happened years ago seems like it occurred only yesterday? Before you know it, it will be time to hang up your calculator, computer, legal books or whatever else you use for your work. The day of retirement comes to us all.

Below, Jennifer A. Patterson, personal financial planner and an investment advisor with First Bermuda Securities, offers advice on how to plan financially and ensure your retirement is a comfortable one.

You hear it every day: start planning for your retirement. While working, the focus is on accumulating enough funds to retire, and most definitely this should be done. So you work hard, plan well and accumulate a nest egg. You're in good health and you're looking forward to taking it easy.

But planning and saving for your retirement shouldn't stop with your final pay cheque. In fact, retirees will probably find that they require more financial planning, rather than less, after retirement.

Once there are no more regular pay cheques, investments have to be continually re-evaluated and adjusted to maintain the income necessary to meet expenses.

These days, someone who retires at the age of 65 can expect to live an average of 20 more years. Assuming a four-percent inflation rate, the cost of living will more than double during that time. In other words, in the year 2012 (20 years from now) a lifestyle of $40,000 today will require $88,000. In 25 years, this will rise to $106,633.

This has significant implications for a retiree's investment strategy. While retirees may want to change their mix of investments somewhat to reflect their changed circumstances, they have to provide for continued growth. The common practice of moving money into fixed-income and other conservative investments in the years just before retirement may not be the answer.

By heavily weighting your investment in fixed-income investments like bonds, CDs and time deposits at a bank, the value of your nest egg will diminish over time. With interest rates plummeting, clearly this has been the case for many retirees over the last few years. And recovery seems reluctant at best.

Most retirees should keep a significant portion of their investment portfolios in stocks and equity mutual funds. The exact percentage depends on age and individual circumstances, but a general recommendation might be in the range of 30 to 40 percent. Even persons in their 70s and 80s need some equities in their portfolio to keep up with inflation.

To achieve diversification and strike the right balance between stocks and bonds, persons often turn to mutual funds. The bond funds are used primarily to provide income; stock funds are intended to grow in value over the long term, off-setting the effects that years of inflation can have, even at today's relatively low levels.

As you grow older, you probably will want to gradually lighten up your stock holdings, especially growth stocks, foreign stocks and small company stocks.

You will also want to shuffle your bond fund portfolio so that you own primarily funds holding top quality corporate or government bonds with a relatively short time remaining to maturity.

A portfolio that is heavily invested in stocks and stock funds may not pay out much income for you to spend during retirement. To get around this problem, you should periodically sell fund units and certain stock shares to meet your income needs. Your financial advisor or financial planner might liquidate a portion of your portfolio every six to 12 months and move the proceeds into a money-market fund or savings account that you can draw on. These periodic liquidations may also be used by your advisor to rebalance your portfolio.

In some cases, expenses will probably increase after retirement. Some retirees with children and grandchildren scattered around the globe will require a larger travel budget. Health care typically consumes a larger proportion of your budget as time goes on, and health care costs have been rising faster than the overall cost of living in recent years.

There are other things, too, that you may have reviewed prior to retirement but that should be re-evaluated periodically afterward. For example, your group insurance ends at retirement. Therefore, it is recommended that, upon retirement, you should immediately apply for subsidised health insurance.

Retirement is also a good time to review your will and any trust arrangements.