuning your retirement details.  It’s time to start dreaming, and it’s time to start planning.  Your retirement will be here before you know it.

• The Ultimate Pre-Retirement Checklist:  Every step you need to take to a Great Retirement.
• A 10 Day Retirement:  I recently conducted an experiment.  I learned a lot.  Today, I share my learnings.
• Why We Are NOT Buying Long-Term Care Insurance:  The numbers behind our decision to self-insure.
• 5 Milestones To Determine “When Can I Retire”? 5 key milestones to determine your retirement readiness.
• 11 Lessons Learned On The Path To Retirement:  11 lessons and 1 thing you should do before you retire.
• What’s In Your Bucket?  Developing a retirement bucket list, including things beyond travel.
• Downsizing – Our Retirement Strategy:  A review of our personal downsizing plan for retirement.
• How Much Will You Spend In Retirement?  How to estimate retirement spending.  It’s a math problem.
• 5 Steps To Take Within 5 Years Of Retirement:  Take these steps, and you’ll be well on your way.

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1 Year From Retirement, Are You Ready?

It’s getting real, in a hurry.  In less than a year you’re going to be retired.  Are you ready?  To help as you finalize your plans, I encourage you to read as many of these as are applicable to your situation.  Congratulations, the years of Freedom which you’ve worked so hard to achieve are almost here.  I hope you enjoy them to the fullest!

• The “Good To Great” Retirement Series:
  • Part I:  How To Move Your Retirement From Good To Great
  • Part II:  How To Move Your Retirement From Good To Great in 7 Days
  • Part III:  When A House Sale Explodes
  • Part IV: Why We’re Taking On Debt To Move From Good To Great
  • Part V:  We Just Became 100% Debt Free
  • Part VI:  The Final Step In Moving From Good To Great.

• 20 Steps To Take In The Year Before Retirement:  A step by step guide to your retirement transition.
• The Ultimate Pre-Retirement Checklist:  Each step you need to take to a Great Retirement.
• How To Build A Retirement Paycheck:  The Bucket Strategy, which I’ll be using in my retirement.
• Our Retirement Investment Drawdown Strategy:  Our drawdown strategy, in writing.
• Health Insurance In Retirement:  Unsolved:  Why I retired without a clear plan for health insurance.
• 100 Days To Freedom:  How I’m feeling with 100 Days to go until retirement!
• The One More Year Syndrome:  Why do folks continue to work after achieving Financial Independence?
• The Top 5 Retirement Concerns:  The Top 5 concerns, and steps you can take to reduce anxiety.
• How Much Will You Spend In Retirement?  How to estimate retirement spending, and solve a math problem.
• 5 Reasons Why Retirement Is Hard:  A look at 5 elements which make retirement hard.
• Can They Retire?  A Case Study:  A reader shares the details of their plan to retire at 55.  Can they make it?

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Retired!

You’ve Made It!  You’re running free, no longer held hostage by having to earn a paycheck!  Financial Independence!  Congratulations!  I’ve only recently joined your ranks, but I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to have a Great Retirement.  Hopefully, these articles will help you as you enjoy the best years of your life!

• The 10 Commandments Of Retirement:  My self-imposed guidelines for retirement.
• The Veteran:  A World War II Veteran gives his advice on what makes a retirement great.  A true hero.
• It’s Time To Live Like No One Else:  Moving from a lifelong saver to a retirement spender.
• Time Affluence:  Wealth isn’t about Money, it’s about having Freedom to do what you choose with your Time.
• 6 Steps To Avoid The Looming Bear Market:  Some defensive positioning ideas for those in retirement.
• Should You Take Social Security At Age 62 or 70?  An analysis, using our personal SS estimates.
• What Role Should Annuities Play In Retirement?  A deep dive on annuities, their risks, & their benefits.
• Purpose, Motivation & Life Aspirations:   Find a purpose for your life.
• Achieving A Dream:  An event worth living, and an article worth reading.
• 4 Challenges To Improve Your Retirement:  4 Challenges.  For You.  To Improve Your Retirement.
• A Simple Tip For A More Enjoyable LIfe:  My goal is to swim across Lake Zurich.  What’s yours?
• 7 Strategies To Make Your Money Last Through Retirement:  Practical tips to reduce your chances of outliving your money.
• Will Retirement Be Depressing?  A review of several studies on the topic, and suggestions to make your retirement great.

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Award-Winning Posts

Regardless of where you are on your journey, you may find these “Rockstar” articles of interest.  Based on the judges over at Rockstar Finance, these are the best articles written to date on this blog.  Most are applicable to any age, and I felt they’d be a good way to wrap up this Retirement Planning Guide.

• The Ultimate Pre-Retirement Checklist
• How To Build A Retirement Paycheck From Your Investments
• Stealth Wealth
• 5 Reasons Why Retirement Is Hard
• How To Downsize In 24 Hours
• The Dilbert Principles Of Personal Finance (An Infographic)
• How The Pursuit of F.I. Almost Ended My Life
• The Final Words Of A Dying Man
• The Ten Commandments Of Retirement

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CONCLUSION

I hope this Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide helps as you finalize your plans for retirement.  Writing about our journey to retirement has been my passion for the past 3 1/2 years, and it’s been rewarding to compile the best articles into this “user-friendly” format organized by time phases in the retirement planning process.  I’d appreciate if you’d consider sharing this guide with anyone you know who may benefit from its content.   Let’s work together to Help People Achieve A Great Retirement!

Welcome again to my new readers, I trust you’ve found an article that’s relevant for your situation as you’ve reviewed this retirement planning guide.  Thank you for joining The Retirement Manifesto Team, I hope my words are of value as you plot your journey to, and through, your retirement years.

What Can You Add?  What resources did you find particularly useful as you’ve planned for your retirement?  Which article(s) most resonates with you, and why?  Please share resources and suggestions in the comments.  Let’s grow this Ultimate Retirement Planning Guide together by contributing any resources that could be of value to folks who are interested in retirement planning.