As the years go by, when the kids grow up and leave (if you're lucky!), you will, inevitably, start thinking about retirement and the great value having a good number of years to enjoy the autumn of your lives and your family around you.

It's time to checkout the things you've gotten done in your life, taking the great positives away and really accepting that as phases of our lives pass, new ones open up and give us so much opportunity for joy and exploration.

It helps you set your sights on what's next and how to go about it.

It's a sad fact that many folks get to this point and regret that they hadn't made a better financial provision for their later years.

Yet now there are tremendous opportunities if you look around. Time to have fun and get excited about new opportunities that come your way.

The internet has opened up so many possibilities that it's possible to plan almost the whole of your retirement, from years before it's due, right here on the world wide web.

It's not unusual for older people even into their 80's and 90's to buy their first computer and, say, do their bulky grocery ordering online! Your kids, and more commonly your grandkids will be able to help you find your way around the technology.

And much, much more.

This is a time for remembering the things you used to do before children took all of your time up. Hobbies that you stored away in a cupboard.

Better still are those challenges and adventures that you might have felt had passed you by, yet now, with more older people being catered for, there are almost limitless possibilities. A friend recently went on a package tour of the Italian lakes and found he and his wife were the youngest at 51!

And that also leads to the opportunity to retire somewhere different to where you have lived for the time your family were growing up. Wherever you are in the world, there are retirees upping sticks and moving on out, to new pastures where the winters are milder and the summers are ideal places for the kids, and grandkids, of course, to visit for summer vacations at least.

It has to be a balance between what's important to you for the rest of your lives and the needs of those loved ones around you.

It is vital, that financially you are in as good a shape as possible. Making sure that as much of your outgoing is minimised (debts cleared, house paid for), whilst also ensuring that you have taken every opportunity to make the most of your investments from your mid-to late 40's onwards.

There are great, fun, exciting and almost risk-free investments out there - you just need to have the vision to see the possibilities, whilst ensuring that you balance the risk as well as you can.

Your retirement lasts as long as the end of your life - your family will bring you momentous joy as you benefit from 'being able to give the grandkids back' - every grandparents revenge! Never before have folks been able to achieve so much in their later years.

A little planning and effort, whilst you are up to it, will make you able to squeeze every last drop of joy out of those precious years.