Stock market investing is an important part of preparing your retirement plan for growth.  Despite the volatility and risk that is part of stock investing, you can't expect significant growth in your retirement account balance without it. Still, investing in stocks should be done with care and understanding:

• Learn the different kinds of stock choices you have
• Understand the  options, such as mutual funds and ETFs, you can pursue which may simplify things for you.
• Make dollar cost averaging and re-balancing important parts of your stock market investing, right from the beginning.

Learn all about stock market investing for retirement.

Do you think about retirement frequently?  I think about retiring occasionally, but I'm blessed as a naturally happy individual with a good deal of autonomy in my personal and professional life.  Of course, others' might view too much autonomy as stressful rather than a blessing.  Such people might be counting down to retirement despite being decades away.  But not me.

Yet I still do think about retirement - just not for the reason of being able to stop working. I think about retirement because it is the ultimate financial stretch-goal. By definition, it is long-term and it requires a good deal of money (or guaranteed income) to pull off.

All of this got me to wondering . . .

Are you ready to retire?  I don't mean, "Have you had enough with your job?"  I mean, "Are you ready, financially speaking, to retire?"  Most workers aren't.  That's okay. I'm not ready to retire myself, but then again, I'm not near any standard retirement age either.  But for those getting ready to retire in the near term, you may wish you had a checklist of considerations as you approach those final working days.

Good news - now there is a Retiring page.  With insights and articles about Social Security, Estate Planning, Health and Long-Term Care Insurance, and Spending in Retirement, the Retiring page is your launching pad as you count down your days until retirement.

It's also not a bad resource for those daydreaming about the possibility of retiring one day or for those with a little extra time on their hand because, you know they made it to retirement already.

Most people, appropriately enough, take the retirement plan contribution limits for granted.  Who could blame them?  It's not like you get to set your own - Congress just hands them down. But this is the web and a site devoted to retirement planning ought to be a decent forum for retirement planning topics. With that in mind, I created a special place here at About.com Retirement Planning where you can share with me your thoughts on the limits.  Are they too high? Are they not high enough? Of the $5,000 limit (or $6,000 if you're 50 or older), how much do you save each year?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts over here.  Furthermore, if there are other topics you'd like to discuss related to retirement, please comment below and share them.  Thank you for being part of our community!