The road to retirement is a long one, and as with any journey, it helps to have a few key milestones along the way to help gauge your progress. So, when preparing for your senior years, it’s not enough to simply hope for the best. You should treat retirement planning as if your life depended on it—because it does. Without an effective plan, you risk a future of poverty, penny-pinching, dependence, and even early death due to unhappiness. The stakes could hardly be higher.