The stock market is the greatest example of that t

The stock market is the greatest example of that type of risk I know of, but also has the potential for the greatest reward. If you just want guaranteed retirement income you really need to buy annuities or something like that and stay the hell away from stock investments all together. Even then there are no guarantees, do you remember what happens when a nations economy fails? Or big banks/insurance companies fail without taxpayer bailouts to prop them up like they did during the "great depression"? You can pound on the doors, but you'll find them to be locked up tight, and your money will be too. Nobody will be sending you anything valuable in the mail either, not even a sympathy card. I reiterate, you have to look at the "entire life savings" under a microscope. How much we talkin about here? Might not be that much, depends on whether or not your method of saving/investing sucked or not. I knew a guy that played it "safe" with his money and left it on the S & P 500 for nearly two decades. I had him pull it up and pointed out how his money had only earned him $350 (on $25,000 invested) and the fund was trending down (again) at the time. Oh, it was up a couple of times, but he was too scared to try and learn how to manage even that slow moving investment and left it alone as he had been told to do. That's sad, really. He would have been better off with it in a fire safe, at least no one could tell you they didn't have it any more. My point is, the extreme other end of the risk scale is a controversial investment strategy. For me, it's like never going out of the house for fear of what "might" happen.