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Financial Planning and Saving for Retirement

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How much money will you need to have for the retirement you envision? Where will it come from? The recent rocky economy, talk of Social Security reform, and a few high-profile pension fund failures have many Americans thinking more seriously about how they will fund their retirement. For years, financial planners have talked about retirement income as a “three-legged stool” that stands on Social Security, employer-related pension or retirement plans, and personal savings. Healthy and active, more people are adding a fourth leg to that stool—part time work.

This section provides resources that provide an overview of financial planning and saving for retirement and then explore each leg of the retirement income “stool.”

Overviews of Financial Planning for Retirement

The following resources offer broader overviews of retirement financial planning.

Retirement, Lesson 13 in Money 101 the financial planning “course” from CNN/Money offers a brief guide to the financial basics of planning for retirement. In addition to looking at basic investment strategies such as IRAs and 401(k)s, the article provides tips on what to do when you switch jobs and a Retirement Savings Calculator. If you want to see how well the information stuck in your mind, take the end-of-lesson quiz.

Savings Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future prepared by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. profiles the complete planning process.

Investing in You First: A Guide for Baby Boomers, Handbook 1 (4.8MB pdf) in the National Endowment for Financial Education series, covers financial planning step by step.

Retirement Tips from the IRS. Short and sweet, these tips also provide links to Social Security and other federal resources related to Retirement Plans.

On surfing the Internet for planning advice

There are numerous sites on the Internet that offer myriads of planning tools such as savings calculators, online advice planners and planning software. Experts recommend the following:

  • Use tools from non-profits and those not sponsored by a particular investment company first.
  • Use more than one tool.
  • Evaluate the tools and resources by asking these questions:

    • Who is responsible for the information on the site?
    • What's the purpose of the information? For example, is it to sell you something?
    • Compare it with other sources. Are they similar or very different?
    • How old is the information?

Just remember that the output of a calculator or other interactive tool is only as good as the information that you put into it.

You might also read this article. Planning your retirement online by Melissa M. Ezarik on Bankrate.com offers do-it-yourself planners a brief analysis of the value and shortcomings of the myriad planning tools available online such as savings calculators, online advice providers and planning software. It’s recommended reading before you use any of the dozens of interactive tools available—even those we’ve reviewed.


Prepared by Remar Sutton & Associates for Elevations Credit Union January 2005. Reviewed and updated July 2009. All rights reserved.

This site contains links to other sites ("Linked Sites") which are not under the control or direction of the Credit Union. The inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by the Credit Union of the site or any association with its operators. The Linked Sites are not bound by the Credit Union's privacy policy and therefore you access them at your own risk.

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