You make a nice living. You have years and years of experience. Now you’re getting ready to retire. Let me tell you, it’s time to know what you don’t know, because you don’t get a second chance to recover from innocent mistakes.

What kind of mistakes? Well, I got a call the other day from a gentleman who has all of his funds inside retirement accounts. He did not realize that upon retirement he will have to pay income tax on every dollar that he withdraws from these accounts.

Maybe that sounds like a minor error, but it means he does not and will not have enough money to support the lifestyle that he and his wife would like.

It is amazing to me that someone can work their whole life to accumulate a substantial nest egg and then think they have the expertise and knowledge necessary to make this money last the rest of their life when retirement planning and investments are not their area of expertise.

If you do your own planning, before you make any major retirement or investing decisions promise me that at a minimum you will read the following three books:

This article definitely caught my attention! At 107, the article says Larry Haubner is active, vigorous and healthy, takes no medications, and is able to lift his walker over his head! I love it. I’ll happily live to 107 if I’m alert and still enjoying life. I love seeing how the world changes and all the new things we invent.

How, though, do you make sure you have enough money? Either you spend very frugally when you are younger, or you take what you do have and at some point you purchase an immediate annuity, one of the few ways you can insure that you don't outlive your money.

I was having a conversation with a colleague of mine yesterday when she casually mentioned something about putting herself on a weekly allowance. The idea intrigued me, so I asked her more.

As she shared her thoughts I wondered how it is that as adults we can so easily disregard some of those valuable lessons we were supposed to have learned as children. Think of where you would be if you had always used the idea of a weekly allowance, and saved the rest. I know I'd be sitting on a nice pile of cash right now!

Well, it’s not too late. Read more about my colleague’s thoughts in The Weekly Budget Allowance For Adults. It’s an old idea worth exploring anew.

I was driving along last night and found myself stuck behind a city bus. There plastered across the backside of the busy was a full size ad by a law firm in town that is known to advertise heavily. It said,

“Bankruptcy By Phone! Zero down, low monthly payments, 24 hours a day!”

Honestly, I couldn’t believe it. No, I’m not surprised there is bankruptcy by phone, but to advertise it on the city bus, well, something about that just doesn’t seem right to me.

Unfortunately, in the current environment of higher unemployment bankruptcy will become a necessity for more and more. If you want to know more, here is an article that gives you an overview of the different types of bankruptcy and what you can do if you find yourself behind on your bills.

Did you know that you can open an account directly with the U.S. Treasury and consolidate paper EE/E or I Savings Bonds?

Depositing your bonds into a Treasury Direct account can help you keep track of them as you will easily be able to see their maturity date, current value and interest accrued.

Follow the link at the top directly to the Treasury Direct website or learn more about Treasury Securities in this article: Buy Treasury Securities Direct.

I am lucky enough that I have always enjoyed exercise. I also make a determined effort to eat healthy. I'm rarely at the doctor, which affords me the luxury of freeing up money to spend on other things.

When I see people with unhealthy lifestyles spending oodles of money on medical costs, it is frustrating, as most of the time, a different lifestyle could have, and still would, signficantly reduce their health care costs.

I know on a tight budget it can be all too easy to think you can’t afford a healthy lifestyle, but the truth is you can’t afford not to.

Healthy doesn’t have to mean expensive. Staying in shape can be as easy as walking, and eating healthy can be accomplished even on a low fat budget.

Below are a few tips to help you trek on in a healthy direction:

• Walk Off Weight and Be Less of a Burden to the Planet
• 7 Tips for Eating Healthy On a Budget

This is one of the best articles I’ve seen in a long time. Author Carla S. Fried expresses a thoughtful and intelligent analysis about what types of market returns we might see going forward.

In her analysis she covers interest rates, inflation and the most important factor of all, investor behavior. She touches briefly and simply on all of the relevant and interrelated factors that will affect future investment returns.

If you want a brief and easy to understand summary of the issues, I would highly suggest you read it as the latest addition to my Voices of Reason list.

You’ve probably heard there is a tax benefit to paying mortgage interest, but have you ever calculated out how much it really amounts to?

For those who itemize deductions and are in a high tax bracket, it can be substantial. For those in lower brackets, with a minimal amount of mortgage interest, it may be negligible.

You can learn more about the tax deductibility of your mortgage, and use this online calculator to see how much of a tax benefit it may or may not provide for you. Check it out at Is Your Mortgage Interest Tax Deductible?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having a conversation with a man who is a leader in campaigning for ethics and awareness in the financial services industry.

Jack Waymire is the author of Who's Watching Your Money: The 17 Paladin Principles for Selecting a Financial Advisor. Jack has developed a set of criteria to use to screen financial advisors. If the regulatory agencies had applied Jack’s methodology to Bernie Madoff, for example, all kinds of red flags would have been raised.

Worth Magazine is now using Jack’s system to pre-screen advisors and firms that it puts on its “Best Of” lists. In this way they can reduce their liability and potential of recommending a fraudulent person or firm.

You can use Jack’s system to be matched with an advisor by going to Paladin Registry or you can do your own independent search by going to Paladin Directory. It’s free. It’s worth your time.

Don’t choose advisors, whether it be an attorney, CPA or accountant without at least checking their credentials first.

You can also visit another of Jack’s website at Investor Watchdog where you can report financial absuse and find a plethora of material discussing inappropriate sales tactics and practices that you will want to be aware of.

I just finished reading a book I wish I’d had when I started my career as a financial advisor. It teaches you all the things that you need to know – but don’t – as you start delivering financial advice.

Reading it, I got fired up all over again about the way the financial services industry works. When you get hired by a big firm, they have you study for a securities license and send you out to sell their products. They teach you little about financial planning, taxes, diversification, controlling investment expenses, etc.

The more I learned, the more I moved away from the traditional financial services industry, as it seemed like a big scam to me.

This book reminded me of how far our industry still has to go. Not even the Certified Financial Planner^TM courses (which I highly respect and a designation which I hold) teach as thorough of an analysis as Henry Hebeler does in his book Getting Started In A Financially Secure Retirement.

Thank you Henry, for raising the bar for financial professionals.