The biggest worry for every retiree is running out of money. Creating a financial game plan will help you to manage your fears, as well as your money. Determine where your money will be coming from — investments, pensions or the sale of assets. Then get your financial advisor to advise you on how much money you can withdraw each month without eating into the capital. If there is a shortfall, then at least you know that you will have to continue to working part-time.

Figure out what you need coming in each year to live the way you would like and allocate your money accordingly. Typical strategies are to keep a certain percentage of your savings in cash or fixed deposits and a certain amount in unit trusts (medium-to-long-term) and the rest in stocks (long-term investments.)

Look at what you want to do in the early years of retirement; be a little on the cautious side, but don't deny yourself. As long as you know your limits you can still take that overseas holiday or cruise.

Volatile markets could erode your savings in the short term. If this happens you may need to make some lifestyle adjustments to preserve the capital. But be flexible enough to look at your special circumstances and goals. Remember, if you deplete your investments early on — even if you work part-time and continue investing — it will be tougher to make up the difference. Best bet: Sit down with a financial planner who specialises in retirement distribution analysis.

Make sure that your advisor practices 'best advice' financial planning and is not driven only by the commission he or she makes on the sale of products.

If you are looking to completely change your lifestyle, do a trial run first. For example, if you are planning to retire to the mountains rent a place for a year to see if you enjoy being isolated. If you commit yourself from the start (by purchasing a property) it will be costly to change your mind.

You may be able to reduce the number of bank accounts that you have. Get a smaller, more economical vehicle or cancel some services.

If you enjoy your job, there is no reason why you can't continue to work. The money you're earning is helping to preserve your savings which means you're actually saving cash for later. But run the numbers before you go back to work. And if you don't do your own taxes every year this might be a good time to hire a pro to tally it up for you.

If work is drudgery that's one thing, but if you crave interaction with other people and want to keep your professional skills sharp it may be worth a little extra in taxes.

Unfortunately, con artists target retirees. Keep active, stay social and be wary of anything that sounds too good to be true. It probably is.

Typically, you buy life insurance to replace income that your family would have to do without if you or your spouse died. But if you're not drawing income, do you still need life insurance?

Look for investments that will give you steady growth with a minimum of taxable income. And never make assumptions about the tax consequences of your investments. Always read the fine print.

This cost will keep going up. Retirement planning must include the cost of medical aid premiums. Ask yourself if it seems likely, given your medical and family history, that you might need long-term care. Do you have family who could manage to take you in if anything happened (consider this before automatically saying 'yes')? Do some checking and find out what a policy would cost and what it would cover. Then you can take action and make a choice that's comfortable for you.