Anyone in retirement, or soon to be, faces a host of tricky questions:

How should my money be distributed among stocks, bonds and other types of investments? How much can I take out of my holdings each year to supplement what I’ll get from Social Security and my pension?

How can I minimize the taxes on those withdrawals? How can I keep track of it all?

With all that to take care of, retirement can seem like a full-time job.

So take a look at some slick services offered by Fidelity Investments, the Boston mutual fund company. No other financial-services company offers such a sophisticated product – not for free, at any rate.

The Fidelity package includes a Retirement Income Planner that’s currently free but will cost $500 after next March. You could get a similar service from a financial planner, but it would cost at least that much – and maybe much more.

Fidelity says most of its representatives on this service are certified financial planners, or are working toward that designation, which is what you should look for.

Once the income planner is complete, you can establish an Income Management Account to track your investments and income. This can constantly monitor an unlimited number of bank, brokerage and other accounts, even if they are not at Fidelity.

The income management account can be viewed online for a daily assessment of your cash flow – showing whether your Social Security check and pension payment have come, while tallying payments out of your checking account. Non-Internet users are mailed printed reports.

Are you spending more than your plan calls for? Is it time to move money from stocks to bonds? The service can alert you by phone or e-mail.

Cost for the tracker is $50 a year, unless you have $30,000 or more in Fidelity accounts. Obviously, Fidelity hopes users will invest in its funds or sign up for other services, but that’s not required.

TheFidelity’s process looks good enough to handle most ordinary folks’ retirement issues. While it’s free, you have nothing to lose.

Fidelity account holders can fill out the planning tool online, at www.fidelity.com. If you don’t have an account or prefer dealing with a human, call 800-FIDELITY or go to a Fidelity office.

What’s Americans’ biggest regret when they retire?

About 70 percent wish they’d saved more, according to a new study by Putnam Investments, the fund company. Researchers questioned 2,000 people who had retired within the past two to six years.

Among the grim findings:

Retirees’ median household income was a mere $34,000 a year. About 41 percent came from Social Security, 24 percent from pensions and 11 percent from savings and investments.

Only a fifth of the retirees had systematic plans for drawing money from their investments, and they were taking an average of 6.7 percent of their portfolios’ value every year. At that rate, they’re likely to outlive their money by years. These days, the rule of thumb calls for withdrawing only 3 percent or 4 percent a year.

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If you have a 401(k), 403(b) or 457 retirement plan, note that the maximum-contribution limits go up Jan. 1 to $14,000 a year, from $13,000 this year. Also, the “catch-up” contribution for people who will be 50 or over next year will rise by $1,000 to $4,000.

Not everyone can afford to put $14,000 to $18,000 a year into a retirement plan. But for most people, it makes sense to make one of these tax-favored plans a top priority.

That’s because money put into such a plan is exempt from federal income tax. Putting $18,000 into a 401(k) could cut your tax bill by $4,500, assuming a 25 percent tax bracket.

If you can afford to set more aside next year, now’s the time to tell your employer or plan administrator.

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(Jeff Brown is a business columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. E-mail him at brownjphillynews.com.)

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(c) 2004, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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AP-NY-11-15-04 0616EST