Chuck Saletta

Some costs you can plan for reasonably well. Others will take you by surprise, but it's important to set something aside for them as well.

By planning in advance, you can have a much more comfortable retirement than you'd get from an early Social Security benefit alone.

There's nothing quite like a solid payout increase to make an investor's day that much brighter.

It can be scary to have your money deposited into a bank that fails, but if you plan for that possibility, you can reduce the impact that bank failure has on your overall finances.

A lot of what happens regarding dividends takes place in public, which often makes it possible to sniff out risks before they become problems.

A rise in debt levels along with higher interest rates has shifted investors' limited resources out of stocks, which opens up opportunities for those who are prepared.

"You don't know what you've got until it's gone." That also holds true for money you've got socked away for when things go wrong.

There are some things that cash, bonds, and CDs do better than stocks, such as letting you know how much you'll have to pay your bills.

Building enough flexibility into your finances to wait to claim your benefits can help in more ways than one.

If you pay attention to the business behind the stock, you can often get a handle on how well it can reward its shareholders with cold, hard cash over time.

Not every investment works out as well as you might have hoped. What you do about your mistakes matters more than striving to never make those mistakes in the first place.

There's something to be said for owning companies in the business of providing the essentials of our modern life.

When you add together all the key features that a Roth IRA offers, the net benefits for retirees are downright staggering.

The more automatic you make your investing plan, the easier it is to stick with it over time.

You can pick up cash in more ways than one, once you've stopped pulling down a paycheck.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

There are a small handful of universal investing strategies that can make it easier to get through a rough market.

Given the state of Social Security's trust funds and how the program integrates with Medicare and the tax code, it makes sense to have a cautious approach to how much you can really expect from your monthly retirement benefit.

A simple rule change can make it much easier to manage your money throughout your retirement.

The more tax-efficient you are with your retirement money, the further each dollar can go for you.