Since the mid-1960s, I have helped people manage their money and their lives before and during retirement. I have seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly. A successful retirement, like a successful life, rarely happens by accident or default. It happens by design. I’ve had the good fortune to know thousands of very smart people. Here are 10 lessons they taught me.

This all-equity portfolio represents what we believe is the very best way for investors to diversify their investments using mutual funds available to the public. It’s designed to provide exposure to the nine most important equity asset classes that we recommend. No single fund family, including Fidelity and Vanguard, has open funds in all nine.

Setting aside money for college education can be a complex endeavor for many families. But some of today’s options are much better than those of yesteryear. In this article, we examine the cream of the crop of tax-sheltered 529 savings plans.

One thing I have noticed repeatedly over the years about successful investors is that they have a clear sense of their goals and how they are going to reach those goals. But investors who are confused about what they are doing experience stress, uncertainty and emotional strains that sometimes lead them into decisions that are, at best, unproductive-and often disastrous.