Retirement planning with a low-pay job

Tara Dillard likes to point out she's "a self-employed garden designer in the worst economy since the Depression, and I'm working!" She lives passionately for gardening -- but that doesn't mean she neglects saving for retirement. She simply focuses on the basics there: "It's not rocket science," she says, referring to stashing money in her Roth IRA.

"Somehow the sacred-profane thing does work," she says. "You know, the corny 'Build it and they will come' theory from 'Field of Dreams' with Kevin Costner." She goes on to explain: "Retirement is more than money, it's choosing how to live. I choose not to retire. I love what I do."

She says her father, a NASA engineer (age 76), still works full time for NASA. "Perhaps that's part of my retirement attitude, too. The right stuff, played forward."