You may have seen articles in the financial press recently about the rise of index-fund investing and the demise of active management (stock picking). This is actually nothing new. Investing has been evolving this way for many years, and is in large part a welcome development: Over time, most active management does not beat the indexes, and is expensive to boot. Low-cost indexing is the way to go for most investors.

If you have ever worked with a contractor, or at least a contractor who is being up front with you, you may have heard something like the following: "You can have the work done cheaply, quickly, and of very high quality--but you can only pick two of these things."

You owe it to yourself--and your retirement--to do better than basing it on a simple spreadsheet. Using planning software such as our WealthTrace financial planner gives you the full picture.

In planning for retirement, a lot of time and effort and focus is understandably on saving enough money and investing it in the right securities. But a successful retirement plan--especially one that is longer than normal--can depend at least as much on spending.

The rules for planning for retirement are largely still the same rules once you get to your 40s. If you have been diligently saving and investing in 401(k)s and IRAs thus far, don't stop now.