I wrote the Journal's "Ask Encore" column from 2003 to 2015, answering questions from readers about retirement. The column appeared in the periodic Encore sections on retirement. This was my final "Ask Encore."

This post is the last for the Journal’s Total Return personal-finance blog. As we say farewell, a look at the most popular posts of the 12 months through June highlights some of the biggest issues in personal finance over this period.

By Karen Damato, Jason Zweig and Jonathan Clements. Today’s college students and recent grads face greater financial pressures than earlier generations because so many are leaving school with heavy debt burdens. Here are 10 tips for students and those new to the workforce on getting their finances off to a strong start. (See below for related video.)

Are you—or your spouse or your teen or your parents—among the financially illiterate? For a quick answer, try this three-question quiz that two professors—Olivia S. Mitchell of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington University School of Business—have been using for years to assess individuals’ basic financial savvy.

As the market has tumbled in recent days, many financial advisers have reached out to reassure clients that periodic drops are inevitable and that making big changes amid tumult is often a bad idea. Even investors who aren’t unnerved by the market gyrations should consider having additional conversations with their advisers. Here are five tougher questions to ask your adviser.

This video, a companion to the article of the same name (at left), quickly attracted more than 1.5 million views.

Going through the back door can pay off for high-income retirement savers. We're talking about the backdoor route into popular Roth individual retirement accounts, which offer tax-free income in later life. The front door into Roths is shut for many investors because of their incomes. But there's a simple detour that works for many of them. (See companion video at right.)

By Laura Saunders and Karen Damato. The largest online tax-software company in the U.S. temporarily halted electronic filing of all state returns after more than a dozen states spotted criminal attempts to obtain refunds through its systems. Intuit Inc., based in Mountain View, Calif., said Friday that its TurboTax unit stopped transmitting state e-filing tax returns Thursday after seeing attempts to use stolen personal information to file fraudulent returns for tax... (WSJ PAGE ONE)

So, you're trying to decide whether to buy a mutual fund or ETF, and you need to know the essential facts. Here's an unfortunate truth: You won't find many of the answers you need in the prospectus.Here are 10 key questions that aren't answered by the prospectus, and instructions on how to find the answers. COVER STORY FOR WSJ INVESTING IN FUNDS & ETFS MONTHLY SECTION

Instead of going it entirely on their own, more investors are pursuing a kind of modified DIY approach, tapping an array of increasingly sophisticated online tools and a-la-carte advice services offered by financial firms. COVER ARTICLE FOR WSJ INVESTING IN FUNDS & ETFS MONTHLY SECTION

Imagine this scenario: You're only five or 10 years from when you hope to retire—but your portfolio looks like it needs another lifetime to bulk up. What do you do? COVER ARTICLE FOR WSJ "INVESTING IN FUNDS & ETFS" MONTHLY SECTION