Who/where is the best place for me to start my planning to retire?

An essay! So sorry, hope some of it was helpful. I no longer have parents or a grandma to worry about.

Then, grandma, one cannot plan ahead if you are unmarried and retired and that special someone comes into your life. Beware if you start spending for two; or if you are being rushed, swept off your feet with gifts. Consider where that relationship is headed, say, after age 75, will you become an unpaid caregiver?
Will mixed financials cause difficulties with your children's inheritance, or his children? Enjoy your life, just plan ahead. Maybe a pre-nuptial agreement?
My advice is to spend your children's inheritance on a good life for yourself.
Or, not, whatever you want to decide. I am just showing you all the possibilities, including the downside. You did say "PLAN".
And then lastly, I would have a good friend with someone who has wisdom and knowledge, nothing to gain from your friendship but knowing you; and make yourself accountable (an informal accountability partner) to that person on major life decisions.

The reason that I would be against a reverse mortgage is that if you are not living there for a certain period of time, you lose your home. Too much can happen, especially if you need to sell, moving closer to family. Your age is too young for a reverse mortgage, I'm guessing.
Go to the top of the page, click on MONEY & LEGAL, read the articles and comments there.
I am not an expert nor professional, just a person taking the time to share what
my friends have suffered from.

Grandma, please consider working for as long as possible, because you can collect more money (monthly) from social security at age 70, and up.
Your financial advisor ( should not be someone interested in selling you stock or an annuity), maybe a Certified financial planner, can inform you. Or, even an elder law attorney (not someone who wants to sell you a package plan of POA, will, and other financial plans.
Plan ahead for that part-time job (don't quit before you have it), because that extended down-time (not working) beyond a vacation period can wreck havoc with your ability to continue working.
Try not to make any major life changes until you feel ready, unless your current job will be making you sick.
Retirement is over-rated, in my opinion, even when there is enough money!
Even people in assisted living and nursing homes have the delusion that they are there 'at work', shows you how important 'work' is throughout our lives. It is good you will be working part-time.
If you want to plan for a moderate retirement income out of necessity, my first suggestion would be to cancel gifting family beyond your immediate children, and then token gifts of a small nature, choosing either Christmas or their birthday, but not both. No loans to anyone, ever. Send cards or e-cards instead. You can start that now, because it will show you just how difficult it is to say no and to maintain relationships if you are the one giving.
Put all that money in the bank, stop spending it.
Also, consider what you have given to charities/church in the past, retire that too on the day you retire. You can re-calculate that to a smaller amount now.
The goal is to keep from being a burden down the line and to take care of yourself, at least as long as possible.
These are things people who have retired had difficulty with so far, after calculating they will only have enough to live on for eight years, continue to give to charity, church, and loans by refinancing their homes to help a married adult child buy a house! Be more careful than that. Allow expenditures for yourself to travel, have some fun. It depends upon how good you are at managing money now.
Retirement years can be fun and enjoyable, don't get me wrong.

Having taken over my mothers care when they had depleted saving they had a year before, my first thought is "long term care insurance!"
Dont wait too long, it costs more the older you are, but I know I can get help to come in whether I need a little help or a lot, and eventually will pay for NH care if needed. If you don't have an estate to fall back on, this would be a really wise decision. We have a reverse mortgage so will stay here as long as we are able

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/publications/nearretirement.html
There are some things you can do to get a handle on your current/future expenses. Here is a website to get you started.

Then when you sit down with your financial advisor, put into place long-term care.

Start planning for retirement as early as possible, so you ample time to build a retirement base. Remember, when you retire from an organization it requires so many years of work to get full retirement. The same principle is true in your personal retirement. Begin early, stay away from quick rich retirement schemes, find a solid investment that has at least a twenty year history of increasing value and don't rely on so called professionals to manage your money

Also talk to your tax accountant. The Social security Adm. will tell you how much you have earned and can estimate what you will receive & at what age.What ever you do, do not retire early, as you will be penalized a percentage of your income. My tax accountant recommended two other sources of income besides SSI. Plan to have or have saved for an annuity that you can draw from each month. Also, if you have been employed in a state system, there is a certain amount of retirement that is paid out as well in monthly sums. If you decide to take out all of your saved funds, they will be taxed accordingly. If you are a number of years from retiring start saving right now as much as you can, & find someone you can trust to help you with this. You can actually tax defer funds into an IRA each year before you retire, so look into this as soon as you can if you haven't already;

I would advise anyone in the Retirement Red Zone to talk with a paid Social Security expert. We had one give a training at our company and half the employees over 55 paid for his private help (which was about $200-250). There are so many things that are very costly to miss that you might not find out on your own. He, and I assume other experts in this area, had a program that took all of your information and gave you the best logical options for how to plan your Social Security. With spousal benefits and the cost/benefit of when you start taking it, this decision is probably the most important pre-retirement one you'll make. Spend the $200-250 and have a pro help you.

If ur employed, you need to find out how ur medical will be once ur 65 if u keep working. Some employers may drop ur medical to a supplemental. Then u need to pick up Medicare as primary. Best thing, make an appt at ur local Social Security office and see what they can tellu.

I started collecting SS at 62. When I turned 65 it was automatic because I was already collecting SS. For me to wait till 66 was only a $200 difference. In the 4yrs I will be collecting I would make 36,000. Divide that by 2400 (200x 12) it would take 15 yrs to make up the difference I've lost. I could be dead by then so. Enjoying it now. The big difference only happns if you made a lot of money in the last 35yrs.

GrandmaG68: Select a financial advisor.

If you have money you can plan a lot if you don't best you be happy in the place you live If it was a happy place before it will still be join seniors groups very cheap find all free resources and activity's rich people live like poor and poor like rich I see milliares walking in the sand at the beaches talking to fishermen and poor people at art shows looking at fine art money is nearly a medium a poor man can retire a rich man can not he has to keep on making money all his life inoerder to stay rich

Medicare is pretty straightforward -you apply 3 mos before 65th birthday.even if you are not going to use it as your employers health insurance is available.

SS more complex. Others have given great resources. Keep in mind that the longer you wait till 70 to get SS, the bigger the payment for the rest of your life.
Like if $ 1900 at 62, it would be $2500 at 66 & $3100 at 70. If you are likely to live a long life this is quite the difference.

You might try calling your bank; they usually have financial advisors who will meet with you at no charge.

I work with an independent advisor, who helps me with my retirement plans, my life insurance, and my son's special needs trust on a commission basis. Be sure to ask what the advisors "fiduciary responsibility" is to you---that means he/she is working for your financial good rather than just trying to sell you plans to get money for themselves.

Some employers also offer some free sessions with a financial planner.
If you are not really comfortable going by yourself, is there someone in your family who could go with you to help you remember what the person says--about ten minutes into financial conversations, I start to get confused and lose interest, even faster if they start using long words! Good luck!

I would contact Medicare directly. Here's their website: https://www.medicare.gov/

You can also go to this page and on the right side, you can "Find Someone To Talk To" by putting in your state: https://www.medicare.gov/forms-help-and-resources/index.html

And here's the Contact Us page for Social Security: http://www.ssa.gov/agency/contact/

Good luck!

Call your local senior services agency...the Council on Aging, or whatever your local government calls senior assistance. They should be able to direct you to a number of resources.

Congratulations and good luck!