The U.S. stock market is in the midst of one of its longest surges in history. The popular S&P Index, which tracks the 500 biggest and most well known publicly traded America companies, has risen over 200% since it bottomed out in March of 2009.

To put it another way, if you took roughly the $1,200 a year spent on buying a daily Starbucks grande caffe latte and put it in the stock market in March 2009, you would have $3,600 today.

A QDRO is basically a document, drafted in a specific way, that recognizes an alternate payee for the assets within the account. In other words, it's a court order that guarantees that more than one person will benefit from the retirement savings.

A QRDO is a domestic relations order, meaning it is made by a judge or decree, and is as serious as child support, alimony, or any other property granted to a each spouse in a divorce. The state must enter a judgement or decree endorsing or approving the QDRO, and it must also be recognized by the federal government under ERISA.

Regardless of your age, money withdrawn through a QDRO is not subject to the typical 10 percent early withdrawal penalty....So if you receive your spouses IRA or 401k assets it may makes sense to withdraw money you may need and roll remaining funds over to your own IRA.  Make sure to discuss with the plan custodian.

The Department of Labor provides frequently asked questions.

Courtesy of About.com

Okay sharpen your pencil.  if you're getting close to leaving your job it's time to crunch some numbers.

Here's the link to Vanguard expense worksheet.

Also, check out our Retirement Calculators page...helpful tools for your planning.

Marketwatch.com explains 3 reasons to use a Roth IRA to fund college:

1. Roth IRAs aren't included as an asset on the Fafsa Form

When a child goes to college, if they want to receive student aid, the filing of a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (Fafsa) is pretty much a  must.  Roth IRAs — along with other retirement accounts — aren't considered assets when determining a family's EFC. There's no cap to that amount either, so you may actually be able to accumulate significant sums in a Roth IRA and still qualify for student aid for a child.

2. Roth IRAs are more flexible

If, however, instead of saving money in a 529 plan, you saved the same money in a Roth IRA (you could still earmark some or all of it in your own way for education) and no longer needed those funds for education, it's an easy and tax-efficient transition to use those funds in retirement. If you actually did need to use the funds to pay for a child's college expenses, the Roth IRA may even provide the same tax efficiencies as a 529 plan.

3. Roth IRAs may provide the same tax-free treatment for distributions

Even if you're not 59 ½ (or haven't met the required holding period) at the time education-related expenses need to be paid, you may still be able to take funds out of your Roth IRA tax and penalty free. Roth IRA contributions can be distributed at any age, and at any time, 100% tax and penalty free. So, for instance, if you contribute $5,000 a year to a Roth IRA for the next 10 years before your child goes to college (and take no distributions in the interim), at the very worst, you'd be able to take $50,000 tax and penalty free from your Roth IRA.

Very helpful college planning article.  Here's the link

According to a recent TIAA-CREF survey, savers would prefer to set aside money for a beach vacation or a new refrigerator than put money into their IRA account.

 Apparently these folks are not reading RetirementThink.com.

Active participants with 401k plans can generally borrow from their plans.  If you have left the employer, loans are not available.  According to InvestmentNews about 21% of participants have a loan balance.  the median outstanding balance is about $7,400.

Some workplace retirement plans such as a 401k or 403b do allow you to contribute after tax monies.  This is not very common as money generally goes into these plans as pre-tax contributions.  Now a recent IRS ruling will allow you to rollover those after tax funds into a Roth IRA.   When you leave a job or retire-make sure to ask your plan provider if there are any after tax monies in your account.

Here's Morningstar view on after tax rollovers:

Do not overlook this unique opportunity to get a Roth IRA "tax-free!" The only reason NOT to take advantage of this is if the employee knows he needs the cash immediately for some reason, in which case the new IRS rules allow him to have the aftertax money paid to himself (tax-free of course) separately, while sending the pretax money via direct rollover to a traditional IRA.

Divorcees may be able to claim their ex's benefits

Divorced couples are entitled to Social Security benefits if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, each ex-spouse is at least 62 years old and the person collecting the spousal benefits is single. Even if the ex-spouses are no longer in touch, the Social Security Administration can offer assistance as to whether they are eligible for spousal benefits.

Courtesy of InvestmentsNews.com

Remember...Social Security does have an earnings limit if you retire early.

The Social Security website provides an example:

You begin receiving your Social Security benefits at age 62 in January 2014. At age 62, you are entitled to $800 a month in benefits. ($9,600 for the year)

You work and earn $23,480 ($8,000 over the $15,480 limit) in 2014. Your Social Security benefits would be reduced by $4,000 ($1 for every $2 you earned over the limit), but you would still receive $5,600 of your $9,600 in benefits for 2014.($9,600 - $4,000 = $5,600)

Very common now, a lot of companies don't offer retirement plans.  They just don't provide the 401k or 403b retirement accounts.

Here's what you need to do...Set up a IRA account...You have to have it and sock some money in each year!  You'll have two choices, a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA.  Using the traditional will give you a tax break-your contributions will reduce your taxable income.  Any money you contribute is tax deductible...great savings on your 1040....That IRA will have to pay taxes when you do withdrawals..that's the downside, it's taxable down the road. (Just like the 401k.)

Now look at the Roth..no tax breaks but it will be tax free when you start doing withdrawals,,,and any money you contibute (your basis) is available for withdrawal.   Need money for car repairs, college, emergency..those contributions can be withdrawn.  Perfect account for emergencies and retirement..the Roth IRA!

Ask any American how much money they make for a living, and they'll tell you down to the weekly penny. Ask what interest rate governs their single-largest monthly expense, and more than a third don't know.

"Your mortgage rate is one of the most important numbers in your financial life, and there's a good chance that one of your neighbors has no idea regarding how much he or she is paying," said Holden Lewis, a senior mortgage analyst at Bankrate.com.

Bankrate.com surveyed a national sample of 1,000 adults and found that 35 percent did not know their mortgage interest rate. One in 7 mortgage holders were either "not too confident," "not at all confident" or had no idea about their rate.

Source: Bankrate.com

It's easy to setup a Rollover IRA or Roth IRA accounts.  Investors Business Daily recently selected their 2015 best online brokers: 

1. Fidelity
2. Charles Schwab
3. TD Ameritrade
4. Trade Station
5. Scottrade