Posted By: The Sovereign Investor

Seeing as I’m still shy of 30, my retirement-saving mentality hasn’t quite kicked in yet — even though I do contribute to my company 401(k) plan.

I’m still focused on purchasing a car to accommodate my two kids and building up their college funds.

But I usually spend my 70-mile commute to and from work chatting with relatives; often it’s with my grandparents.

One thing I have picked up from my conversations with them is that retirement planning has become more challenging.

Whether it’s constant changes to medical insurance or increased cost of living — thanks to higher taxes and food prices — something always seems to alter their financial burdens in retirement.

And after reading a few retirement surveys, it seems like most of us are not getting retirement right. But you can do something about it…

According to a recent survey conducted by Insured Retirement Institute and the Center for Generational Kinetics, more than a quarter of millennials, who are considered my generation, are relying on winning the lottery or being gifted money to survive in their retirement years.

This is not what I mean by doing something about it.

I have played the lotto a time or two, and if you are lucky enough to be gifted money from your parents or grandparents, that’s great. But those two items still may not last you through your retirement years.

That’s because retirement is not so much about the amount of money you start with, but more about how you can stretch those funds over more and more years.

To make that happen, it’s all about generating passive income throughout your retirement years — that’s how you can do something about it.

In fact, there are multiple strategies you can implement in your retirement days, and days leading up to retirement to grow your nest egg. Let me explain.

Take Control of Your Retirement

As you know, there are different types of retirement accounts. Many of you may be stuck in a 401(k) that is not yet fully vested — the level at which your employer match actually becomes your money.