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As you rush to work, run to pick up the kids, or scramble to make dinner, retirement may seem like a far-off dream. Or maybe you try to talk to your partner about planning for the future, only to end up in a fight about how much to save now so you can enjoy life later. You delay this money conversation hoping that, in time, it will get easier. The truth is that waiting can be detrimental to achieving a secure future. So the time to talk about retirement is now.

As we walked out of the hospital, my sister turned to her kids and said, “Please take care of me at home if I get as sick as your grandmother.” I turned to my husband and said, “Just put me in a nursing home and go on with your life.”

When it comes to saving and investing for retirement, there may be a quiet battle of the sexes going on in many households.

My father is a big fan of the K.I.S.S. principle (“Keep it simple, sweetie.” What? Your father calls it something else?).

What really happened to Cinderella after she married Prince Charming? Did she live happily ever after?

Many people can’t wait for retirement. They have visions of playing golf, fly-fishing, reading, volunteering, spending hours with their grandchildren, and engaging in all manner of activities they never had time to do before. But several questions often weigh heavily: Do I have enough money tucked away to make my retirement vision a reality? Or will I end up barely scraping by? Can I afford to continue to live in my current home? Or should I downsize or move to a cheaper area of the country?

“The key to building wealth is simple in theory but difficult to do: Spend less than you make and invest the rest,” says Jean Duffy, a CAPTRUST financial advisor in West Des Moines, Iowa.

In this issue, we explore options for financing a second home, take a look at long-term care costs and the tradeoffs of long-term care insurance, and offer our thoughts on prudent retirement portfolio withdrawal rates.