By Sheryl Smolkin

This week we highlight a series of posts of particular interest to readers who are retired and those who are contemplating retirement.

The big question everyone has when planning their retirement is “how much can I spend so I won’t run out of money.” Mark at MyOwnAdvisor considers various approaches like the rule of 20 and the rule 0f 25. But he concludes there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to determining your retirement number other than taking the first step and figuring out what you’ll likely spend in retirement.

In a short video, Globe and Mail personal finance columnist Rob Carrick interviews Bruce Sellery, author of The Moolala Guide to Rockin’ Your RRSP. Bruce says if you save 10% a year you will probably have enough to retire. To calculated how much you must save, multiply the annual amount you need by 20. So savings of $1 million will be required to pay yourself $50,000/year.

On Boomer & Echo, Marie Engen writes about how downsizing might not be the way to finance your retirement. Moving to a smaller, cheaper place can free up home equity for living expenses and reduce annual housing costs.  But moving is expensive and often a new place can cost more than the one you sold.

Escaping work may be the dream you are working towards, but if you get bored or your investments take a dive you may want to find full or part-time work. Tom Drake on CanadianFinance blog gives five hints for retirees looking for a job. He advises you not to say you are retired as it will give the impression that your best working days are behind you.

If when to start payment of your CPP pension isn’t confusing enough, the answer is further complicated if you are currently receiving a CPP survivors pension. Jim Yih on RetireHappy presents  an interesting case study on combined CPP benefits where compared to the other two choices age 65 is never the best time to start collecting CPP.

Do you follow blogs with terrific ideas for saving money that haven’t been mentioned in our weekly “Best from the blogosphere?” Share the information with us on http://wp.me/P1YR2T-JR and your name will be entered in a quarterly draw for a gift card.