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I work in the field of retirement finances, and I've read a few of the Helium articles on this subject. I'm going to get a little technical about saving for retirement, but first let me address the debate itself-YES. It pays to save for retirement. You work your entire life to earn money so you can survive, even thrive, and so you can provide for your loved ones. If all goes to plan, you steadily increase the rate at which you are paid until it is time to stop working and enjoy your retirement. What happens then? Your regular paycheck stops, Social Security payments start, and if you're extremely lucky, you get a Defined Benefit pension (an old-fashioned pension in which you receive a series of fixed payments for the rest of your life). But DB pensions are going the way of the dodo bird, and anyone under the age of 50 is unlikely to have one to fall back on.

I don't think people understand how critical it is that you have enough money when you retire. The absence of the weekly or bi-weekly paycheck could be more traumatic than you believe-Social Security can't begin to make it up. If you don't have a pension, the thought of trying to survive on Social Security payments, even if they will be around when it's time for you to give up working, strikes fear into my heart, and so should it be with you. There's healthcare to think about-Medicare can't hope to cover you entirely. You'll need supplemental insurance to cover the shortfall. There's the potential for nursing home stays-very expensive if you don't want to stay in a state-run facility. There's recreation-after all, you're not going to be working, so what will you do with your time? There are only so many crossword puzzles or sudokus you can do in a day. And there's an inheritance for your loved ones. All of those things take money. You need to make up the difference yourself, and the only way to do that short of winning the lottery is to save while you're working. Fortunately, the government has given us several ways to save and pay less in taxes while we're doing it. More on that in a moment.

But first let's take it as a given. Saving for retirement is necessary. Crucial. Vital. Not doing it is shortsighted and dangerous. But how can we do it without giving up our lifestyles while we're working?

I'll focus on two account types that you can use to do that relatively painlessly.

If you're working, a 401(k) is essential. There shouldn't be a debate about that. For one thing, the savings are

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