This is a tough time of year for me....I get all my tax information in the mail, put it in a folder and then uh, start my tax procrastination.  I dread sitting down to do my taxes!  It's not going to get any easier.  Think about our huge budget deficits, and the wave of boomers applying for Social Security and Medicare.  Jonathan Clements of the WSJ provides some tax tips for retirement accounts.

Most 401k plans have a "menu" of funds to choose from-some are limited, 10-15 funds, while other plans will have a lot more options.  Generally every plan will have a balanced fund or some sort of target-date fund (lifecycle fund).  You'll see these same type of funds inside most brokerage IRA accounts.  The balanced funds were extremely popular in the early 90's and the new target-date funds are commonly used now.  Both are good options, what option is better?  The NY Times provides some data from a recent financial publication.

BLAND PRAISE Balanced funds and target-date funds — balanced funds that are more conservative over time — have become the two most popular default options in the retirement plans that companies offer employees, Financial Planning notes. The question is, Which performs better?

Craig L. Israelsen, who teaches personal finance at Brigham Young University, tested hypothetical portfolios that mirrored the holdings of most balanced and target-date (also called life-cycle) funds. In the balanced portfolio, 50 percent was invested in companies in the United States, 10 percent in companies outside the United States, 30 percent in bonds and 10 percent in cash. The target-date fund began with 90 percent equities and 10 percent fixed-income investments, steadily shifting more funds to fixed-income over time, and ending with a mix of 40 percent in equities and 60 percent in bonds and cash.

Mr. Israelsen tracked how the two funds would have done from 1960 through 2007. The winner by a small margin (9.59 percent to 9.26 percent) was the target-date fund.

Both types of fund “generally deliver middle-of-the-road returns compared with the core individual assets in an accumulation portfolio; they usually outperform bonds or cash, and underperform one or both of the equity components,” he writes. “As such, either a balanced or target-date fund may appear relatively bland. But, bland is good. Investing isn’t supposed to be exciting.”

More websites are springing up to help older job seekers.  WSJ.com provides 9 websites you may want to visit.  Here's a partial list:

DinosaurExchange.com: Describes retirees with experience as "dinosaurs" and the companies that need that experience as "dinosaur hunters." Lists jobs world-wide. No charge for job seekers or employers.

RetiredBrains.com: Allows users to search for part-time jobs, temporary or project assignments or full-time jobs.

RetireeWorkforce.com: Features about three dozen companies, including Sprint Nextel, that have posted openings. No charge to job seekers.

RetirementJobs.com: Screens and identifies employers that offer an "age friendly" environment for older workers. No charge to job seekers; employers pay a fee to post openings and access the site's database.

Seniors4Hire.org: In addition to résumés, individuals can post job-wanted ads, which appear on the site's home page.

Workforce50.com: Formerly SeniorJobBank.org. No charge to job seekers, who can store up to three résumés. Offers a large number of resources and articles about job searches.

Most 401k plans don't allow you to move funds into an IRA until you've left the employer.  Your plan may allow an "in-service" withdrawal that lets you move a portion or all of the funds after you've reached 59 1/2.  This could be ideal, especially if you want to take advantage of funds or investments that are not available in your 401k.  Many investors will roll their money into the IRA to take advantage of CD's, stocks or ETF's.

Forbes.com explains the great escape of 401k-"in-service" withdrawals.

The law permits this, but employers don't have to permit it. Still, 70% of companies--and 89% of those with 5,000 or more employees--allow these in-service withdrawals, the Profit Sharing/401k Council of America found in a 2006 survey of 1,000 firms. So do some public sector employers; the federal government, for example, allows older workers to withdraw funds, but only once.

If you're working in an auto plant these days-your employer is already thinking about your retirement.  GM will be offering retirement packages to its union employee's.

In an effort to shave ongoing losses, General Motors offered lucrative buyouts Tuesday to 74,000 employees - its entire U.S. hourly workforce.

The current veteran UAW member at GM today has an average base wage of $28.12 an hour, but the cost of benefits, including pension and future retiree health care costs, nearly triples the cost to GM to $78.21, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

Those who leave and agree to sever all ties with the company - including giving up lucrative pension and health care coverage - will receive a lump sum of $140,000 if they have 10 years of service. They will receive $70,000 if they have less than 10 years of service.

Everyone probably has a favorite tropical destination.  More and more people are heading out to warmer climates to retiree.  This will be a big trend for millions of baby boomers.  The Wall Street Journal explains some details of "retiring abroad."

Social Security won't be much of a problem. The Social Security Administration will electronically deposit a monthly Social Security check in many banks around the world, though not all. Still, many expat retirees, to avoid challenges with local banking, have their Social Security checks electronically deposited into their U.S. bank, which they can then access online.

Health care is a bigger concern. Few U.S. employers offer health-care coverage to expat retirees, and U.S. carriers typically don't provide individual coverage to Americans living abroad. Moreover, the federal Medicare program generally doesn't cover costs outside the U.S. As such, many retirees either pay out of pocket or, once eligible for Medicare at age 65, return to the U.S. from time to time for care.

Check your mailbox-these forms should be coming any day.  And these forms tend to generate a lot of questions.  Always consult your tax professional or IRA custodian.  We used IRS Publication 590 to find answers.

This is the most common question we receive:

I rolled money from my employer plan (401k, 403b etc.) last year-I just received a 1099-R Form this week.  What do I need to do with this form?

The trustee of your employer plan reports rollovers from the plan on 1099-R.  This is not taxable if the plan rolled into an IRA.  Your did a "direct rollover."  You'll be receiving a 5498 Form from the IRA custodian and the amounts on that form should be equal to the amount on your 1099-R.  If your did a distribution from an IRA account you'll receive the same 1099-R form.

Bankrate.com explains some of the boxes on the 1099-R.

What the 1099-R tells you:
Box 1 of the form shows the total amount of your retirement fund that was distributed. The more important amount to you right now is in box 2a, the taxable amount. For direct rollovers from one qualified plan to another, that amount is generally zero.

Also check box 7, the distribution code. A letter or number should be here, explaining to the IRS exactly why your retirement money was taken out and just what was done with it. Direct rollovers to another qualified plan are coded with the letter "G." This includes transfers to another company's 401(k) plan, a tax-sheltered 403(b) annuity, a government 457(b) plan or an IRA.

 A new report calculates that our Social Security benefits are worth $225,000 for the typical retiree.

The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,045 in 2007. A 65-year old who wanted to buy a guaranteed income of that size -- with payments that go up with the cost of living and continue for a widowed spouse -- would need to pay an insurance company about $225,000.

FoxBusiness.com reports on Social Security benefits. 

Apparently American Airlines pilots are anticipating some down markets.  This last week 143 pilots retired to lock in their retirement benefits.

American Airlines Inc. said 143 pilots retired Thursday, an unusually high monthly number that the carrier says was caused by the falling stock market, as pilots decided to lock in the value of retirement plans.
 

In the past, the airline might average 20 to 25 pilots retiring each month as they reached age 60, the federally established age for mandatory retirement.

But Congress raised the limit to age 65 in December, throwing uncertainty into American's planning.

Pilots now can fly another five years, but the decline in the stock market in late 2007 and early 2008 apparently is causing a lot of pilots to take their money and run.

Pilots can lock in the value of their B Plan pension three months in advance of retirement and then choose on their announced retirement date to go ahead and retire or withdraw their notice.

With the stock market falling and at much lower values now than on Oct. 31, many more pilots who put in for retirement three months ago are carrying through with those intentions, the airline said.

American Airlines pilot retirement at DallasNews.com