It goes without saying that unless you’re a wealthy heir to a vast fortune, a million dollar movie mogul, or you found oil in your backyard, you’re going to need to come up with a solid, but flexible retirement plan. It also goes without saying that the times are changing, and yesterday’s safe investment might quickly become tomorrow’s pipe dream.

If you’ve never really thought about it before, the task may seem pretty daunting, especially in today’s fragile world economy. Even if you have decades ahead of you before you reach retirement age, you may just look at the math and think it simply doesn’t add up to ever being able to put enough money aside to live out your golden years in some degree of comfort. Don’t get intimidated. You don’t need to be a financial genius or incredibly lucky to come up with something that works. All you need is to be willing to take the time to do some research, and willing to put enough money aside to put towards a safe, long term investments that will eventually snowball into a decent retirement fund when the time comes.