Retirement is more than just an event that happens when you stop working. It is a process that requires a series of planned stages and decisions that must be made during your working years.

The most important step toward guaranteeing your future financial security is early planning for your retirement. Although the best time to start planning is when you start working, few people are disciplined enough to do this and/or they don't understand the importance of planning. You have already taken this first step by educating yourself to become financially secure.

Studies show that retirees will need to replace between 75 and 90 percent of their pre-retirement income to maintain their current standard of living, and their savings will have to keep pace with inflation. Whether you will be able to live on 75 to 90 percent of your pre-retirement income depends on your current and planned retirement lifestyle.

A 1995 study by The Equitable Life Assurance Society found baby boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964):

• Plan to retire at about age 60.

• Started saving for retirement at the average age of 28. This is five years earlier than current pre-retirees aged 59 years and still working and seven years earlier than those who are now retired.

• Tend to choose conservative investments for their 401(k) and IRA savings, which have a low rate of return, thereby reducing the amount of retirement income because their investments probably won't keep pace with inflation.

• One or both spouses will live to age 90, but their savings will probably only last until they reach age 82.

• 20 percent feel they may have to support aging parents in addition to themselves.