Are you planning to retire within the next 10 to 15 years? If so, are you ready to take retirement preparedness to the next level?

Retirement is no longer an abstract concept when you reach your 50s. It's important to take a closer look at your financial plans now, while you have time to make any corrections. Consider these five steps to ensure the retirement of your dreams – or at least avoid the retirement of your nightmares.

1. Outline Your Retirement Goals – What do you really want to do when you retire? Buy a retirement home on the beach? Travel abroad? Start an expensive hobby? It's time to figure out how to pay for those goals.

Lay out your primary retirement goals and estimate the major expenses associated with them. Place those expenses on a timeline spread throughout your retirement. You now have an estimate of how your cash flow needs will change because of your retirement plans.

2. Rethink Your Expenses –</...

If you can get something either with or without a fee, why would you ever pay the fee? Unless you just enjoy throwing money away, you'd have to get something of value in return to justify the fees.

A recent survey from Discover, a major issuer of no-fee credit cards, investigated fees and their effects on credit card usage. The survey showed that consumers with no-annual-fee credit cards were twice as likely to be satisfied with their card than consumers with annual-fee cards (70% to 35%) – suggesting that consumers aren't getting a sufficient return for the fees that they pay.

Surveys typically show that between two-thirds and three-quarters of credit cards don't charge annual fees. According to the How To Evaluate A Credit Card Offer

Millions Of Americans Using Outdated Credit Cards

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