“Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how short-lived I am.”— Psalms 39:4

There are ways, I have discovered, to manage, manipulate or out-maneuver the passage of time.

- Age and an evolving stock/bond strategy: For eons and eons, financial planners used a rather straight-forward rule of thumb when a client asked how much of an investment portfolio should be kept in stocks.

A client usually was told to subtract their age from the number 100. A person age 35 could do the math and discover that it was OK to keep 65 percent of investable assets in stocks. The remainder would be in bonds, CDs or other fixed-income investments and cash-like accounts.

Applying the 100-minus-your-age rule to an investor who was age 65 produced a portfolio allocated 35 percent to stocks and 65 percent to income-oriented accounts.

This approach assumes someone nearing retirement should shift to income investments because they no longer have the time to recover from a major stock market pratfall. However, that’s a false argument: Retirees are likely to be investors for 20 years or more after they retire.

Even when I retired a dozen years ago, the 100-minus-your-age rule seemed too conservative. Since then, I’ve updated it to reflect increased longevity: Subtracting your age from 110 is much more realistic.

Over the past half century, stocks have returned close to 11 percent a year, roughly double the return for bonds. Factoring inflation and taxes into the picture really stirs the pot: Inflation alone has eroded purchasing power by about 4 percent annually during this period. Add in taxes, and the historic 5.5 percent return on bonds is wiped out.

If the value of your portfolio doesn’t keep ahead of inflation, you have a risky allocation.

More than any other single strategy, your portfolio breakdown — how much you keep in stocks and how much in bonds — will determine how much the value of your portfolio jumps around (its volatility) in the short term and what size returns you earn over the long haul.

- Avoid 10 percent penalty on “early” distributions:  A reader, recently laid off from her job, has considered making withdrawals from a tax-sheltered retirement account. “You said in an earlier column there’s a way to avoid triggering a 10 percent penalty on taxable distributions made before I reach age 59 ½. I need details.”

Briefly, you can avoid the early-distribution penalty by taking a series of substantially-equal annual payments for at least five years. Payments must be based on your life expectancy, or the joint life expectancy of you and the beneficiary of the retirement account. The payment calculation is tricky, so get help from your tax preparer.

Another exception: The penalty does not apply to distributions if you are age 55 or older in the year you leave the company or retire.

- Getting to your tax records online: Ever lost or misplaced your copy of a 1040 tax return? By the end of 2008, the Internal Revenue Service plans to put your federal tax account on a secure link of its Web site, www.irs.gov.

Initially, you’ll be able to go back as far as three years, to view and print “my IRS” account information, including data on estimated quarterly payments.

It’s already possible to request free tax-return transcripts by mail from the IRS.

- Register for up to nine months of no-cost credit monitoring: If you had a credit card, loan or credit account anytime during the past 20 years, you can get free credit-related services from TransUnion, one of the three big reporting agencies. TransUnion agreed to a settlement worth at least $75 million in a class action suit claiming it violated state laws and the Fair Credit Reporting Act by selling customer profiles to third parties. The company denies wrongdoing.

However, you must sign up for the credit monitoring or other benefits by Sept. 24. Register online by going to www.listclassaction.com, or by calling, toll-free, 1-866-416-3470.

You’ll be able to register for six months of credit-monitoring services, including the ability to “lock” your credit report; unlimited access to your TransUnion credit report and credit score; and a 24-hour e-mail credit notification service. Another option is nine months of these enhanced credit-monitoring services, plus insurance scores and a mortgage simulator service.

If you have a Lessons Learned topic to suggest, you can call Gene Kelly at 421-2861, write to him at 2611 Bretigne Circle, Lincoln 68512, or e-mail him at genekelly@windstream.net.