...A set of tires is expensive!  I just bought new tires this month and realized i need to check my tire pressure more often.  Apparently during the winter tires lose about 1psi for every 10-degree drop in temperature.  Low tire pressure means lower fuel efficency and unsafe driving.  Help your retirement nest egg this year!

Maximum contribution has raised from $16,500 to $17,000. If you're 50 or older remember you can add an additional $5,500.  Don't forget to add money to your Roth IRA!

 And, look at your employer plan and see if the Roth 401k has beed added.

The Wall Street Journal presents 5 important tips to help with retirement this year.

1. Start keeping close track of your spending.

During the planning phase for retirement finances, much of the math was based on guesswork. Now is the time to get real.

Start by going back over the past few months of bills and expenses to get a detailed picture of your spending and expenses. Plan on keeping close tabs on a continuing basis, remembering that some spending may be seasonal—such as holiday presents or greens fees for golf.

Budgeting tools, such as Mint.com, will enable you to highlight certain spending that won't continue after retirement, such as commuting costs.

Keep in mind this will be a work in progress even once you stop working. For many people "it's going to take a year or so before you really get the hang of it, knowing what you are spending your time doing, how you are spending your money," says Jonathan Guyton of Cornerstone Wealth Advisors in Minneapolis.

When was the last time you logged into your account or studied your 401k statement?  Many plans have reduced the number of investment choices and may have selected different funds for your portfolio.

 Reuters reports companies are shaking up their 401(k) retirement plans, trimming lists of mutual fund  offerings and shaving the fees workers pay as they prepare for new federal rules that will put more plan  information in front of employees.

 Last year, 63.8% of 401(k) plans changed their investment lineup; in contrast, fewer than 20% did so in 2009.

The spotlight is on plan fees, which have been the subject of numerous lawsuits in recent years, and which will have to be disclosed clearly in dollar terms to plan participants, starting May 31, 2012

USAToday provides some annuity tips:

In its simplest form, an immediate annuity is a contract with your insurance company. You pay the insurance company a lump sum — say, $100,000 — and the insurance company agrees to pay you a monthly amount for life.

According to ImmediateAnnuities.com, the average 65-year-old male would get $598 a month for life from a $100,000 deposit.   Planners typically advise that you take about 4% a year from your savings if you want your money to live longer than you do. At that rate, you'd pull $333 a month from a $100,000 account. So an immediate annuity would give you a larger payout than a conservative withdrawal strategy.

Naturally, there's a catch. In the simplest form of annuity, your heirs get nothing if you get hit by the 5:19 Cannonball a year after signing the contract. The insurance company gets the unpaid balance.

Pocketing those unpaid balances is one way insurers can offer a higher payout than the 4% rule. Your insurer doesn't know when you will die. But in a given pool of 100,000 annuitants, the insurer knows that half will die before they reach median life expectancy, and half after. Money from those who die early go to those who live longer than expected.

RetirementThink Income Annuity Basics

 Age 70 1/2?  Make sure and contact your IRA custodian and request your MRD for 2011.  They have done the calculation and will send out a check or deposit the MRD in your bank account.  If you have several IRA accounts you can do the calculation on the aggregate amount of your IRA's and withdraw from just one account

Still have a 401k or 403b retirement plan?  Make the call..Many of these plans will send money out in Decmber automatically.  Call and see how your plan distributes the MRD.

Only 16 percent of private-sector employees have defined-benefit plans, compared with 39 percent in 1980, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

If you've lost track of an old pension plan contact the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and search their database.

PBGC Find My Plan

Great show on the Discovery Channel this season.

New season starts OCTOBER 28.  Friday night....I think you should tune in.

Here's a look at gold today.

Seniors receiving Social Security retirement benefits will get a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment in 2012, their first increase since 2009.

For a senior getting the average benefit of $1,186 a month this year, the increase works out to about $43 a month, or $516 a year.

Unfortunately, Medicare is expected to announce an increase in 2012 Part B premiums as early as next week. The premiums, which cover doctor visits, are deducted automatically from monthly Social Security payments

Freddie Mac says the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 4.01% this week from 4.09% a week ago. This week's rate is the lowest since 1951.

The average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage ticked down to 3.28%. Economists say that's the lowest ever for that loan.

Mortgage rates tend to track the yield on 10-year Treasury notes. Rates could fall further after the Federal Reserve announced last week that it would try to push long-term rates down further.