(MONEY Magazine) – In a way, all investing is retirement investing. After all, you're probably already putting away money regularly so that your life will be more secure and comfortable years--or even decades--from now. And many investors' greatest concern is making sure they have enough to live on once they stop working. That's why we are introducing a monthly retirement column to focus on making the most of your investments today, so you can best enjoy your retirement later. To kick off the column, we surveyed eight leading financial planners about the most common retirement problems. Here are three of the questions they hear most often from their clients, along with their responses:

SHOULD I TREAT MY HOUSE AS AN INVESTMENT? It may seem natural to include your home, which may be the single largest investment you'll ever make, among your retirement assets. But unless you're certain you'll sell your home upon retirement, it doesn't really count. "To take advantage of your home's value, you usually have to sell," says Kyra Hollowell Morris, a financial planner in Charleston, S.C. "Most people, once they get thinking about it, realize they don't want to move." Indeed, 83% of older Americans polled by AARP in 1996 said that they would prefer to stay in their home and never move. (In a pinch, you can tap your home's equity with a reverse mortgage.) Of course, this reasoning doesn't apply to real estate you hold purely as an investment, such as REITs or a house you rent out.

HOW DO I FIGURE THE VALUE OF MY SMALL BUSINESS? Here's another significant asset that you shouldn't count on to provide a lot of cash for your retirement. Entrepreneurs are, by nature, risk-takers. Likewise, say planners, they are often overly optimistic about the prospects for their businesses as well as their ultimate sale value. "You have to ask yourself, honestly, 'Do I own a livelihood, or do I own a business that somebody would actually want to buy?'" says Ray Ferrara, a planner in Clearwater, Fla. How do you tell? Well, if you are amassing tangible assets like machinery, inventory or a physical plant, says Ferrara, you should count your company as an asset; to diversify, make your other investments outside the industry you work in. But if most or all of the value of your company is in your own knowledge, skill and contacts, you have a livelihood, not a salable asset. You should view your business as a paycheck, not a retirement fund.

HOW MUCH COMPANY STOCK SHOULD I HAVE IN MY 401(K)? Since so many companies match 401(k) contributions in company stock--and since many employees also load up on it even when they don't have to--all the planners we spoke to said they routinely encounter clients who are too heavily invested in their employer's stock. Most planners recommend holding no more than 10% in any single equity, especially your employer's stock, because you already depend on your company for income. Should your company fall on hard times, you might well find yourself out of a job--and see your retirement savings slashed too.

Your first move is to stop putting your own 401(k) contributions into company stock. And arrange to have the money you've already contributed transferred to other investments in the plan. Steer other money away from your industry. If, for example, you work for a high-tech company, avoid stocks of similar firms and mutual funds with large tech holdings. If your 401(k) doesn't offer a fund that complements your company stock, choose your plan's fixed-income investments and use taxable accounts or your IRA to buy appropriate equities. --JIM FREDERICK