The more you think about and plan for your retirement, the better it's likely to be. And since it can be 20 or 30 years of your life or more, it's well worth learning about and following these retirement rules to live by.

There are retirements that just happen and that can be good or rather difficult. Then there are retirements that you have carefully made decisions about. These stand a much greater chance of being comfortable and enjoyable. When it comes to the critical matter of planning for your future, here are seven retirement rules to live by.