I’m not sure why, but our culture seems to revile people who try to save a buck.

In fact, Americans largely celebrate the opposite: People who spend beyond their means, take on more debt than they can handle, and generally make the worst financial decisions possible.

Maybe nothing embodies that spirit more than the now-ubiquitous acronym, "YOLO," which stands for "you only live once."

I hear this type of logic all the time from people. You can’t take it with you. Life is short. Carpe Diem. And so on.

There’s no doubt that …

I was recently talking to a few people in my industry about ways that Washington may hurt retirees in the future — including the potential for lawmakers to reduce the benefits being paid out by the Social Security

And here’s the thing: That is ALREADY being done to more and more Americans each and every year.

In fact, I suspect many new retirees were shocked to find this out as they completed their 2013 tax returns.

You see, under current law you could owe federal taxes on as much as 85% of the Social Security …

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On Tuesday, I shared the first part of my interview with bond expert, money manager, and long-time Forbes columnist Marilyn Cohen — and we talked about some of the big-picture forces influencing the bond market right now as well as a few select opportunities.

But the reality is that there are still some very big dangers looming on the horizon, and that’s what we focused on in the second half of our interview below.

Marilyn Cohen, Bond Expert

Nilus: Social Security’s worsening condition … a looming pension crisis … and more. These issues are …

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I think our group has been doing a great job covering the world of stocks and personal finance. But I also think there are some other parts of the investment world that we should be paying more attention to — including bonds.

Fixed-income is an absolutely huge asset class that EVERY investor should be following, and even more so if you’re interested in generating consistent cash flows.

So today, I’ve invited my friend Marilyn Cohen to talk bonds with me.

You may already know Marilyn’s name from past articles she’s written for us … …

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With just a few days left before tax day, I wanted to give you some last-minute moves that you can consider making right now.

Obviously, if you haven’t yet completed your return for this year you should do all the usual things like making sure you take every deduction you’re entitled to.

I would also point out that if you’re receiving a refund from Uncle Sam this year, it’s possible to have as much as $5,000 returned to you in the form of I Bonds, which I wrote about last month, by using form 8888. …

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