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A snippet of dialogue from the movie "Something About Mary": 

Hitchhiker: You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs?

Ted: Yeah, sure, 8-Minute Abs. Yeah, the exercise video.

Hitchhiker: Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7... Minute... Abs.

Ted: Right. Yes. OK, all right. I see where you're going.

Hitchhiker: Think about it. You walk into a video store, you see 8-Minute Abs sittin' there, there's 7-Minute Abs right beside it. Which one are you gonna pick, man?

Ted: I would go for the 7.

Hitchhiker: Bingo, man, bingo. 7-Minute Abs. And we guarantee just as good a workout as the 8-minute folk.

Ted: You guarantee it? That's - how do you do that?

Hitchhiker: If you're not happy with the first 7 minutes, we're gonna send you the extra minute free. You see? That's it. That's our motto. That's where we're comin' from. That's from "A" to "B".

Ted: That's right. That's - that's good. That's good. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with 6-Minute Abs. Then you're in trouble, huh?

[Hitchhiker convulses]

Hitchhiker: No! No, no, not 6! I said 7. Nobody's comin' up with 6. Who works out in 6 minutes?

We, as a people, are Ted. We want the six minute abs – five would be even better. It’s not by accident that most major magazines have "top 5" and "top 10" related stories on their cover. Every month. The average reader might take on something as lengthy as a top 50 list from time to time, but I wouldn’t plan on publishing a periodical with that format. Less is indeed more.

The need for a quick fix carries over to topics that require baseline knowledge and heavy ongoing reading. Our thirst for financial planning, for example, can be satisfied with one dose of very cold water about every five to ten years (this is also known as an enrollment meeting). As investors, our idea of the perfect investment bears an eerie resemblance to the Staples Easy Button. There is, of course, no such investment – though there are plenty of financial websites that would like you to believe otherwise.

There is really only one area where we seem to be interested enough, and patient enough, to put in the long hours: the purchase of a new home. You just don’t meet people who tell you they bought their new $400,000 home based on the results of a four-question online survey. Home buyers want to know more. What’s the neighborhood like? The schools? Is it on a busy street? Did a river ever run through it? We embark upon home-buying odysseys that involve dozens, even hundreds of hours. We test the fuel efficiency, and the patience, of our realtor. Ultimately, we battle over amounts in the contract that equate to a few dollars a month. We may then repeat this process every five or ten years.

If we were truly interested in devoting the same level of effort exerted for a home purchase to our investing and retirement planning, there would be magazine covers with lead stories like "The 47 things you need to do this week to put your finances in order – and the ongoing maintenance that then needs to be performed on at least an annual basis." Yet many of us will – hopefully – end up with a balance in our 401(k) that one day exceeds the value of the equity in our house. We will, however, happily direct the proceeds of bi-weekly 401(k) contributions to a fund (or a mix of funds) based on something as rudimentary as the four-question survey that we took 20 years ago.

Quicker doesn’t necessarily mean better. Most people would generally agree that building larger highways decreases travel time. Most of us would then be shocked to learn that removing highways actually can improve traffic.

It is understandable that we don’t care to take the time to look at the 101^st  301^st most beautiful people in the world.  After you've seen the top 10, number 299 will likely be a bit of a disappointment.  When it comes to finances, however, most of us would be better off reading the full article (preferably one with fewer pictures and even less to do with beautiful people).

In the interest of saving you time we have included links below to some of the easiest, most accessible (even slightly quick) online tools you may wish to consider:

• For estimating the amount you need to save each year:  http://www.choosetosave.org/ballpark/index.cfm?fa=interactive
• Budget templates (you can't know how much to save until you know how much you're spending) are readily downloadable into Excel:  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CL102207099.aspx

The most difficult topic, asset allocation, is something requires a little research, a second opinion (or two) and ongoing maintenance.

• For research on the topic:  http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/assetallocation.htm

For opinions on various allocation approaches (please use your own judgment, there is no recognized "best" asset allocation tool for any/all investors):

• http://www.ipers.org/calcs/AssetAllocator.html
• http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/retirement/inv01
• http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/assetallocwizard/assetallocwizard.html

Marshall J. Cobb, CRSP, is president and founder of Cobb Retirement Solutions, LLC., an independent, fee-only firm offering qualified plan analysis and oversight exclusively to corporations and organizations. Cobb’s first-hand knowledge as a veteran representative of retirement plan vendors beginning in 1990 gives him a unique perspective as he advises his clients. Cobb runs his office -- based in Houston, Texas -- with employees and clients across the country.