How baby boomers approach the end of his career, it is clear that many have no idea how to answer these questions. Therefore, as services to help you probe your mind to recognize that the activities you can complete your career to make. If this sounds like a lot of work in your overscheduled life, as a deposit on a good retirement. Indeed, a typical boomer to spend nearly 25 years in this phase of life.

Do you walk the Himalayas? Learn how to train? Volunteer food bank at the local level? Work part time as an advisor? More specifically your project, the easier it is to assess how much money you need and that your joy will be retired. “People spend more vacation time, retirement planning,” says John Nelson, the retirement to education materials for federal employees, covering three areas of preparation: finances, health and happiness.

Nelson and other programs designed for pre-retirees to find ways to replace the intangible benefits, which in his work. Experts say that many people retire only to discover that the work, the main sources of psychological fulfillment, for example, or a sense of purpose, which are not easy to replicate. “Many struggle when they start to retire,” says Lisa Sévery, Director of Career Services at the University of Colorado. “Much of our identity and meaning are related to work. The big question is: “How are we going to continue in the world, if we stop?”

If the answer is not obvious, you may need a lot of time in planning your retirement lifestyle planning your retirement budget. Start wide, free movement, self-help exercises for online, using a paid coach. Much work to start with the course, the questionnaires that you will find in professional training and workshops for tips or more than 20 hours. This return to your personality and retirement, ready to help you better understand the role work plays in your life. Note: It is much more than a paycheck.

If Jane Van Leurs, 45, leader of Junior human resources and systems for a hospital chain in Memphis Methodist Health Care, an online program with the name of my next phase of this spring, she learned of her work main creative outlet. Because she plays guitar and sings, she intends to make music a priority in retirement. But Van Their main takeaway was a recognition that in five years in retirement, she prefers to remain about 10th “I discovered that I can not easily replace what I had to work,” says van Leur on the benefits of cooperation and recognition of colleagues. Their van was one of 10 employees to try my next step for the Methodists, the plans for workers in the autumn.

To learn how this planning is useful, detailed BusinessWeek tried three online services. My next stop is $ 39.95, $ 109 or $ 395, depending on whether one, five hours of phone in class, or hire a bus for the five sessions. Two others, Turning Points Navigator and Retirement Success Profile, you need to work with the coach in person or over the phone, typically $ 75 to $ 150 per hour. Each time, the number of meetings, it depends on your needs and your coach’s approach.

Good grades
Our three testers, all full-time journalists in their 50s, spent as much as 12 hours, diagnostic tests, written answers to questions probe, and discuss the results with the coaches.

In the programs, some were skeptical: “I am also quite a do-it-yourself man, not even for an outside to make tax returns,” said one. “I am not interested in the idea of me much time to analyze problems and find out I would not have always known that I had.” In addition to the kind of some computer problems and some When an enigmatic comments.

But the skeptics have been obtained, the idea of this type of planning. Our critics fell all three sites to promote, not only for leisure, intellectual and spiritual activities, but work within reach.

Although it has lessons for the year, they have on their own, all saw the value of working with a coach. “After a certain discipline coach, I did not seem to have observed on my own,” said one expert.

Before putting on a wide range of programs, try the free forces retirement spreadsheet and retirementwellbeing.com businessweek.com / extras. It captures essential elements of old age in a planning exercise, an online test of strength with a spreadsheet that prompts you to think about how you in your work and how to retire.

Not surprisingly, we discovered that more and more into these programs that are out of them: “Conclusion: I know a little better,” said one expert.

Our experts gave good marks to my next phase, already on the market for a year. Developed by a clinical psychologist, a professor of psychology, and a contractor, the program is well organized in four levels of the process.

The first part is devoted to introspection. Our testers had fun, that the response to questionnaires an analysis of his personality, and asked him what things meet, the “self closing” to “social cohesion.” He said that work is his main source of “recognition”, “artistic expression” and “end”.

How do you program this picture? Co-founder Eric Sundström says the software is based on psychological research shows that some things are easier to some than others. For example, because a “visionary” thinker probably fewer problems in finding creative new sales as a “practice” of thinkers, the figures that the species, more practice on the creative work of the project. On the whole, our critics felt the results were at the finish.

Moreover, our critics have exercises, assist in the performance of zero for the replacement work. He spent the leisure, happy memories, and he loved classes. It geworfelt four jobs a balance between work and leisure: piano, travel, creating a publishing venture and development of content for television. Although the software had problems – lost our experts tested twice, before finally registered – it gave the service an A. “I knew that my task has been a great source of accomplishment, but it’s annoying, of course, in my head, as it is important that, dass”

In January, Turning Points Navigator based on workshops, a former executive for human resources that Mobil Corp, and his wife in the 1980s. It was a mixed review.

As in my next step, Turning Points Navigator asks you a few, there is developing a game plan. The program requires that one of the five had links to the coach and gives you a two-year subscription, which is useful because the equipment can be simply overwhelming. The first of eight sections with only the title “Who am I?” It consists of more than a dozen years, the products you for an assessment of strengths, weaknesses, and values. It is a personality test and some checklists, most of the exercises you need to answer long. Our expert said that “the person who is by this program must be prepared to a reasonable number of hours.”

You must also complete an examination, as is the case with other programs. Our experts sometimes get the feeling she had on the couch a psychiatrist. Nevertheless, she won the comments to help retirement. For example, in the analysis of its achievements, our detractors, who think, who sees himself as a cautious type, discovered that the whole world, to him a great risk, for example abroad for training professional change. It requires you to “deep into himself and thinking,” says Katy Eymann, whose nonprofit Life by Design Northwest retirement workshops that companies can offer employees. It provides, Turning Points Navigator part of the retirement program hope to the public. “We feel, questions, such a difference to do, see or performance to justify the time to think,” says Turning Points CEO Mike Ballard.

Profile of success in retirement, our critics thought some of his results were, but this program 15 years ago, he scored only for the identification of areas must be set to work. St. Louis counselor Richard Johnson, this program as a three-step process.

On the nuclear program of 120 questions to measure, as you’re ready to retire. They indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with statements on a scale of 1 to 10. Then the software compares your answers with those of 30,000 others who have the control and values on 15 sectors, for example, your position on retirement, the extent to which you have leisure interests, and the extent to which you have your identity is tied to your work.

The report will be not much good to talk to you without one of more than 500 bus service network. Some are in the process, including the different exercises in one sitting, while others ask you for more than eight years. Johnson, the coach of our testers, insight in the results and indicated areas that deserve exploration, such as how he can contribute at work.

The last step is to develop an action plan. Johnson recently announced a reduction of the tool, called Life Options, which sets out measures to prepare for retirement six categories, including finance, health and relationships and must be done with a coach, but. We recommend longer with the program. For our test, the analysis more meaningful and more reflection.

Admittedly, these programs require a large commitment of time and money. Then again, so you 25 years of retirement.

For the future, the question arises, investors, whether the recent weakness is a healthy correction or the beginning of a new decline. While limited visibility regarding macroeconomic conditions, it is a call demanding, we believe that the Standard & Poor’s 500 shares recently trading at estimating only 14 times 2008 EPS, several weak quarters of gross domestic product growth and EPS are included in the price of the equity market.

Given that we expect that the United States for a recession lasting at EPS businesses continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace than many believe, we believe, in recent years in the low of 1400 on the S & P 500 is.

In addition to the factors we have listed, Mark Arbete, S & P’s Chief Technical Strategist, believes that 1400 is important in terms of technical assistance to long-term trend of the year 2002 bear market and a critical support graph-August low. Dominant negative sentiment indicators are another sign that the market level, in our eyes.

It is not surprising that at the sectoral level, Finance and Consumer Discretionary have borne the main burden of the sale and are now the only two sectors posting negative year-to-date supplies. We also recommend that investors underweight in their portfolios.

Like other sectors of the battery for 2008? This series of reports analyzing the prospects of S & P five sectors: the four councils of weight with the market, the market capitalization greater weighting in the S & P-500 and an area to excess recommendation. A selection of five of S & P Top of stocks in different sectors is also to be seen.