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2010: The Year of Fiscal Fitness
January 7, 2010

Trial Subscription The latest Rule Your Retirement newsletter was published today, and it contains one of the finest financial planning regimens I've yet to encounter. RYR leader Robert Brokamp, a Certified Financial Planner, kicks off a new year of fiscal fitness with a 20-page special report that offers a month-by-month checklist of key topics for your financial focus. The heading for most months is self-explanatory, but I've added clues for a few:

January: Become a Money Mangement Master
February: Maximize your Investment Accounts
March: Pay for Civilization (hint: Uncle Sam is just around the corner)
April: Get a Fix on Your Fixed Income
May: Take Stock of Your Investments
June: Plan for the Hereafter (some details I hadn't thought of)
July: Cover Your Assets
August: Home Sweet Help (is your house an asset? a liability? or both?)
September: Save for Big-Ticket Items
October: Cut Your Costs
November: Maximize Benefits
December: Give Yourself a Financial Checkup

Good financial planning doesn't happen overnight, but you can take advantage of a 30-day free trial of Rule Your Retirement that will give you access to a realistic regimen for fiscal fitness. And it's not too soon to start. As of today, January 7th, we're already two-percent of the way through 2010. That's right, two percent! Time waits for no one.

This month's Expert Corner is an interview with my favorite financial historian, William Bernstein, whose latest book, The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between, is a must read.

The newsletter's Wealth Defense article, Find a Pro Who Works on Your Terms, asks the key question "Are You Being Advised or Sold?" If you could use some professional assistance with your finances, this article gives you the lowdown on what fiduciary responsibility means and how you go about getting advice from someone who puts your interests first, not their own.

The Asset Focus section takes a look at REITs, an especially controversial asset class in recent years. Do REITs belong in your portfolio? The article examines this conundrum.

As regular visitors to this website know, I've been a frequent contributor to the Motley Fool Rule Your Retirement subscription service, and I routinely "stroll" the RYR discussion boards as TMFDoug.

Like many blogs, my dshort.com website has context-sensitive ads controlled by third parties. Rule Your Retirement is the exception. It has my full endorsement. If retirement planning is a topic you want to know more about, consider a 30-day free trial.