Visit any bookstore or newsstand, and you'll see dozens of magazine stories and books on saving for retirement: How to save a million dollars by age fifty. There is no shortage of information on how much you should save and where to invest it. Investing has long been the glamour girl of financial planning.

But what will happen to all those books and magazines now that so many Americans feel burned by the advice? Can any of us read an article titled "Seven Safe Stocks to Buy Now," and keep a straight face? Is there anyone who survived the market meltdown of 2008 and 2009 without serious dents in a once prosperous portfolio? The 2009 American Retirement Study by Scottrade found that just 32 percent of Americans believe they will ever be able to fully retire. That's down from 39 percent in 2008.

That's one task of this book: to help investors pick themselves up and invest again with confidence. Equally important for a book on retirement accounts is providing advice on how to pull that money out in retirement and how to stretch it out, if possible.