One of my biggest fears in life is that I'll end up with less money by investing in equities for retirement than if I had just put everything in a savings account. I really, really, REALLY don't want to spend the rest of my life working. Another thing that scares me is that if *I* don't do well (a person who has diligently saved for retirement since graduating from college), then that does not fare well for people who either chose not to or could not afford to save. We'll all be in the poor house together in thirty years.

So far, investing in equities for retirement appears to be a bad choice. My assets are down an estimated 15-20% this year. Including the value of my house. Will my generation will enjoy any of the good fortune that has befallen my parent's generation? Perhaps this is another 1970s and things will look better again in another ten or fifteen years.

If anyone thinks the Democrats are going to fix this, I think that is an incorrect assumption. But I also think that the Republicans aren't going to fix anything, either. I've invested more in international stocks in the past few years because I think the U.S. is no longer going to be the world's economic superpower; we're already on our way out. I wouldn't know where to place blame other than the fact that businesses and consumers in this country have had too much access to cheap credit, and it could take years to get ourselves out of this mess.

I have some equity holdings that were severely under water, and after this week, you could say my portfolio looks like the midwest does right now.

I'm moving most of my investments to Merrill Lynch this month since I am too stupid to manage my accounts without making some very painful mistakes. (Mutual funds, index funds and ETFs can still lose 25%-30%. I'm good at picking those.)

P.S. I thought this article, which presents a different perspective on America's prosperity, was interesting.