Retirement means different things to different people. For some people, retirement means having the financial flexibility to do as they please without worrying about their finances. For others, it means sitting back and doing all the things that they've always wanted to do but never had the time to do.

However you envision your retirement, the best way to ensure that you reach your goals is to have a retirement plan. The process of retirement planning is relatively straightforward. Ideally, you want to make sure that you have enough income and assets to live the kind of lifestyle that you want. What makes retirement planning more difficult is determining what that lifestyle will look like and then dealing with the many variables that go into the process and the pace with which they change.

To help you, ScotiaMcLeod offers a Retirement Planning Program called Transitioning into Retirement, which utilizes the Visualizer Workbook. This workbook focuses on all aspects of Retirement, NOT just the money; Health issues, work opportunities, accommodations considerations, family support network, parent or spouse care giving, to just name a few. Please see the workbook below for more detail. I think you will find it very thought provoking and will put you in a much better position to start planning your retirement.