Cuenca, Ecuador is a place of old world beauty and tops the list of 2009 World’s Top Retirement Havens listed by International Living. Cuenca is one of most beautiful and best-preserved colonial cities yet the price to live there is wallet-friendly: rent a beautiful condo for $300 a month or buy a large apartment for $43,000.

When it comes to knowledge about long-term care insurance planning, Americans under age 60 received a failing grade.

Several South American countries top the chart of best places for retirement and Ecuador leads them.

It's bad enough many saw their 401K plans take a dump when the stock market took a dive last year. Now it appears that the annual inflation adjustment coming for 401K plans may actually reduce investment amounts in 2010.

As the recession deepens, many older workers aren’t so sure their companies will stay in business long enough to pay out retirement benefits until they reach 65 and Medicaid kicks in.

The financial crisis hits even the elderly in Sweden. The retirement pay will be less in the country due to the economic difficulties.

The events of the past year in the financial markets have, hopefully instilled in the minds of lawmakers that the average individual is not qualified to manage their retirement dollars. At its worst, the stock market was down approximately 60% from its high. I don't know what was more shocking, the depth of the fall, or the speed. Individual investors watched as their wealth evaporated and retirement plans were forever changed.

When large companies have a greater number of hourly workers rather than salaried workers, and those workers are unionized, the possible early retirement incentive for hourly workers has to be acceptable to the union.

This year - 2009 - officially marks the 35th anniversary of the inception of the IRA, or Individual Retirement Account. Though these savings and investment vehicles have changed dramatically over the years, the fundamental principle is the same: preferred tax treatments as an incentive to save for retirement.

Retirement pension annuity rates are founded on predominant medium gilt rates and life insurance institutions opinion on death rates. These rates are best the older you are but there is a danger that by delaying the annuity investment you would not profit from the income you would have accepted had you captured the services at an earlier age.

Back in the days when we were all fat and comfortable, wrapped in the security of our swollen brokerage accounts (who knew then that it was bubble wrap!), people would talk about the "Number".

The Social Security Administrator Office has just launched an Online Retirement Calculator at At ssa.gov/estimator, which is an interactive estimator able to give you information about your future retirement benefits. A press release at www.ssa.gov informs that by visiting their link at www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator, you can easily receive information on retirement profits without the need to visit the agency's field offices.