Now that you know a general idea of how much you may need to finance a comfortable retirement, you can plan for it. Don't be surprised if the numbers add up to be a large sum, you are looking at 20-30 years of living without an income.

Checklist item number two is starting or continuing and contributing as much as possible to an employer-sponsored retirement plans.

You will also want to start an IRA as this will help you to accumulate more money for your retirement.

These are also good options because investing in these tax-advantaged accounts means your money will work harder for you. The longer the money sits untouched, the more it can potentially compound. So, leave them alone.

Next, diversify. If you want to have a healthy retirement, you will want to do some diverse asset allocation. Divide your money among stocks, bonds, and cash

Where you invest your retirement money (whether an IRA, or a stock) should be determined by your financial goals, tolerance for investment risk, and time line. If you are 40 and just starting your investment plan you will want more aggressive options then if you are 20 and starting.

As you get closer to retirement, you will want to put together a good solid retirement plan. This plan is going to be for how you are going to allocate the money to yourself. For example, you do not want to have all of your retirement money paid out to yourself in one lump sum, because chances are you will run out of it before you die. So, decide how to distribute your assets to yourself in a way that provides comfortable living for a long span of time so you do not have to deal with outliving your funds.

Decide on an appropriate annual withdrawal rate based on your overall assets, and how long you want to be retired for. You will probably also want to consider inflation.

Also think about what tax bracket you will be in when you retire, and how to lighten the tax burden.

The next thing you want to do for your retirement is make sure you already have a will, an estate plan, etc.

You are going to want to plan ahead for retirement, this is a lifelong process, and is not going to happen over night. Just be sure that you find a good plan to meet your retirement needs. So, know what your potential retirement expenses will be, and what sources of retirement income you will have.

Use tax-advantaged employer-sponsored retirement plans as much as you can. Use IRAs to leverage your retirement dollars. Try to accumulate enough emergency savings and insurance coverage so that you can address unexpected financial crises without spending money that is set aside for retirement.