Even if you are not ready to retire yet, it’s never too early to start thinking about your retirement years. Here are some simple ways you can start making strides toward preparing for retirement, even if it is far down the road.

1. Don’t rely solely on Social Security. Since social security won’t be sufficient to pay for life’s necessities – look for other options (investing) to help cover essential costs.  The present day retirees 2 greatest financial concerns are covering health care costs and running out of money before running out of breath.

2. Control spending.  If you’re living beyond your means before retiring, you are likely to continue in retirement until you don’t have enough to cover your needs.

3. Get a handle on procrastination and inconsistency. These are two of the biggest enemies of financial success.  Get started saving today and do it on a consistent basis.  Use payroll deductions and programmed bank withdrawals.  Investing whether the market is up or down is important.

4. Plan for healthcare. The Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates that the average couple can expect to spend $261,000 of their own money to achieve a 90% certainty of meeting their health care needs.  In addition to Medicare, have a supplemental policy and long term care might be a good idea.  Insurance may seem expensive, but not having it could be more expensive.

If you’re not planning on retiring for many years to come, you don’t have to have every retirement detail in place yet, but it’s never too early to start thinking about some of these issues and beginning to make some initial plans.