As a member of Generation X, Social Security benefits have never played into my retirement planning considerations since it is not likely that they will be there when I reach retirement age. Even if Social Security benefits were still a viable option, it provides such a small amount of money that I would have to have quite a bit of ancillary income to keep my standard of living.

So how is Social Security doing anyhow? I did some research, and came up with a slew of facts and opinions that are all over the board. In this post, we will go over a very brief history of the program, how the Social Security program is doing, and what it's future holds.

401k retirement plans are intended to grow tax-deferred, with no withdrawals until you hit retirement age. However, since we don’t live in a perfect world, especially with the recent economic environment and layoffs. As a result, items may come up that require you to have immediate available funds in the event of the death of spouse, big medical bill, etc. Regardless, there is an opportunity to withdraw money from your 401k or other retirement account.

The primary benefit of acquiring a 401k loan from your retirement plan is that the proceeds of this loan are exempted from taxes and without penalty.

The underlying theory of dollar cost averaging is to prevent the investor from losing a large portion of the value shortly after making their initial investment. In proceeding with this strategy, the investor chooses to spread their investment over a period of time, with a regular schedule.