BY GREGORY LUKEN

April boasts Fool's Day and Tax Freedom Day. Coincidence? You decide. Tax Freedom Day answers the question: How many days per year do you work to pay for your government?

This is also the time when many focus on maximizing deductions for last year and one way to do that is to maximize contributions to your retirement plans. One of the major factors affecting your retirement income security is taxation. On average, income taxes consume about 31.6 percent of our income. If we convert that percentage into the average days an American works, and if you start on the first of January, it would take until April 26 for Americans to pay income taxes. Then on April 27, that's when you could start keeping some of your earnings. In 1910, Tax Freedom Day was January 20. While the calculations for the current year are not ready yet, last year's date was April 26.

States with large metropolitan areas and higher-paying jobs have more citizens paying income tax at the highest rates. As a result, they must work longer to pay their disproportionate share of the tax burden. The states with the highest tax burdens include Connecticut (May 12), New York (May 9), California and Illinois (both April 30). The states with the lightest total tax burden celebrate Tax Freedom Day the earliest and include Alabama (the earliest at April 11), Mississippi at April 13, and Tennessee at April 14.

Tax Freedom Day deals with the current year — the front nine. Have you ever been ahead in the front 9 only to blow it in the back 9? Has your team ever had a tremendous lead at the end of the third quarter only to lose the game by the end of the fourth? The score matters most at the end of the game.

Today, Americans have trillions of dollars invested in accounts with a huge "mortgage" — a potential tax liability — on those assets. And many have done nothing to position themselves to protect the assets they've spent a lifetime building. They have no "exit strategy" for one of their largest assets — their retirement accounts.

Steven Covey succinctly stated, "Begin with the end in mind." And yet, when it comes to optimizing the value of our investments, we often look at the tax deductions for the current year. This may be at the expense of a future tax burden that will create a liability when we least want or need it — when we begin withdrawing money. When we start an investment account, doesn't it make sense to have a brilliant exit strategy in place?

For specific research and strategies I often turn to Ed Slott, one of the most well-known and highly respected CPAs in the country. He is regularly quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Medical Economics, The New York Times, and Forbes as well as a frequent contributor to The CPA Journal and Trusts & Estates magazine and has appeared on more networks than I can name.

In his book "The Retirement Savings Time Bomb … and How to Defuse It," Slott wrote, "You've had it drummed into your head that tax-deferral is the name of the retirement game, haven't you? Well, I have to face the fact that my profession is largely to blame for such arbitrary thinking. Doing nothing … is the surest way to build up your retirement savings account for Uncle Sam."

The brilliant strategist Lance Armstrong understood the concept of clearly knowing where the finish line lay. From 1999 through 2005, Armstrong raced 147 stages in seven Tours De France. Armstrong won only 15 percent of the stages. Yet, winning only that 15 percent propelled Armstrong to the best record in history. He clearly understood the finish line was not at the end of any single day.

As you work toward your own Declaration of Financial Independence, consider where your finish line is. Do you have a brilliant exit strategy for your retirement dollars? Do you have a strategy to get you through the back nine or to keep you ahead all the way through the end of the fourth quarter?

Gregory Luken, author of "Retire with Confidence, Your Toolbox for Financial Independence," is president of a Franklin, Tenn.-based wealth management firm.