Resources
Many financial Web sites offer advice for choosing a financial planner, tools for calculating how much you need to save and analyzing investments, and an abundance of other helpful information. However, nothing beats common sense and diligence. Remember that many financial services, firms and planners may have an agenda of their own and that you are responsible for looking out for your own best interests.
- The Internal Revenue Service
- The IRS Retirement Plans Community section of this Web site offers information for benefits practitioners, plan participants/employees, and plan sponsors/employers.
- Cutting through the Confusion
- A brochure describing where to turn for help with your investments.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission
- Offers information for investors.
- The National Association of Securities Dealers
- Click the Understanding Professional Designations link for an explanation of financial titles and designations. Also provides information on investment choices, investor alerts, and investor protection.
- The Motley Fool
- This Web site provides investment advice. Click the Retirement link for must-know information.
- American Association of Retired Persons
- The well–known membership-based organization for “benefits, advocacy, and information on aging for people age 50 and over”” offers a wealth of information on member discounts and services; learning and technology; health; family, home, and legal issues; money and work; travel; and fun and games.
- Retirement Story
- Offers “… the latest retirement and retirement planning news, information, and resources.”
- The Experience of Retirement, by Robert S. Weiss and David J. Ekerdt, Cornell University Press. (Click the authors’ names to order.) From the Web site:
“The book is based on extensive interviews with eighty nine men and women before and after their retirement from middle–income careers. Weiss makes vivid their experiences by presenting, in their own words, their descriptions of leaving their careers, considering what to do with their time, confronting issues of income in retirement, dealing—sometimes—with social isolation, and reorganizing their lives. The interviews reveal the way in which retirement affects marriages and other familial relationships. Weiss concludes by presenting advice about retirement based on the actual experiences of retirees. For anyone approaching the age of retirement or already retired and looking for a more satisfying post–career life, for personnel managers, health care professionals, and all those who provide services for the retired, The Experience of Retirement will be an illuminating guidebook to this phase of life.”
More books with information for the retirement years:
- Betsy Kite Newman, Retirement as a Career: Making the Most of Your Retirement, Praeger Publishers, 2003.
- Mary Helen Smith and Shuford Smith, 101 Secrets for a Great Retirement: Practical, Inspirational, and Fun Ideas for the Best Years of Your Life, Roxbury Park, 2000.