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In order to live the life you've always wanted, you'll have to do some planning --everything from how you spend your time to your sense of worth to where and how you live.

• What do you want to do with your time?  Longer retirements provide the opportunity to do many things from travel to volunteer work to cultural pursuits or even a new job.
  
  
• Be cautious in forming expectations about how much you can earn in fields in which you don't have much experience.  It's prudent to save enough to meet all your spending needs in retirement and apply any post-retirement earnings as a cushion account.
  
  
• Do you want to rent or own?  Each has advantages, but you'll find that this decision can often be as much emotional as it is financial.
  
  
• Choosing where you are going to live not only affects what you're going to do, but your retirement costs (everything from taxes to rent to mortgages to food and entertainment).