Here's a refresher from Kiplinger.com on SEP vs Solo 401k plans.

You have until December 31 to open the Solo 401k plan and can make your 2007 contribution up until April 15, 2008.

Some investors may want to look at a SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pension) too, it's easy to set up and the deadline is April 15, 2008.

Contributions to a SEP are limited to 20% of your business income (which is business income minus half of your self-employment tax), up to a maximum of $45,000 for 2007. So if you earned $15,500 from self-employed freelancing, for example, you could contribute about $2,863.

The maximum contribution for a solo 401(k) also is $45,000 in 2007. However, you can contribute up to $15,500 plus 20% of your business income (defined the same way). Because the first $15,500 in a solo 401(k) is not based on a percentage of your income, you'll generally be able to contribute a lot more to a solo 401(k) than you can to a SEP, especially if you earn just a little extra money from a freelance job.

Okay, I gave you some ideas last week- I mentioned several retirement books.  Several people emailed me and though it was a great idea!  Thank you loyal readers.   Here's my idea for this week; coffee, sweaters, baskets of Italian food (who can resist a heaping plate of pasta in the winter?) and my last suggestion, Baby Boomer books!   After all it's a Boomer's world.  Get used to it, America, it's a Boomer's world!

Take a look at the bestseller list and near the top is Tom Brokaw's latest, "Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today." Brokaw once chronicled "The Greatest Generation" that survived the Great Depression and helped win World War II. Here, he reflects on and talks with members of the "Sixties" generation.

Brokaw provides history and context for a generation that just can't get over itself.

But there's another book out that may actually tell us more about where America and the boomers are actually headed.

"Generation Ageless: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Live Today . . . and They're Just Getting Started," was written by J. Walker Smith and Ann Clurman.

The title really does say it all.

Smith and Clurman are with Yankelovich Inc., the consumer research company that was among the first to use the term baby boomers in the late 1960s. Their book - aimed at marketers, media buyers and anyone else interested in tracking the boomers - includes data from a 2006 study of 1,023 boomers.

The authors actually break the boomer generation down not by age, but by six segments, everything from Straight Arrows, about one-third of boomers who are "driven by traditional values and religion," to Re-Activists, about 15% of boomers who "are ready to join campaigns in support of social causes."

In between there are Due Diligents who "think ahead and plan for the worst;" Maximizers, the quintessential boomers who "want to do as much as possible and get the most from life;" Sideliners, who are "private, self-contained and undemanding;" and Diss-Contenteds who "see social problems they would like to fix, and their sympathies are with the protesters."

The authors describe boomers as "middle ageless" or "generation ageless."

"Unfortunately, we're still going to die," says Smith, president of Yankelovich Inc. "But baby boomers are the first generation that will enjoy the new experience of getting older. It will give them opportunities in the marketplace."

It really has been a roller coaster this year...housing, oil, credit crunch and talk of a recession the last couple of months. We've seen very volatile markets and you've probably seen your investment accounts fluctuate a lot this year!  Good luck with your holiday shopping this weekend and here's a quick look at the Roller Coaster  Stock Market of 2007.  Courtesy of SFOmag.com:

Credit Crunch: Round Two
The Dow lost 8.2 percent between mid-July and mid-August as news of just how bad things were in the housing and debt markets came out. In late July, the Housing Index fell below its July 2006 low and continues to move lower as of this writing in mid-November. But stock market investors are a resilient bunch, and when the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve stepped in to lower rates and ease the credit crunch in mid-August, the markets took off. By early October, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were once again setting new highs. However, this enthusiasm did not last, and once again the markets started to plunge. This prompted the Federal Reserve to lower the federal funds rate once more. On Oct. 31, with a 9-to-1 vote, the Fed lowered interest rates to 4.5 percent in the hopes of somewhat easing the struggles with the economy.

Just a few days left to call your IRA custodian and take your MRD.   The IRS has a hefty penalty if you forget.

Here's six great tips for the over 70 crowd from US News:

Compare retirement accounts. If you have multiple IRA accounts, you must include all the IRA balances in your distribution calculation, but you don't have to take money out of each one. "All the IRS cares about is that you take out the correct total fee and not the amount withdrawn from an individual account," says Jeremy Welther, a financial adviser for Brinton Eaton Wealth Advisors in Morristown, N.J. "If you have an account with higher fees, you may want to take it from that account as opposed to one that is doing better."

You can also choose based on an IRA's performance. "If you have invested in equities or stocks and have had remarkable performance, you may want to take your RMD from the gains that have been made there rather than giving them back to the market," Barton says.

2008 is right around the corner-so it's time to look at a few year end strategies that could save you money.  The Wall Street Journal provides some ideas to reduce your taxes.

There are some powerful advantages. First, you can use your losses to soak up your gains on a dollar-for-dollar basis with no limit. Second, if your losses exceed your gains, you typically can deduct as much as much as $3,000 a year of net capital losses from wages and other ordinary income. (The limit is $1,500 a year if you're married and filing separately from your spouse.) Additional net losses are carried over into future years.

The central bank voted 9 to 1 to slice its federal funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other for short-term loans, by a quarter point from 4.5% to 4.25%. The Fed has now cut that rate a full point since September, when it began its most recent round of rate reductions.

The markets went down after the Fed decision-once again I'm no economist, but retiree's or conservative investors will face lower interest rates for money markets and CD's.

Okay.. I hit the mall on Saturday for some Christmas shopping.  I picked up coffee, sweaters (getting colder here) and naturally stopped in the book store.   ChicagoTribune.com suggested some personal finance/ retirement books.  Here's their suggestions:

Winter is here and it look like it's getting colder for employees of Fannie Mae.  This company operating under federal charter,  is the US's #1 source for mortgage funding, financing one of every five home loans.

According to the Washington Post;

You spent years building a nest egg.  Now, Fidelity, Vanguard and other fund families will offer funds that gradually pay money out to retirees.  Jonathan Clements of the WSJ explains "payout" mutual funds.

The most appealing offerings, however, could come from Vanguard Group, which expects to roll out three low-cost payout funds in early 2008.

One fund will aim to pay 3% annually, with both that income stream and an investor's principal rising faster than inflation. Another will try for a 5% payout, with that income and a shareholder's principal climbing at the inflation rate. Finally, the highest-yielding fund will go for a 7% payout, while aiming to preserve an investor's initial investment in nominal terms.