Should you "set it and forget it?" Tempting as that may sound when it comes to your retirement dollars, it may not be the wisest decision. Let's dive into the world of "life-cycle funds" and talk about what's best for you.

One of the greatest fears for many people is that they will have nothing left to live on in retirement. This is especially true of baby boomers, with the first ones just now eligible to collect Social Security.

Believe us, we know investing for your retirement is scary. You don't want to be too aggressive with your money because you may end up losing some of it at a time of life when you may be unwilling or unable to work to replace any losses. And you don't want to be too cautious either because you need to make more than the 3% you'll get in a CD to live the retirement of your dreams.

Unfortunately, a lot of people get paralyzed by their confusion and end up not doing anything. Don't let that be you! We're here to help you every step of the way in Straight Talk on Your Money, and if you want a terrific place to start, click here for our worksheet to see if you are saving enough for retirement.

You may have heard about a relatively recent kind of mutual fund that manages your retirement dollars through the years. It's called a "life-cycle" fund -- sort of like investing on auto-pilot. You leave investment decisions such as asset allocation, re-balancing and timing to the mutual fund portfolio manager.

The concept is simple. Pick a life-cycle fund that corresponds to the year you plan to retire, put all of your retirement money into it (or them, if more than one) and forget about it until you reach retirement.

No muss…no fuss. Sounds nice, huh?

Not so fast! We're not crazy about these funds.

We believe that this "one size fits all" philosophy of fund investing is a cop-out that could cost you dearly. We'd rather see you take charge of your money, but these funds may make sense for investors who have absolutely no interest in managing their own retirement portfolio.

Let's start with how these funds work. Then we'll give you our bottom line as to whether you should consider investing in this type of fund, and, if so, we'll walk you through the criteria to help you find the best one for you out of what is a decidedly mixed bunch.

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