pensions

Recently, 90,000 former Ford workers got an interesting offer: They could trade monthly pension benefits for a lump sum of cash. Are such offers a good deal? That depends quite a lot on who you are.

With just a week to go before April 17, it's crunch time for getting your taxes filed. If you're just now getting started, the first question you have to answer is which form you should use to file. Here's how to figure it out.

It's more than just near-term economic challenges small business owners are struggling with: Many also aren't planning properly for their future. According to a recent survey, one-third of them have neither a pension nor retirement savings, and have no idea how they will retire.

At the rate things are changing and in the direction they're moving, the early baby boomers will be the last people to receive both full pensions and full Social Security benefits. If that's not you, you have some extra preparing to do. Here's why, and how:

$1 million is a lot of money, but assuming that should be your retirement funding goal can be dangerously simplistic. So before you spend the next few decades over- or under-saving, assess whether $1 million is enough -- or too much -- to fund your plans.

Many companies have done away with pensions, replacing them with 401(k) plans and related options that put responsibility for retirement saving squarely on you. But those same corporations have also been pushing to keep you in the dark about the plans' costs.

More ominous developments on the darkening retirement front: The total value of Americans' retirement assets stood at $17 trillion at the end of September -- a drop of 7.5% from the record high of $18.4 trillion recorded on June 30, 2011.

A spate of recent surveys highlight the dark trends around retirement in America. More of us expect to work significantly later in life, fewer of us think we're saving enough -- and the ones who think they are are often wrong. But it may not be too late for you to take some good advice.

The conventional wisdom is that young people today expect they'll change employers repeatedly, and thus don't really care about pensions. But it turns out the conventional wisdom is wrong. With 401(k)s looking less secure, a defined-benefit plan is a real lure for younger workers.

As wages and benefits shrink, state workers are retiring in droves. On top of all the layoffs, these retirements amount to a huge brain drain, and the problem will only get worse given the yawning budget gaps of states from coast to coast.