Retirement planning will shortly become even more of an impossibility. There is virtually nothing happening in the market. The bank owned HFTs are like piranhas....they taka a million small bites daily out of any stock that makes the slightest movement leaving nothing but bare bones for all the other investors to feed on. In short, expect returns from playing the stock market less than 2% per year for as long as HFTs are legally allowed to participate. And, with 2% inflation , you end up making zero $ with high risk of losing 10%. Join the dots and figure out where that leaves you. Alternatively you can read the mummble-jumble of stock/financial experts who will say the same thing  in their jargon.