7 retirement investing mistakes

You bought a bunch of different funds -- so that means you're diversified, right? Not necessarily. You don't want to find out that you're overexposed to a particular market sector after it hits a rough patch. Luckily, staying out of this trap is a matter of learning to read the label.

Expand your vocabulary by a dozen words and increase your assets: Check out Bankrate's investing glossary.

Understanding the different types of asset classes will help you strategize. Different asset classes do better at different times. Bonds may do well while the stock market is suffering and large-cap firms may weather tough times better than spunkier small caps. Boring bonds will never match stocks in a hot market and small caps may be better poised to take off like a shot than their larger, lumbering counterparts.