Retirement is one of those great land marks in a life time. Like all of the great milestones, it is packed full of emotion and expectation.

Your 18th and 21st birthdays were times for hope and optimism for the approaching adult years and all tat life will bring you, and equally retiring should be about all the opportunity to do the things we spend our working lives looking forward to having the chance to do. Spending time with our nearest and dearest and indulging in our hobbies and interests. Inevitable, there will also be some regret than we are leaving behind our careers and our workmates, and an enormous part of how we define ourselves.

Most of all are also likely to feel a degree of trepidation about our uncertain future as well. Racked with doubt about whether the financial preparation we have made for later years will actually be sufficient for us to enjoy them

Several disparate issues combine to make the currently climate the most challenging for people to people to retire into that this working generation has ever seen. A combination of increased life spans, a decrease in benefits from employers to help us through these tough years, lower returns from our investments as the financial markets writhe in recession, and an ever-increasing cost of living all play significant roles.

The key to ensuring that your provisions for retiring income are sufficient to carry you through your retirement years is good planning. The emphasis has shifted from the responsibilities of governments and corporations to provide for us firmly on to our own shoulders.

The first thing to do is to figure out how much you are likely to require, to have the sort of retirement you would like. Many of our current expenses will have changed for the better by then.

Most of us would have liked to settle our mortgages and other home loans by then. The costs of actually working will have gone as well. Such things as the costs of travelling to work, the need to run two cars, the cost of lunches and clothes etc.

However, set against these things that you are likely to want to travel a bit more, even if just on day trips. You may well even find yourself spending just a bit more than you used to, simply because you have more time to, and more time to enjoy things.

There are plenty of Income calculators and sites with very useful information for those contemplating retirement planning available online, but just by way of a sobering reality check, it is estimated that to have a retirement income of , 000 per year, one needs to have a nest egg of capital of about Million!

The secret of getting this sort of money together is to start saving very early and to be honest with yourself about just how much needs to be tucked away each month.

Perhaps the most realistic opinion is to make what you have go a little bit further by finding ways of making money during retirement.

This is most likely to be by capitalising on something you already do as a hobby. If you are a good photographer then buy yourself something like canon digital powershot camera and take some photos of things other people may pay more to get a copy of. Local landmarks, for instance.