• Take a serious look at your retirement plans. By now you’re close enough to retirement that you should have a good feel for your retirement expenses and expected income. While you may be anxious to retire, remain flexible about your retirement date. Working an additional year or two can add substantially to your retirement savings and may boost your retirement benefits.

• Get a fix on your Social Security and pension benefits. Make sure you know exactly how much you can expect from Social Security and any defined-benefit plans. How much will your benefits increase if you delay retirement by one year, five years, etc.? If you retire before normal retirement age for Social Security purposes, do you plan on working? Be aware that for those under full retirement age for Social Security purposes, earnings over $12,960 in 2007 will cause you to lose $1 of benefits for every $2 of earnings over that threshold. Make sure you understand your distribution options for any defined-benefit plans. In most cases, those decisions are irrevocable, so you’ll want to take some time to assess those options.

• Determine how much income your retirement investments will generate. As a general rule of thumb, you can multiply your retirement investments by 4% to get an idea of how much you can withdraw annually. You can go through a more detailed analysis, reviewing a wide range of variables, for a more precise answer. However, the younger you retire, the more conservative your withdrawals should be, since your funds will have to last for a longer time period.

• Investigate work options. If you plan on working at least part-time during retirement, have you decided what you’ll do and how much it’ll pay? Make sure you investigate your options, including finding out if your current employer provides part-time opportunities after retirement.

• Finalize living arrangements. Determine whether you want to stay in your current home or move to another one, either in the same city or a different location. At this point, you should be able to determine whether you will have a mortgage and how much equity you’ll have in your home. While approximately 80% of retirees continue to live in their current home, explore whether it makes sense to downsize, freeing up home equity for investments or retirement income.

• Deal with health insurance and long-term-care costs. Two of the most significant costs in retirement are medical care and long-term care. Make sure you have plans to deal with both. If you are retiring at age 65 or later, you’ll be eligible for Medicare, although a spouse under age 65 will not be eligible. You will probably need supplemental coverage with Medicare. If you are retiring before age 65, make sure you know exactly how much coverage will cost you, especially if health insurance is not provided by your employer after retirement. Now is also a good time to take a look at long-term-care insurance, since premiums get significantly more expensive as you age.

• Live with your retirement budget for a couple of years. Want to really make sure your retirement budget is reasonable? Try living with your retirement budget for a couple of years before retirement. If you can do so without increasing your debt, you can be reasonably confident that the budget will work during retirement.