We're taught our retirement years will be a period of unalloyed pleasure, a placid, decades-long stretch seldom roiled by the kinds of concerns, worries, and sleepless nights we face all too often over the course of our work lives.

In truth, the retirement years can be fraught with nervousness and fear. We may see our fixed incomes eroded by inflation, our pensions eliminated by corporate bankruptcy, our nest eggs decimated by stock market downturns, and the value of our homes cut dramatically by the vagaries of the housing market.

Far from being peaches and cream, retirement can sometimes be the pits. That's the lot of those who don't plan well for retirement. But - surprise! - it can also be true for folks who planned meticulously for their Golden Years.

If it takes a bit of the survivor mentality to navigate the years up to age 65, it's equally true that that mindset can come in very handy after retirement.

Retirement poster children

That's why I'd like you to meet a couple who managed to roll with the punches in their early retirement years, only to come out the other side a bit bruised but otherwise unbowed. That couple is Carol and Phil White.

After finding retirement can be a tad thorny, they made the proper adjustments and came out smelling like a rose. The proof? When I caught up with Carol this week for the first time in a year, she and Phil were soaking up some sun on the beach in Kauai while visiting family in Hawaii.

As they approached the idea of retirement, the Whites felt they were well positioned to take the plunge while still in their 50s. Carol had spent her work life in the corporate world, earning a traditional pension and accumulating retirement assets in a 401k, as well as investing in a stock purchase plan. Phil, by contrast, had been an independent businessman. He owned a couple IRAs, and knew he could reap substantial income from the sale of his upscale men's clothing store.

The icing on top of this cake of retirement assets was a pair of single-family homes the Whites had purchased for the rental income they generated.

Retire like it's 1999

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Roll With the Retirement Punches