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

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!

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

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!

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.

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

GrandmaG68: Select a financial advisor.

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.

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 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.

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;