The Wall Street Journal.'s Retirement-Planning Guide discusses a guidebook that is "a blueprint for building a successful retirement" and shares the following "Potential Cracks In Your Nest Egg":

• Timing – Plan on paying off as much debt as possible before tapping your retirement assets and consider a phased retirement.
  
• Life expectancy – To be safe, expect to live to be ninety or ninety-five.
  
• Taxes and inflation – Remember that different expenses increase at different rates.
  
• Health-care expenses – Almost all dental, hearing, and vision expenses are not covered under Medicare.
  
• Working in retirement – What if you are disabled or unable to find the work that you are looking for?
  
• Saving money -- even in retirement – Even in retirement, you will likely need to continue to save for unexpected expenses.
  
• Withdrawals from nest eggs – A realistic rate of withdrawal is about 4 percent.
  
• Asset allocation – Make sure you are gradually moving into less risky investments as you get closer to retirement rather than waiting until retirement to make the change.