When the college years of your children are over, the last one is finally out of the house and able to make it living on his or her own, the weddings are over or at least prepared for, it is time to look seriously at the holy grail of retirement.

Retirement, or at least semi-retirement, is the next phase of life to be enjoyed -if you can. It is accompanied by the realizationthat the generation just before us is likely the last to enjoy an employer-subsidized retirement.