The ongoing Bermuda economic slowdown (reflective of the North Atlantic major economies) may be having a dampening effect on individual investment plans.

Are you one of many investors here who relied upon local dividends, and rental income, only to see it all trending down? If you are in your middle years with extraordinary career challenges still ahead, you can weather this storm. Time is on your side.

Move past that milestone, closer to kickback rocker time, and your view of investment market returns becomes very different. You may already be experiencing unexpected restrictions on your planned retirement lifestyle. Perhaps, it is time for you to revisit your current situation and those long-term golden-sunset goals.

What-if retirement planning.

Every financial item that you have considered reliable, consistent and sacrosanct under the previous Bermudian lifestyle needs to be assessed again: logically, coldly, and financially. Divide your review into several components. You will find it too exhausting to tackle it all at once.

Start with the obvious: Where am I personally now?

• Very close to retirement? Americans are postponing retirement, or stating that they won't be retiring anytime soon because they have to work to recoup their savings. Should you consider postponing your decision, if you have the option to continue to work? Why not continue working - it might be better than sitting home worrying about the direction of the economy and its impact on your finances.

• Three to six years from retirement, or longer? Should I be investing in further training to stay professionally current for the demands of my job? More experience may mean higher compensation and better job security.

• Single, or in a legal relationship with a spouse, or long-term partner to share costs and comfort? Both need to continue to save, but the old adage that two can live cheaper to one is still true. Singles, particularly ladies in very later years, may be challenged to remain self-supporting without a relationship framework.

Where does my current income come from? Employment, savings, investments, pensions, rental property? What generated the most income? Is it less now? How has this percentage changed, i.e. Is more originated from employment than savings than prior years? How reliant am I on entitlement programs right now, such as contributory pension, private pensions, health insurance subsidy? What percentage of my income does these benefits represent?

You know where I am going with this one question. Succinctly, will I continue to receive the same benefits? If not, by how much do you think they will be decreased, or eliminated altogether. Loss of an employment benefit or entitlement programme is income that must be recouped elsewhere. Health insurance costs continue to spiral one way only - straight up. The American Association of Retired Persons has tracked health insurance costs (15 percent average increase year on year) in the United States for more than 20 years, with never a percentage decrease.

Local businesses, especially smaller ones, are forced to tighten their benefit budgets in order to conserve valuable operating cash. You may be asked to pick up more of your health benefit, or all of it. The choice of continuing to work may come down to a paycheque for benefits.

How do I feel? Still capable of producing an excellent day's work? Still valuable to the organisation? Still maintaining good physical health, taking care of your daily exercise routine.

What do I have in talent or other resources, including assets that are income producing, or capital generators? Are they maximized to their full utility? Have they maintained their market value? Can I bring in additional income with a second job or asset sales? How much do I spend on absolute core household necessities?

How much do I spend on trinkets, and trips, trivia that has little true value? What is the current value of my debts? Could I accelerate reducing them to zero if I had to? What do I need to do to protect me on a financial survival basis?

Spend enough effort on this exercise to truly understand where you stand. Only you know your true financial situation. You don't have to have elaborate spreadsheets. Using an informal pen and paper to quick total the obvious will provide answers close enough for decision making.

What is necessary is that you do it, don't think about it, talk about, worry about it, do it.

When you know the worst, you can plan for the best. Then ask these three additional questions.

1. Do I have adequate savings that with practising very tight cost control, can bring me through this down cycle?

2. Can my family help out by pooling our resources?

3. Can I afford to maintain my lifestyle?

If the answer is no, your forward planning needs to be ramped up. According to the recent New York Times article, "Bankers Told American Recovery will be slow", by Sewall Chan, the American economy could experience painfully slow growth and stubbornly high unemployment for a decade or longer as a result of the 2007 collapse of the housing market and the economic turmoil that followed.

What affects America, affects us. It is a discouraging prediction, let's hope it isn't so. In the meantime, however, you have put your retirement survival package in place. In the words of George Costanza's father in Seinfeld: "Serenity Now!" That's what you want to achieve.

Martha Harris Myron, CPA, CFP(US) TEP (UK) JP- Bermuda is an international Certified Financial Planner™ practitioner in private wealth management. She specialises in independent fee-only cross border investment, tax, estate, and strategic retirement planning services for Bermuda residents with cross-border and multi-national connections, internationally mobile people and US citizens living abroad. For more information, contact martha.myron@gmail.com">martha.myron@gmail.com or 296-3528.