"In your retirement, don't spend the money in your IRAs and 401ks." Yes, I really said that. Instead, think of your retirement savings as a monthly paycheck generator. Then, spend no more than the amount of this monthly paycheck.

Set up this monthly paycheck to last for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live and no matter what happens in the economy. This might be a stretch goal, but nevertheless, that's what you should be planning for.  Read here for my recent column that kicks off a series on the various methods for setting up retirement income generators.

Please continue reading for this month's selections of helpful blogs and articles on retirement.

To help you keep on track to have the kind of retirement you really want, I recently wrote this column that tells of five warning signs that your retirement planning needs some attention. It's important to stay focused on your retirement planning - don't let the years go by without making a plan and following it.

Allan Roth "dares us to be dull" with his simple investing strategy, which advocates using asset allocation to manage your risk and investing in effective, low-cost index funds. Read here to see how this strategy could have helped you survive one of the worst periods of stock market investing.

I was inspired by Allan's column and followed it up with this one: Why Your Retirement Investments Are Better Off Boring. In this column, I show a slide that I use frequently at my retirement planning workshops, which provides more evidence that simple investing strategies could have helped you survive the recent stock market turmoil.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking at a retirement planning workshop with Helen Dennis, who taught and researched for many years at USC's Andrus Gerontology Center and is the co-author of Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women.

Read here for Helen's tips on finding the right kind of work in your retirement years.  This really is a critical part of your retirement planning; not only will working in retirement help you make ends meet, it might also help you live long and prosper.

How much are you paying for financial planning advice, and what are you getting for it?

In this column, fellow CBS MoneyWatch blogger Jane Bryant Quinn discusses the various ways to obtain financial advice. She recommends fee-only planners, as opposed to fee-based planners or brokerage house advisory accounts.  She provides some helpful links to financial planning organizations that list the types of planners she recommends.

On September 27, 2010, President Obama signed the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which includes a provision that lets 401k plan participants convert their traditional 401k accounts to a Roth 401k. This might be the necessary nudge that encourages employers to add a Roth 401k feature to their traditional 401k plan.

While many financial advisors and writers are advocating investing in a Roth 401k, you still might be better off investing in a traditional 401k. To help you find out which one would be best for you, read my recent column on the pros and cons of investing in a Roth 401k vs. a traditional 401k.

Whether to take a lump sum payment or a monthly payment from your employer's pension plan is one of the most important retirement planning decisions you'll make. Don't make this decision without carefully considering all the factors: Once your decision is implemented, you can't change your mind.

Here's a column I wrote recently that discusses the advantages of taking the monthly annuity from your company's pension plan.

John Carl, president of the Retirement Learning Center, then wrote about the reasons why you should take a lump sum in this post.

If you're interested in more on the subject of lump sum vs. annuity, including a checklist of when it makes sense to take an annuity and when it makes sense to take a lump sum, look at this longer article on my website.