When most younger Americans picture their retirement, they see themselves relaxing and enjoying warm weather on a golf course or perhaps behind the wheel of an RV. Unfortunately, the reality for most Americans of retirement age is just the opposite, as they are forced to work past age 65.

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A survey of 3,600 workers published in a recent article revealed that, in May of 2012, 56% of workers stated that they plan to work after age 65. Additionally, 54% of workers responded that they will continue to work after they retire. Working into retirement does not have to be a reality for all seniors. The article suggests several things workers can do in order to provide themselves with the best possible chance at a long retirement.

First, it can be beneficial to put a higher percentage of your life savings into risky investments. Risky investments are typically a good way to compensate for low interest rates on “safe” accounts. For some retirees, reverse mortgages and annuities may also constitute a partial solution for a difficult financial situation.

Additionally, many senior citizens should consider scaling back on unnecessary expenses now. Scaling back may include reducing living expenses and re-evaluating retirement expectations and goals. Although it may be difficult to scale back on expenses, reducing unnecessary expenses now often means that seniors don’t have to forgo the things that are truly important later, like traveling to visit their grandchildren.

Planning for retirement is important, especially for the many Americans who will retire unmarried. As a recent article points out, the segment who faces the greatest challenge in retirement is unmarried women. These women are anticipated to face challenges whether they retire divorced, widowed, or had never married.

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Women experience the most hardship in retirement because they still tend to make less money than their male counterparts in the workplace. Moreover, women typically have shorter working careers than men because many take time off of work to raise children or care for their aging parents. Because women generally earn less money over their lifetime, they have less money and lower social security benefits when they retire.

Women also have an average life expectancy of five years longer than their male counterpart. A longer life expectancy means that they have more retirement years for which they will need to be provided for.

Unfortunately, the article notes that studies have shown women to be “less knowledgeable and more intimidated about financial issues than men.” It is therefore vital for women to learn about retirement planning early, and work with an expert to put a plan in place. One good resource for woman looking to learn about their finances is the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement.

According to a recent article, there are two keys to retiring comfortably, planning and getting an early start. As the article explains, planning for retirement should be a lifelong process, rather than a one-time event. The article further offered several tips to aid Americans in creating or adjusting their retirement plans.

The first step is to establish a realistic timeline from now until your anticipated retirement. Those who begin retirement plans in their 20s and 30s should consider that they will likely have a longer time frame than others, and that their funding and variables are apt to change many times during this time frame. According to president of Golden Retirement Advisors, LLC, Jerome Golden, “The first plan you create, whenever that is, is going to be based on a bunch of variables and estimates that as you move closer to retirement, then the estimates get closer to the truth, your savings are real numbers and so on.”

Retirement Funds over Time (Photo credit: RodBegbie)

It is also important to estimate what kind of income will be necessary to maintain the style of life you expect upon retirement. Consider whether you will travel the world, or take a more relaxing approach to your retirement. Whatever your dreams are, you will need to be sure that you have enough retirement income to finance them. If you are not sure how much income you will need, a good base number is 70% of your current income.

Finally, you must define a level of risk tolerance in your financial plans for retirement. Consider that investments will fluctuate, purchasing power may decrease, and interest rates may change.

It may be common knowledge that borrowing against 401(k) and 403(b) retirement accounts will hinder the growth of such accounts. Nevertheless, a recent study published in The New York Times reveals that twenty-five percent of households continues to withdraw funds early.

The study shows that, in 2010, employers and employees contributed $294 billion to defined-contribution plans such as 401(k)’s. Of this amount, approximately $70 billion was withdrawn early for uses other than retirement. According to authors of the study, employees most often break into their retirement savings after an economic shock such as an illness. This occurs because families don’t have adequate savings to deal with such emergencies. As the authors explained, “Insufficient emergency savings has the strongest association with breaching that we find.”

Of those who took a full distribution prior to retirement, a mere 8 percent took such distributions due to unemployment. The vast majority of those who took full, preretirement distributions cited “everyday basic financial management problems, from trouble paying bills to general expenses that they feel like they cannot keep up with.”

People must be cautious when making such withdraws, and carefully analyze whether the withdraw will seriously impact their retirement plans. If you are planning a large withdrawal, it is important to speak with a professional about your alternatives and future.

As a recent article in Forbes reports, when planning for retirement people often overlook the single most critical factor involved, life expectancy. Although no one can say for certain what their life expectancy will be, taking into account an approximation can help you make wise decisions for a comfortable retirement.

When planning an investment time horizon, for instance, most people focus on the length of time they have left before retirement. However, unless you plan to cash in and spend your investments immediately upon retirement, the money will continue to grow. Depending on your age at retirement, this growth could continue over more than 20 years. Consider this, for a typical couple aged 65, the odds are one-in-two that one spouse will live to be 92-years-old.

For a quick and free estimate of life expectancy, visit livingto100.com. This site provides personalized life expectancy estimates based on user-entered information such as lifestyle, family history, and health problems. Once you have a general idea of your life expectancy, you can make more informed choices about your retirement planning.

Some considerations you may wish to make are how to allocate your investments, whether you are saving enough for your entire retirement, how your pension should be distributed (annuity or lump sum), and whether you should annuitize a portion of your assets.

There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for retirement, what to expect in your retirement, how difficult it may be, how easy it may be, what to tell your kids, what to tell your parents, and on, and on, and on. What we don’t often find is the first hand perspective of current retirees who are living through it right now. This recent article in the Huffington Post attempts to remedy that.

The author of the article cites a poll of current retirees as well as current workers, and states that what they found “may surprise you: When it comes to key ‘markers’ of an enjoyable retirement, their real-life experience soundly beats the expectations of today’s workers… As revealed by our poll, today’s retirement reality is that many retirees, at all wealth levels, feel financially secure, have preserved the choice not to work anymore, can readily buy things they want, and have filled their lives with family time and favorite leisure activities.”

Unfortunately, their studies also found that because of the national financial crisis of the past few years, current workers may not find it so easy to achieve this retirement bliss. What current retirees often say is that while every worker needs to take responsibility for their own retirement, many retirees feel that they could not have achieved their level of comfort without the support of their employers. “More than 90 percent of retirees believe that employers should educate workers about the realities of longevity in retirement. An equal number agree that employers must offer workplace plans that can deliver a steady stream of retirement income.”

Pensions are quickly becoming a thing of the past, but many employers still offer basic retirement contribution plans such as 401(k)s, and the longer workers remain enrolled in such a plan the better off they’ll be. Asset managers and financial advisors can help as well, by offering more educational opportunities, as well as “better workplace savings products that provide true lifetime income streams throughout retirement.”

The bottom line seems to be that the biggest factors in having a healthy population of retirees are education and responsibility; not only on an individual level, but for employers as well.