Retirement Classes Emphasize Planning: Staying Ahead Retirement Classes Emphasize Planning
NEW YORK-One of the many ways in which inflation lias changed our lives is Dial we have all become much more aware of the need to iindersliuid personal finance. In response In this need, courses have sprung up in nearly every community, geared to leaching people how the financial system works and what their choices are.</br></br>The area of grealest interest, course directors say, is pre-retirement planning. At retirement, people normally go from earned incomes that increase with inflation, to fixed incomes, which erode at ' a frightening pace. Through advance planning, you can try to nnticipale the problems that result, and get some sensible advice on how lo handle them.</br></br>Financial planning courses may he offered in several places in your community by your employer, your union, a library, the public school system, a community college or university, or even the city government. Mycr Schlein, Director of Pre-Retirement Planning and Counseling for the City of Baltimore, recently pul together a lisl of some 300 organizations that offer these courses,</br></br>They're usually free or offered at nominal charge. Speakers are apt lo he local expertsÛÓfrom banks, accounting firms, brokerage offices and social security. They cover such things ns pension options, health benefits, housing, budgeting, how to avoid con men who prey on older people, social security, taxes, even sexual problems.</br></br>Depending on their constituency, the courses emphasize different aspects of financial planningÛÓestate faxes and investments for people with money; social security and food stamps for people of slender means, So when investigating a course, make sure it covers your primary area of interest.