This is a post from staff writer Robert Brokamp of The Motley Fool. Robert is a Certified Financial Planner and the adviser for The Motley Fool’s Rule Your Retirement service. Like many important entities – including Weird Al, the Empire State Building, and CombustionSafety.com — he’s on Twitter.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the “Tyranny of the 401(k) Industry Complex.” The post was a commentary on an episode of PBS’s “Frontline,” which argued that the current defined-contribution retirement system is failing the country; financial-services companies make money while working Americans don’t, partially because these workers are getting ripped off, but also because the average American doesn’t have the time, skills, or inclination to manage their own retirement planning.

There was a good amount of debate in the comments section about whether retirement planning is all that difficult. I can see both sides, but in this post, I want to make it as simple as possible. If you follow this advice, you’ll be taking some big steps in the right direction. It’s not a perfect plan for each individual — feel free to add your own tips below — but it’s a solid strategy for those who have been frozen by “analysis paralysis” and have put off saving for retirement out of fear of making big mistakes.

Step 1: Save at least 10 percent to 15 percent of income, more if you’re starting late

The typical American is saving around 7 percent or 8 percent; that won’t be enough, especially for those who didn’t begin saving in their 20s. To help workers determine a good savings rate, the super-smart folks at Morningstar’s Ibbotson Associates came up with some good guidelines. Their assumptions:

• Retire at 65
• No cuts in Social Security benefits (Yes, it’s very possible that benefits will be cut, but most people should also retire later than age 65.)
• Inflation at 2.5 percent
• Income needed in retirement is 80 percent of pre-retirement income after retirement savings (e.g., if your household income is $100,000 a year, and you save $10,000 a year, your required retirement income is 80 percent of $90,000, or $72,000)

It’s an 11-page document full of fun (or not) charts, but since we’re trying to keep this simple, here’s a sample:

Here’s an example of how to use this: A 35-year-old who has already accumulated $50,000 would subtract 2.85 percent (5 x 0.57 percent) from 17.6 percent, resulting in a savings rate of 14.75 percent.

Keep in mind that your savings rate includes an employer match to your 401(k) contributions, if you’re lucky enough to have one. So if your employer matches 50 cents on the dollar up to a contribution rate of 6 percent, and you contribute 10 percent of your salary to your retirement plan, your actual savings rate is 13 percent.

All that said, if even looking at that chart makes you want to run away to Facebook, just do this for now: Save 10 percent to 15 percent of your salary if you’re in your 20s or early 30s, and bump it up five percentage points for every five years you delay saving. Yes, that might be more saving than you’re capable of. I’ll address that in my next post.

Step 2: Choose the traditional 401(k), then the Roth IRA

Another speed bump along the road to retirement savings is the decision between a traditional and Roth account. The easy solution: Choose both. Use the 401(k) up until you take full advantage of the match, then use a Roth IRA for the rest. Two benefits: You’re getting “tax diversification” by having both types of accounts, and you’re not putting all your eggs in the 401(k) basket. The latter benefit is partially what that “Frontline” episode discussed. The sad truth is, many employer-sponsored retirement accounts stink. But opening an IRA with a mutual fund company or discount broker gives you more choices at better prices.

Of course, choosing an IRA provider and opening the account is itself a speed bump. So start immediately contributing to your 401(k), then resolve to do the Roth IRA thing later. But if you know you won’t do it (self-awareness is a virtue!) then just get it all in the 401(k) — especially if you earn too much to contribute to a Roth IRA. (For 2013, the eligibility to make contributions phases out for single taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income of $112,000 to $127,000, and 178,000 to $188,000 for married couples.)

Step 3: Choose a target retirement fund

Once you get your money into the account, you have to decide how to invest it. The easy answer: a target retirement mutual fund, which invests your money with a general retirement date in mind. The name of the fund always includes a year, and you choose the fund with the year closest to when you think you’ll retire. Based on that time horizon, the fund manager chooses an appropriate asset allocation — some U.S. stocks, some international stocks, some bonds, some cash — and then rebalances the portfolio for you, making the fund more conservative as the target date approaches. It’s essentially a one-stop-shop for hands-off investors.

While investing in just one fund may sound too risky, a target date fund is actually a “fund of funds” – i.e., a mutual fund that owns many other funds. Let’s look at an example. Consider the T. Rowe Price 2040 fund, a fine choice for people who aim to retire in 25 to 30 years. It owns the following funds (according to Morningstar):

Given that the year 2040 is a few decades away, this target retirement fund is mostly invested in stocks. As 2040 gets closer, the fund will gradually move from stocks to bonds all on its own. You don’t have to do anything.

Now, two caveats about target retirement funds:

1. Like all investments, they’ll drop in value. The T. Rowe Price 2040 fund dropped 38.9 percent in 2008, when the S&P 500 dropped 37.0 percent.
2. Investing in a target retirement fund doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to retire on the target date. You still have to make sure you’re saving enough.

Step 4: As you get closer to retirement, monitor progress

Once you reach your 40s — and certainly your 50s, and definitely right before you retire — you need to do some number-crunching to make sure you’re on track.

You can use an online retirement calculator, and fiddle with the variables to see what has the biggest impact on your chances of success. You can also hire a financial planner who charges by the hour (such as some of the folks at the Garrett Planning Network and NAPFA) to give you an objective, professional analysis.

A fine start, but…

Voltaire is credited with the quote “perfect is the enemy of good.” Don’t put off saving for retirement until you know everything and feel that your plan will be perfect. After all, “perfect” retirement plan doesn’t exist, partially because there are too many variables that you don’t have control over (e.g., investment returns, inflation, the future of Social Security). But you can increase your chances of success. The advice in this post will get you going in the right direction. Put these wheels in motion, then take time to learn more and customize the plan for your situation. Maybe you need to save more or less. Maybe you can do better than a target retirement fund. Maybe you should have all your money in a Roth. The good news is, none of this is set in stone. Just start doing something now, and change later as you learn more.

GRS is committed to helping our readers save and achieve your financial goals.Savings interest rates may be low, but that’s all the more reason to shop for the best rate.Find the highest savings interest rate from Ally Bank, Capital One 360, Everbank, and more.

This post is from staff writer April Dykman.

I recently got sick for the first time in almost a decade, and was bed/couch-ridden for a good four days.

Since I had some time on my hands, I was able to watch a few documentaries on my Netflix queue. One of those was The Queen of Versailles, a film that will make your jaw drop like an episode of Hoarders. It’s hard to believe people really live like that.

El Nerdo also did a review of this documentary, and he does a great job of explaining the film. If you aren’t familiar with the film, The Queen of Versailles depicts Jackie and David Siegel, owners of Westgate Resorts, as they build the largest and most expensive single-family house in the U.S. The Florida mansion was modeled after France’s 17th century Palace of Versailles and is a staggering 90,000 square feet. What does one do with 90,000 square feet? The plans include 30 bedrooms, 23 bathrooms, a 30-car garage and amenities like a roller rink, baseball field, children’s theater, and bowling alley.

When the film starts, construction on the mega-mansion is well underway, but then the economy tanks. The business is in trouble, and David Siegel admits that they have no real personal savings to speak of.

There are a lot of great money lessons in the film, even for those of us who live in houses the size of Jackie’s closet. But what struck me the most was Jackie’s position in all of this: she had no idea where they stood financially.

One spouse is in the dark

“We don’t talk about financial problems,” Jackie says in the film. “I guess I’ll have to watch the movie to find out what’s going on in my life.”

Okay, sure. Jackie is a trophy wife who is 30 years David’s junior, and she’s depicted as a mostly-clueless shopaholic. But before she was a pageant queen and a model, she earned an engineering degree and worked at IBM.

Yet she has no idea where she stands financially.

That makes her position even more precarious than David’s. His decisions affect the entire family, yet she’s unaware of what those decisions are. For instance, in one scene, David yells at the whole family because someone left a light on, angry that their carelessness would run up the electricity bill. Yet he then takes out a loan to hang onto the unfinished mansion they could no longer afford. Meanwhile Jackie has no idea if they’re actually selling the home or not.

Also, what happens to Jackie if something happens to him? He’s 30 years older than her, if he were to become incapacitated or worse, she wouldn’t have a clue how to take over the family finances.

So why would someone who is obviously capable of understanding their finances remain in the dark?

There are probably a lot of reasons why it happens. David was a wealthy businessman when he met Jackie, who was a model. In their relationship, he took care of everything, and they aren’t exactly equals or partners in their marriage.

But more commonly, since the Siegels are anything but common, I suspect that it happens unintentionally. One person is better at dealing with numbers or likes handling the money, so they wind up paying the bills and checking the credit statements and the other person falls out of touch with how much is saved where.

Get on the same page

If you’re reading Get Rich Slowly, I think it’s safe to assume that you have an interest in your finances. But what if your partner doesn’t? Or what if life has gotten in the way, and they just aren’t up-to-speed anymore?

Even if you’re the one balancing the checkbook, your partner needs to know the basics about what accounts you each have and what’s in them. It allows you to work as a team and ensures that, if it’s ever necessary, your partner can take over the family finances.

But don’t bust out the spreadsheets just yet. There’s a right way and a wrong way to get them involved.

How to get your partner up-to-speed

To learn more about how to involve your partner in the money decisions, I spoke with Jacquette Timmons, the author of Financial Intimacy.

Here’s her 5-step plan to get your partner on the same page.

1. Ease them into it. If your partner is totally in the dark, let them spend three months just looking at account statements, says Timmons. “They could see a pattern of expenses they weren’t aware of, like automatic deductions for services they don’t use or incorrect charges on the credit card,” she says. “At first, just let them look and start to ask questions.”

2. Be open to questions. Encourage them to ask questions, and ”don’t take it as questioning your knowledge or skills,” says Timmons.

3. Get some context. Take the time to understand each of your money backgrounds, advises Timmons. “We all come to the table with our own little money stories,” she says. “Try to understand your differences and how to integrate different financial philosophies.” For instance, one of her clients assumed he and his wife would have separate finances because that’s how his parents handled their money. This was a foreign idea to his wife, whose parents shared everything. “To compromise, they created yours, mine, and ours accounts,” says Timmons.

4. Share info the way they learn best. There’s more than one learning style, so make sure you present information the way your partner learns best, says Timmons. For instance, one man asked Timmons how he could get his wife involved in their finances. “I asked, ‘how does she take in information?’” says Timmons. “He was going to her with Excel spreadsheets, but it turned out that she’s more visual. So I told him to turn those spreadsheets into a Powerpoint presentation, or something more visually appealing.”

5. Schedule a money date. Make a weekly appointment for a 30-minute money date. “The purpose is to handle some aspect of your finances together,” says Timmons, “but don’t go more than that 30 minutes.”

And try to make it fun! A money date doesn’t exactly sound like a great time, but “it doesn’t have to be a dreaded experience,” says Timmons. “Schedule money dates when you aren’t stressed, like Sunday night or some other downtime,” she says. “And build reward system for when you keep the date. Give yourselves a treat.”

That’s some practical advice. But getting back to la-la land, where at the Siegels at today?

David Siegel filed a lawsuit over the film for defamation, claiming that it damaged the reputation of his company. Jackie, who is considering a reality show, still promotes the film, saying that she and her husband “simply don’t discuss the lawsuit.”

Construction has resumed on their mansion.

Judging a film by its DVD cover, I assumed The Queen of Versailles would be a vapid Real Housewives-style production. But it actually delves into the serious issues of their rags-to-riches, “American Dream”-on-steroids lifestyle.

It also made me incredibly thankful for my marriage and our 1,500-square-foot home.

About the interviewee: Jacquette Timmons is the founder of Sterling Investment Management, Inc., a financial coaching firm. You can follow her on Twitter at @jacqmtimmons.

GRS is committed to helping our readers save and achieve your financial goals.Savings interest rates may be low, but that’s all the more reason to shop for the best rate.Find the highest savings interest rate from Ally Bank, Capital One 360, Everbank, and more.

This post is from staff writer Lisa Aberle.

J.D. has already covered ways to save money on food. But this time, I wanted to focus on animal protein.

According to a survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, meat makes up over 22 percent of our at-home food (not out-to-eat or alcohol) budget. Obviously, you can cut your food budget by decreasing your meat consumption. But if you want to eat meat, how can you do it most cheaply? And waste the least amount of food?

Eat the crazy stuff

By the time my husband and I bought our first freezer full of beef, I knew my way around most steaks, roasts and ground beef, of course, but we didn’t know what to do with round steaks or even the brisket. Meat is expensive, so I didn’t want to waste anything. I hate food waste.

And I wasted even more of the animal than I realized. A couple of times a year, I help a friend sell her meat products at a popular, big-city farmer’s market. One of the most popular items is chicken feet (makes great broth that gels, I’m told!). Knuckle bones, chicken livers and gizzards, and organic liver are also popular (and cheaper), along with the normal steaks and ground beef.

My grandfather, raised during the Great Depression, said butchering was a community affair. Very little of the animal was wasted. They even scrambled the brains, which are highly perishable and had to be eaten within hours of the animal being butchered. Tongue sandwiches were also favorites.

Although things weren’t wasted during the Great Depression for obvious reasons, I wonder if my grandfather’s immigrant parents were just used to eating the entire animal. A former student (her parents weren’t born in the US), says a cow’s head wrapped in foil and roasted is incredible. She doesn’t like the eyeballs, though they are a delicacy to the rest of the family. And her favorite food ever is a soup with tripe in it.

“Nourishing Traditions,” by Sally Fallon gives several suggestions for eating organ meats like sweetbreads, kidneys, liver, heart, brains, and chicken livers. Consume with care: Liver, for instance, can accumulate toxic substances, and some believe that eating brains can transmit bovine diseases to humans.

Grinding up organ meats and mixing it with ground beef can disguise the taste if you’re unsure. But I’d rather save money using less adventurous techniques.

Make the meat stretch and use it all up

When I first started cooking for my husband, meat was the focus of our meals. Pork chops, steaks, chicken breasts, you name it. Our grocery bill was high for two people.

“You eat like what?” my sister said when I complained about our expensive grocery bills. “We eat a lot of one-dish dinners and casseroles, so the meat is diluted with vegetables or pasta. I can feed my family for less.”

I switched, then, and it made a big difference in our food budget. If we do have pork tenderloin one night, then I will make a stir fry or something with vegetables to use up the leftovers.

One of the easiest “stretcher” meals starts with a roasted chicken. Dice up the remaining chicken for a casserole or chicken enchiladas. The carcass, along with vegetable scraps or cut-up onions, can be used to make a scrumptious stock. Actually any bones can be used to make stock. The “Joy of Cooking” cookbook has pages of different stock recipes.

At our house, we rarely buy stock of any kind. In fact, I just made some chicken stock today that went into the freezer.

Cheap cuts

Some cuts of meat are less expensive than others. When our butcher asked how we wanted our steer processed, I didn’t have a clue. Understanding the different types of cuts can definitely save you money. My farmer’s market friend has drawings of the animals and where various cuts can be found. She gives her customers suggestions on cooking methods and recipe ideas. In general, when prepared well (or medium well – haha!), the expense of the cut doesn’t mean the meat is more or less flavorful. Instead, tougher (more inexpensive) meats may benefit from long cooking times while tender cuts require less time.

And sometimes you may actually prefer the cheaper cut. For instance, boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.49 per pound on the biggest sale at our supermarker while boneless skinless chicken thighs are sometimes $.99 per pound. Because the thighs are juicier, we actually prefer the cheaper of the two options.

Paying less for meat

Buying a quarter or half of beef or any other animal may not save you money from the cheapest source of meat. However, the meat will probably be better quality. Or, at the very least, you can find a farmer/rancher who raises the meat in a way that’s important to you.

But sometimes it is cheaper. We don’t often raise beef, but we had two steers about four years ago. We sold them for $1.50 a pound. This was live weight, so our customers (aka family) paid for the whole animal and had to pay processing costs, but it was less expensive on average for them.

We’ve also raised and butchered (just once) our own chickens. In the past, for friends and family who want chicken (but don’t have the space or don’t want to do the chicken chores), we have split the cost of chicks, feed, and processing costs. Then, my husband and I do the work, and we split the chickens at the end. We end up making $2/hour or something, but we know exactly how the chickens were raised. And so do our friends.

Lastly, when meat goes on sale, you can stock up if you have a freezer. My “buy now” price is $.99 per pound or less.

Any way you slice it, animal protein takes up a signifiant amount of our food budgets, so if we can beef up our tactics, we can save some money at the grocery store.

This is a guest post from Jillian Beirne Davi. Jillian is a Transformational Money Coach and the founder of Abundant Finances, a service that helps you get yourself out of debt and start amassing abundant savings in record time (without deprivation or eating cat food for dinner).

Some reader stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success or failure. These stories feature folks with all levels of financial maturity and income. Want submit your own reader story? Here’s how.

Six years ago, I was broke. I was deeply in debt (to the tune of $30,000) and creditors called me nonstop. I felt powerless, hopeless and totally alone.  It was one of the darkest times in my life. The worst part: I was making good money; I was just clueless about how to manage it.

Eventually, I decided to take my power back and get into action. (Looking back now, I know that taking action is the best way to cure anxiety. When you’re taking action towards your goal, you feel powerful! When you’re hiding under the covers, anxiety will crawl into bed with you.)

Eventually, every debt was repaid, and I went from being an impulsive spender to a devoted saver in about eighteen months – without bankruptcy, credit consolidation or counseling.

And I’ve never looked back.

I shared my story with a friend who was struggling with similar issues.  Curious, she asked me how I did it. The truth is, I never really thought about HOW I did it. Without really looking closely, I just figured I got sick of being broke one day and got into action. But when I retraced my steps, I found that my success ultimately boiled down to a handful of daily habits that turned my finances around — and anyone can repeat them. The hardest part is remembering to do them consistently.

So here are the five habits I adopted that got me on the road of financial recovery, for good!

1. I commit to using all cash every day for a year. Me and plastic? We had to break up for awhile. When I discovered that debt equaled slavery, my first order of business was to cut the cards and use all cash instead. I closed many of my store accounts and held on to my oldest card. I kept that account open but did not charge any new purchases on the card. (Note:  I used my debit card as a substitute for cash when a card was needed.) At first, I was scared to go all-cash and it felt like my very survival was at stake. Soon I learned how to live within my paychecks.  It got easier over time especially since I also adopted the next habit…
2. I checked my balances online every single day. For a long time, I never shared this with anyone because I thought it seemed obsessive. But this habit works! Checking my statements every morning kept me honest about where my money was going and made it less likely to spend impulsively throughout the day. I had a real dollar amount rolling around in my head, and not some fuzzy estimate that made it difficult to make good decisions.
3. I kept a crispy $100 bill in my wallet as a symbol of my financial future. Okay, this one probably sounds a little nuts, but it worked like gangbusters. When I was paying down debt, oftentimes I felt poor. To feel better, I kept this bill as a reminder that in my financial future, my wallet would always be full. Anytime I made a purchase I was reminded of my goal. It helped to keep my motivation high when funds were low. (And, nope! I didn’t spend it! I held on to that same bill for almost three years.)
4. I put 1 percent (yes, just 1 percent) of each paycheck away into a savings account automatically. In the beginning, my savings account was teeny tiny, but it wasn’t about the dollar amount at first. It was about getting into the habit of saving regularly. As I began paying down debt and closing accounts, I would take money that was being used to pay down debt and instead put it towards my savings. Eventually the power of momentum took over, and I started to save more aggressively over time. Once I completely paid down my debt, I started putting all the money that was going towards credit card payments into savings.
5. I rewarded myself on pay day. Any time I stuck to my budget for an entire pay period, I treated myself on pay day with an “affordable luxury.” It would be something I really wanted and that was pretty low-cost. I would treat myself to a nice lunch, a manicure, a brand new book, a 10-minute massage or a bar of expensive chocolate to show myself a little love and appreciation. Over time, I really came to look forward to those little treats, especially in those last few days before pay day when my bank account got low.  I knew there was a reward at the end so I was able to stick to my plan without dipping into my savings.

These are the five habits that I used on a consistent basis to help turn my finances around for good. The best part is, after six months of sticking to these habits, they became automatic. I no longer had to “will” myself to do these things – they came naturally. Now it feels weird when I’m not in harmony with my finances. It’s become second nature, and I have these powerful habits to thank for my success.

Your turn

What about you? What are some powerful money habits you could adopt that would make dramatic changes over time in your financial life?

The beauty is that once they become routine, you’ve got a strong foundation to make lasting change with your money — for good!