Most people who diligently tuck money into a 401(k) know that those dollars are intended for retirement. But many 401(k)'s have provisions that allow workers to take loans when necessary. And economically squeezed workers are increasingly raiding their retirement plans to make ends meet.

Here's how 401(k) loans work. If your 401(k) plan allows loans, you can borrow $50,000 or one half of the vested balance from your retirement account, whichever is lower. Any loan has to be repaid within five years, except for loans taken out by first-time homeowners who get up to 15 years to repay.

Sometimes, saving for retirement seems an awful lot like going to the dentist. You worry about it a lot before you go. Then, you busy yourself with some extra brushing and flossing immediately preceding your visit. But after you finally succumb to a half-hour under the bright lights, your shiny and smooth teeth can make you feel somehow healthier.

A study released yesterday by the Hartford insurance company and MIT AgeLab quantified the retirement anxiety we all face. And no matter what we do to prepare, it never seems to be enough—especially in the years immediately preceding retirement. Women in particular seem to have a nagging little voice in their head telling them to plan more for retirement and scolding them if they haven't saved enough.

It's difficult to plan for retirement when you can't predict the precise amount of your Social Security checks. A new tool is available to more accurately estimate what your Social Security benefits will be.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue unveiled a new online calculator yesterday. The Retirement Estimator allows you to test out retirement options such as various retirement dates or expected future earnings. You can also calculate what your benefit will be if you begin collecting at age 62, wait until your full retirement age, or further delay claiming until age 70. The future benefit amount is adjusted for inflation.

America's baby boomers are feeling gloomy. Yes, you couldn't pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV all weekend without hearing grim economic news. But the members of this especially large generation born from 1946 to 1964 are more downbeat about their lives than older and younger adults, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Baby boomers, currently ages 43 to 62 and, in their peak earning years, have the highest income of any age group, but they are the most worried about money as their epic and thoroughly discussed retirement looms, the survey of 2,413 adults found.

Retiring during a year when stocks are down can have disastrous consequences for your nest egg. Investments that dip into the red during the first five years of retirement drastically increase your chances of running out of money during a 30-year retirement, a recent study found.

If an investor who retires with a $500,000 portfolio (invested 55 percent in equities and 45 percent in bonds) withdraws 4 percent of his portfolio ($20,000) the first year and increases that amount by 3 percent each year to keep up with inflation, the investor has an 89 percent chance of having enough left in the portfolio to last 30 years, according to a T. Rowe Price analysis.

Companies that fear a shortage of qualified workers are trying to entice older workers to stay on the job longer. The Los Angeles-based defense and technology corporation Northrop Grumman is exploring innovative ways to keep baby boomers at their desks and get them to teach younger workers their vital skills. I recently spoke with Ian Ziskin, chief human resources and administrative officer for Northrop Grumman, about how he balances new hires with older worker retention. Excerpts:

How much of your workforce is planning to retire in the next decade?
If you look at the demographics of the workforce for Northrop Grumman, which are pretty consistent with the demographics of the aerospace and defense industry in general, we have about 122,000 employees, approximately 50 percent of whom are going to be able to retire over the next five to 10 years.

Almost everyone aims to attain financial security in retirement. But each succeeding generation expects to be more self-reliant than the preceding one, according to a new online survey by Charles Schwab, Age Wave, and Harris Interactive. Americans are depending more on personal savings and investments and less on the government or their employer.

Current retirees depend on the traditional three-legged stool: Social Security, pensions, and personal savings and investments. Each leg supports their retirement to a substantial degree. But generations X and Y expect to rely largely on their own investments, the survey shows.