FWIW... no matter what the fin plan says, the crash of 2008-9 can happen again, probably will happen again... none of the fin plan "experts" know...worry won't change this. So IMHO, it's one day at a time for expenses (which you can control)... and it's diversification for the assets (which you can also control)... after that, who knows? There are no magic bullets and counting on a return of more than 4-6% over inflation seems speculative to me. There's no shortage of uncertainty these days but worrying about it probably won't change much. As Warren Buffet said recently when ask what how he intends to provide for his wife in due time, not that they have any financial worries..., he recommended enough cash for several years of expenses and the balance in the SNP-500 index fund... Over time he's probably on target, keeping investment expenses low, riding out the bumps and living within one's means. Then I read that a 1% management fee, compounded over 30 years, takes 34% of the principal... so the 0.1% fee for an index fund looks much better since it only takes 3% of the principal. Oh well.