The secret of retirement planning? View your finances like a Sudoku puzzle.

We're all accustomed to studying tables of stock symbols and prices, looking for winners that give us financial independence. Financial commentaries are filled with these tables but usually end with a disclosure link that tells you to consider the information "not as a de facto recommendation, but as an idea for further consideration."

Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here. I want you to study this Sudoku puzzle. The skill you need to solve it is pretty much the same skill you need to achieve a financial independence in retirement. So take a careful look.

Even if you've never tried one of these puzzles, you can see that there's a pattern here, and you Sudoku pros know the drill. Each of the nine grids contains nine numbers, the integers from one to nine. Each shaded square and every row, both horizontal and vertical, must contain all nine numbers. In other words, no number can occur twice.

"So what's this got to do with financial independence?" you ask. Well, here's another hint. Science fiction buffs will recall the stunning revelation in Douglas Adams' classic series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. A computer named "Deep Thought" is built to solve this problem: "What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?" After 7.5 million years of computation, it reached the answer: 42. That's right; the secret of the universe is the number 42. Still puzzled? Add 3 to "the answer to life" and you have the key to Sudoku. Every nine-square grid sums to 45, as does every column and row.

The numbers add up
For a successful retirement, your numbers have to add up correctly. Solving retirement, just like solving Sudoku, can only be achieved by seeing the big picture. You can't focus on only one of the nine Sudoku grids to find a solution. You have to factor in the total. For example, if you try to fill in the upper-left square one in our puzzle strictly on its immediate grid, you've got six possibilities: 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9. But if you look across the first row, you can eliminate 3 and 5. If you look down the first column, you can eliminate 8 and 9. We've now narrowed our choices to 1 and 6. If we repeat the process for the other blanks in the upper-left, we'll discover that 1 is not a possibility for any of the other blanks. We can be certain that 1 is the correct number for the upper left corner.

For Sudoku, you fill each blank with an eye on the big picture. Retirement planning works the same way. If you focus exclusively on today's income and expenses, you risk filling in your immediate grid with numbers you'll need later. It's human nature to place a higher value on the present than on the future. But a successful retirement means smoothing out value. Winning at life is like winning at Sudoku -- all squares count the same.

The retirement-puzzle difference
Unlike Sudoku puzzles, which are designed to have only one solution, the retirement puzzle can be solved in many ways, which makes this puzzle both easier and more difficult. It's easier because you often have more than one right answer for many of the financial decisions you make throughout your life. And it's more difficult for precisely the same reason -- so many choices!

Also, unlike Sudoku puzzles, which don't solve themselves, your retirement puzzle will solve itself. But if you didn't plan your solution, you probably won't be happy with the outcome. With Sudoku, you can always just start over with a new puzzle. For retirement, you may start late, but you can't start over.

The Foolish retirement solution
The Motley Fool Rule Your Retirement team may differ in their interest in Sudoku puzzles, but they all agree on retirement puzzles: The most important step in solving yours is to start working on it.

Solving Sudoku puzzles is all about filling in blanks. The same is true for solving retirement. How much should you be saving? How much will you need to retire? Should you be investing in your company's 401(k) plan? A Roth IRA? A little bit of both? How should you allocate your nest-egg investments? Is inflation a factor in your retirement planning? How do you balance retirement savings with other needs, like a home mortgage or college expenses? Should you consider home equity in your retirement planning? How much of your income would Social Security replace? Can you retire early? What are the tax implications if you retire early?

If any of these questions register as blanks, then you're invited to start solving your retirement puzzle with a 30-day free trial subscription to Rule Your Retirement. The newsletters, updates, special features, and discussions can help you fill in the blanks so your numbers add up to a perfect retirement.