It seems simple enough. You know what year you plan to retire, so you pick a mutual fund with that same date, set it and forget it.

No wonder target-date funds in 2008 had their highest year for net new cash flows -- at an estimated $57 billion. This year, cash flows are on track to set another record, accumulating at an annualized rate of $60 billion over the first seven months of 2009. In total, more than $140 billion has entered target-date funds since the start of 2007, according to Morningstar (MORN).

"Target-date funds now occupy the extraordinary position as the default investment choice for America's new retirement model," says John Rekenthaler, vice president of research at Morningstar and co-author of the firm's Target-Date Series Research Paper: 2009 Industry Survey.

Bears who warn the U.S. stock market has gone too far too fast -- the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 18 percent year to date -- may not get much vindication anytime soon. Investors should see stocks continue to rally as long as corporate profits keep recovering, says market expert Joseph Mezrich (pictured), Nomura Securities International's head of quantitative research.

And the signs look good. The estimated earnings growth rate for the Standard & Poor's 500 during the fourth quarter is 216 percent, according to Thomson Reuters. Even stripping out the volatile financial sector, the other eight out of nine sectors are expected to show a blended growth rate of 7 percent. But that's still double the 3.5 percent economic growth of the U.S. economy in the third quarter. And Mezrich says it's the fact that profit growth is outpacing the U.S. economy that stocks have rallied ahead of an economic recovery.

Roughly 300 days in to his presidency, President Barack Obama, who campaigned that he would be the nation's first "post-partisan" president of the modern era, has lately exhibited decidedly partisan economic habits.

Case in point: Obama's current proposal to send a second $250 check to every Social Security recipient, disabled veteran, railroad retirement recipient, and citizen who receives a federal and state pension instead of Social Security; the measure would cost about $14 billion. At first glance, the idea has merit: It would serve as an additional stimulus to keep economic momentum headed in the right direction. Aided in part by the fiscal stimulus package passed earlier this year, the U.S. economy started to recover in the third quarter, most economists agree, and putting more money into the hands of consumers will increase aggregate demand in an economy that needs all the demand it can get.

There are two problems. First, from a GDP-impact standpoint, allocating money to senior citizens is not the most effective use of stimulus dollars. Second, the act has more than a tinge of partisan politics associated with it.

Senior citizens are worried. The insurance lobby recently began running ads claiming that seniors enrolled in private Medicare plans could lose some benefits. Last week brought news that basic Medicare premiums could rise 15 percent next year for some beneficiaries. Finally, the Senate voted, also last week, to allow Medicare payments to doctors to be reduced next year, which in turn could prompt some doctors to stop accepting Medicare, the U.S. insurance program for people 65 and older.

Given the discouraging news, should seniors be concerned that they will be forced to finance the health care overhaul and that their medical care will suffer as a result?

On the door of Mary Schapiro's office at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. is a sign that asks, "How does it help investors?" It's meant to remind everyone who enters the office of the chairwoman (pictured) that whatever issue they've come to discuss better be focused on investors.

But until recently, investors visiting the main website for the government agency that enforces securities laws and regulates the nation's stocks and options exchanges were met with a dizzying array of links. These links were confusing to navigate -- especially if you were looking for basic information. Even the site's design was pretty uninviting: more like circa 1998 than the pleasant, user-friendly sites we've grown accustomed to today. That's why the SEC on Thursday decided to launch investor.gov, which has a distinctly different feel and focus.

The Social Security Administration announced Thursday that there will not be a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next year -- marking the first year since 1975 that Social Security recipients have not had an annual increase.

For 34 years, retirees have probably viewed the yearly COLA as their birthright. But the uptick isn't an in-step raise -- it's a benefit increase tied to the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W). In fact, until 1986, the CPI-W had to go up by at least 3 percent before social security beneficiaries would qualify for a COLA. Today, there only needs to be an increase of 0.1 percent before the Social Security Administration approves a COLA.

The economy is recovering, consumer confidence is rebounding and Obama just snagged the Nobel Peace Prize. Good times. Not so fast, says Nomura Securities International global chief economist Paul Sheard. U.S. and European economies are still quite "vulnerable," he warns. His big worry is something that few economists these days are talking about: the risk of outright deflation. Deflation, of course, occurs when the inflation rate goes negative, making it harder for central banks to stabilize an economy, because as Sheard explains, it's harder to start a fire then to tamp one down.

"Deflation is a bigger risk than inflation because it's much harder to get an economy out of deflation than inflation," Sheard said in an interview with DailyFinance. "You can have a burst of inflation and the central bank can always squeeze inflation out of the system. Deflation is different because deflation becomes entrenched."

How to implement super investor Jim Roger's favorite investment idea.

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Goldman loves these stocks with BRIC exposure.

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Is this stimulus really working?

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Medicare may help some 45 million seniors afford doctor visits and prescriptions, but that doesn't mean it makes it easy for them to do so. The federal health insurance program is filled with confusing options and complex regulations.

Navigating Medicare can be a nightmare for anyone, let alone seniors whose survival depends on the coverage they receive from this critical program.

Here are 5 secrets that will help you squeeze the most out of your Medicare coverage and avoid some all-too-common pitfalls.

Why you should not listen to Dr. Doom, Nouriel Roubini.

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Dilbert gets his boss onto twitter.

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Why did all the prediction markets get the Olympic decision to reject Chicago so wrong?

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How to survive on only $1,000,000 a year salary in a recession.

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The Halloween Indicator is not dead yet.

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Modern Graham brings us their top 10 dividend stocks for the enterprising investor.

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What's going on this year with the Dogs of the Dow -- the highest-yielding Dow stocks (i.e., "the dogs")?

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Solar stocks are going to zero, particularly First Solar (FSLR).

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Guess what? The nadir of Western Civilization was reached last Friday.

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A globally diversified portfolio of low cost index funds, conservatively invested 60 percent in stocks and 40 percent in bonds, is up 20 percent year-to-date. How's your portfolio doing?

Probably not very well if you listened to "market beating" brokers or to much of the financial media.

During this period, the financial news has been dismal: The bankruptcy of Chrysler and General Motors; Madoff's sentencing; sabre rattling by North Korea; downgrading the credit of (gasp!) Berkshire Hathaway; the sad spectacle of California issuing IOU's to stave off bankruptcy. And don't forget the swine flu pandemic.

Toddlers learn to steer clear of a hot stove after they get burned once, maybe twice. Investors, however, can be a little slower on the uptake.

This time last year, banks that were long thought to be "too big to fail" collapsed, investments that were considered safe imploded and retirement accounts got chopped in half. With such harsh lessons learned, some investors remain justifiably chastened. But now with the Dow inching back towards 10,000, it appears others have all-too-soon forgotten the events of last year.

Here are some of the lessons investors should have learned from the crash:

You know that gray-haired gentleman who greets you when you enter Wal-Mart? Get used to him; he is the wave of the future. According to a new report by the Pew Research Center, over the next 10 years the age dispersion of the American labor force will skew considerably older.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by 2016:

• The number of people in the labor force ages 16-24 will actually drop by 1.5 million
• Those falling in the 25-54 age bracket will increase by 2.5 million
• Those falling in the 55+ age group will increase by 11.9 million. Those 55-64 will increase by 7.3 million, while those 65-74 will go up 3.6 million