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Money is the most important practical key to a successful retirement. Certainly there are other issues involved, but let's be honest, without the cold, hard cash to support us, a successful retirement will be an elusive goal.

• Popular financial wisdom maintains that we'll need 60% to 80% of the gross household income we now earn.
  
  
• In order to provide a good income throughout our retired life, we must determine our current financial status.
  
  
• Your Net Worth Statement tells you where you stand financially as of today, by allowing you to compare your assets and liabilities.
  
  
• We'll use our Cash Flow Statements to help us determine our future expenses (we'll be doing most of this work in Lesson 8).
  
  
• You can estimate your retirement expenses by using the "Mulitply by 25" Rule, whereby you multiple all of your annual expenses by 25 to get the lifetime cost of that item, or by using a retirement calculator.