This weekend marks the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, often called "Woodstock for Capitalists." But what do the tens of thousands of investors making the pilgrimage to Omaha, Neb., get for their trouble?

Whatever your retirement dreams are, if you want to reach them, you need a plan. Otherwise, by the time you find yourself financially able to quit work, you may not be physically able to pursue your passions. The key is knowing how you'd spend your golden years if money were no object.

Recent government reports confirm that Social Security's finances are still falling apart, and apparently they're getting worse at an ever-faster pace. That shouldn't come as a surprise, and you need to prepare.

Generations of Americans are facing threadbare finances in retirement: Judging by what people say they expect to spend versus what they expect to take in, the disparity between income and expenses will be severe.

Ahead of AARP's planned "secret" salon on the future of Social Security, we offer two retirement experts' dramatically different proposals for solving the crisis. Chuck Saletta's view: You can't fix the program with tweaks and small changes.

The stock market has bounced back from its crisis lows -- but you never can tell which way it'll go. Bonds look steady -- but they're actually a guaranteed way to make your money shrink slowly. There is, however, a place most of us can put more cash that is sure to outpace the market.

If you're divorced, your ex-husband or ex-wife might still be able to help you feather your nest in retirement. And there's at least one former-spouse benefit you won't need to go to court to get access to: payments based on their Social Security earnings record.

At the rate things are changing and in the direction they're moving, the early baby boomers will be the last people to receive both full pensions and full Social Security benefits. If that's not you, you have some extra preparing to do. Here's why, and how:

Last year, the Social Security Administration warned that the program's trust fund was likely to run out of money in 2036, leading to deep cuts in benefits. Now, the Congressional Budget Office says that projection may have been too optimistic.

Money troubles are hard to contain. If your finances are in shambles, the problems can quickly spread, and you probably won't be able to hide them from your boss. Therein lies the trouble: How you handle your money sends a signal to your employers about how you'd handle theirs.