Excerpt: The new retirement landscape requires us to take on a job once handled by professionals. We now play a larger role ourselves ensuring that we will have adequate resources. That means saving and investing, often on our own, and trying to protect against such unknowables as how long we may live and what financial markets will be like in the future. I've learned a lot in the past two years, and since today's column will be my last for (The Washington Post; free registration required), I would like to emphasize the most important lessons.

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