It becomes more apparent each day that inflation has crept back into our lives even though government statistics may not support this viewpoint. Rather, it’s the real world cost of food, drugs, fuel, utilities and education that indicate the inflationary trend. If you’re like most Americans, your retirement account hasn’t grown much over the last 5 years and this makes retirement planning much more difficult.

In fact, it’s been pretty flat. Many of us have vivid memories of the dot.com crash and the huge plunge in our 401(k) plan and IRA valuations. For one brief year, it looked like we might be on the road to recovery. But, this simply hasn’t happened to any significant extent. About 25 years ago, if you worked for a reasonably good sized company you could expect to receive guaranteed monthly income from your employer’s defined benefit plan.

As you approached retirement, it was relatively easy to predict the amount of money you would receive from the plan, which, by the way, was funded totally by your employer. When 401(k) plans were introduced to the workforce many employers saw an opportunity to shift the liability of retirement income away from the company and onto the employee.