Thank you for bearing with me this month as we explored the complexities of retirement planning! I know the subject matter can be a little dry and dense but hope that you at least found something this month to improve your own retirement planning.

Below is a very quick summary of this month’s posts:

Retirement Planning Posts

• We started off with 10 Tough Love Money Lessons from the Economic Crisis – lessons we all need to learn from to improve our own financial planning.
• I then gave you the Ruly Money Scale and asked you to rate yourself from 0 to 10 in terms of your current financial picture.
• We went through some simple examples of how retirement planning works from a mathematical perspective and I provided links to some simple calculators to make it easy to work on your own retirement scenarios.  While I indicated that 3-4% inflation is considered average, note that the U.K. recently experienced inflation about 4%.
• I told you the true story of my own 401(k) investing experience, including numerous mistakes I have made.  As a slight update, I just received my most recent 401(k) statement and my rate of return has now increased to almost 6% even with no action on my part.
• We looked at the psychology involved in saving money and explored why we all find saving money so difficult.
• We looked at some of the public policy changes headed for Social Security and Medicare for those currently under age 55. I reviewed the book Putting Our House in Order, and found that historically both Democrats and Republicans have similar recommendations on cutting benefits and raising taxes.
• We discussed how you can take money out of your 401(k) plan if you ever have need to and the consequences of these loans/withdrawals.
• I highlighted some tips from financial guru Suze Orman on retirement planning and profiled her new book The Money Class.

Fun Posts

• Ruly Ruth gave us her take on Spring/Summer 2011 Fashion Trends to help you get your closet in order.
• We looked at romance tips (including organization!) from author/sports commentator Joe Gumm’s new book, 150 Secrets to a Happy Wife.  Joe gave the perfect Joe-response to my review on Twitter:

“A very detailed review of my book. I loved it, but if you’re ADD, you’ll HATE it-a lot of reading.”

• For Earth Day, I shared with you my latest knitting projects, including Easter Dresses, a Kieran Foley-Inspired Tunic, and a baby hat and flowers, which are having the side benefit of uncluttering my stockpiled crafting supplies.
• I also gave a knitted salute to Prince William and Kate Middleton.

If this is still not enough of a summary for you with regard to retirement planning, I have also created a separate post consolidating the 8 most important tips to remember and the timeline for doing each. You can read that post here:

• 8 Actions to Organize Your 401(k)

Thanks for your great comments and feedback this month! Have a wonderful weekend and please check back on Tuesday as we start a new month and a new organizing topic!