These days, many investors who are approaching retirement worry that their retirement investing won’t generate enough income once they’ve stopped working. We recommend that you base your retirement planning on a sound financial plan. Here are the 4 key variables that your plan should address to ensure that your retirement investing generates enough income in retirement:

1. How much you expect to save prior to retirement;
2. The return you expect on your savings;
3. How much of that return you’ll have left after taxes;
4. How much retirement income you’ll need once you’ve left the workforce.

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Symantec Corp., symbol SYMC on Nasdaq, sells Internet security technology, including anti-virus and Internet content and email filtering software, to businesses and consumers. Symantec is one of the stocks we cover in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that covers more aggressive stock market recommendations. In the three months ended April 1, 2011, Symantec’s earnings fell 8.0%, to $297 million from $323 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 5.0%, to $0.38 from $0.40, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude several unusual items, including asset writedowns and restructuring costs. On this basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.36 a share....

Tim Hortons Inc., Toronto symbol THI, saw less traffic at its Canadian coffee-and-donut stores in the first quarter of 2011, due to bad winter weather. As well, the company spent more on promotions, which hurt its earnings growth.

We analyze Tim Hortons in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter for portfolio investing in aggressive stocks.

In the three months ended April 3, 2011, Tim Hortons’ earnings rose 2.3%, to $80.7 million from $78.9 million....

We agree with the widely held view that inflation is likely to be higher in the next few years than in the last few. However, we disagree with the fear that inflation will come roaring back and surpass the peaks it hit in the 1970s and 1980s. Investors who expect severe inflation are focusing on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s efforts to expand the money supply and speed up economic growth. Growth in the money supply creates the potential for rising prices throughout the economy. However, it takes something more to turn that potential into reality. Money-supply growth alone failed to spur inflation in Japan in the past couple of decades, for instance. That’s because Japanese banks were reluctant to make loans, and Japanese consumers were reluctant to borrow. Something like that could also happen here....

Some investors think by focusing our portfolio management strategy on stocks, and staying out of bonds and fixed-return investments, we’re missing out on bonds’ ability to lower portfolio volatility.

It’s true that bonds do tend to reduce your portfolio’s volatility, since they tend to rise when stock prices fall....

Yum! Brands Inc., symbol YUM on New York, operates nearly 38,000 fast-food restaurants in over 110 countries. Its main banners include KFC (fried chicken), Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Mexican food). Yum has announced it will sell its Long John Silver’s (seafood) and its A&W (burgers) chains. You can get our full analysis, including our clear stock advice, on Yum in Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that covers the U.S. markets. In the three months ended March 19, 2011, Yum’s sales rose 3.4%, to $2.43 billion from $2.35 billion a year earlier. Overall sales rose 28% in China, where same-store sales rose 13%. Yum also opened 92 new restaurants there. The international division, which excludes China, opened 131 new restaurants....

Tonight at 6 p.m., we’ll issue 2 urgent “sell” recommendations in our Successful Investor Email/Telephone Hotlines. If you’re holding these 2 companies, we think it’s crucial that you sell them immediately to take profits—and avoid the potential for big losses—in your investment portfolio. Read on to learn how you can be among the first to get full details on these stocks with no cost and no obligation.

3 stock investment tips for deciding when to sell

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Over the past few months, we’ve periodically looked at common mistakes most investors make, and given you our advice on how to avoid them. Here are 3 more common errors all investors make from time to time.

1. Following an unrealistic investment strategy: Some investors, particularly newcomers, plan to buy a few hot stocks (or funds, or options or futures), and double or triple their money in a few years. Then they’ll settle into a low-risk investing style that may only return an average 10% to 12% yearly. But if you could make 200% or 300% in a few years, why would you quit? If you could do it once, you should be able to do even better as you gain experience.
   Of course, if you doubt that you can keep it up indefinitely, you should also question whether you can pull it off the first time. Our advice is that the best approach for you is one that will work for you more-or-less indefinitely. You’ll want to be sure it suits your circumstances and temperament, that it won’t take up too much of your time, and that it doesn’t require luck or extraordinary circumstances for success.

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I hope you are enjoying and profiting from the free investing advice you get in our TSI Network daily updates. Our dailies aim to educate you on best practices in investing. They cover a range of investment topics, and explain conservative investment strategies you can use to build the best portfolio for you, and grow your wealth with less risk.

Time-tested investing advice that can help you weather any market

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A key part of our three-part tsinetwork.ca portfolio management advice is to downplay stocks that are in the broker/public-relations limelight.

(The other two parts are to invest mainly in well-established, dividend-paying companies and spread your money across the five main economic sectors: Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities.)

Portfolio management: Why “in the limelight” stocks are riskier than most investors think

It’s especially crucial to downplay stocks that are getting a lot of attention from brokers in the media....