There are more and more statistics being released annually about the number of retired persons that we are going to have in our country within the next few years. Of course this has to do with the baby boomers reaching the age of retirement. Many people retire from their careers at any early age and then take a part-time job doing something else. Most people enjoy these part-time jobs because it gives them a few extra dollars and it gets them out of the house.

The media is running stories about how much money we have to have at retirement in order to maintain the lifestyle that we are used to when working. There seem to be many complex formulas that are presented at different seminars that are suppose to help the person know when they have enough money to retire. My husband and I have developed quite simple retirement plans. We started thinking about this and planning for retirement when we were quite young. We are very glad that we did. We listened to some sound advice from a retirement planner through our jobs. Our simple retirement plans have included putting aside fifty dollars of each pay check into deferred compensation. This lowers your salary so fewer taxes are taken out. When we were ok financially one of us or some times both of us would also place any raise we received into the deferred compensation program. At first we placed the money into a fixed account which had higher interest rates than the banks did. Then we began placing percentages of the amounts into low risk stock options and mutual funds. Our money grew over time. We also had our public employee retirement accounts. When I had been with the county for twenty years I left, knowing that when I turn fifty five I will begin receiving a pension check monthly for the rest of my life. I will be able to work another fifteen years at another job and will have the 401k plan from there. We also invested in term life insurance policies with low monthly premiums.

Our simple retirement plans do not include a great deal of wheeling and dealing and playing the stock market; however the accounts are steadily growing. When we quit work we will be making the same income we have now, but with less expenses because our home will be paid off. The steady, consistent putting the money aside was a great way to plan for retirement for us. We could not take the money out without penalty and when it was taken directly from our check we did not miss it, nor were we tempted to spend it.