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In all of life's endeavors, there is no substitute for a positive attitude, but I readily admit that I would have written an entirely different article on this subject two short years ago. As we enter 2009, a new man is occupying the oval office, and he has a lot on his plate, as do the rest of us. A few days ago, Donald Trump annnounced on Larry King Live that, in his humble opinion, the United States is in the midst of a depression. It's hard to argue with his logic, and the truth is that those of us who work for a living need to get our heads out of the sand. On the topic of retirement planning, there is more to think about than ever before, especially when "worthwhile" investments are scarce and millions of jobs are in jeopardy. Essentially, there is no time like the present to explore other options, and one shouldn't place all of his eggs in the basket that a growing array of foxes has been robbing over the years. I am by no means ruling out risky investments that may yield a nice profit, but it does pay to have a safety net.

A good place to start is with our once trusty 401K. As a federal employee, I am more knowledgable in regard to our Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Like most other retirement accounts, there are several investments with a wide variety of risks and possible returns. The Life Cycle Fund encompasses a bit of all of these, but its successes and failures roughly mirror those of the S&P 500. When the DOW peaked at over 14,000 and the S&P reached 1500, the wisest among us saw through the smokescreen and re-invested in the sure-fire G fund, which is made up of government bonds and guarantees an annual profit of roughly 4% throughout. Those in the private sector have very similar choices, and the vast majority (like myself) succombed to greed, rather than heeding the early warning signs. Where does that leave the American worker who is looking for an answer? The experts on Wall Street don't have much of one, nor do the economists, and I'm not going to pretend to either. However, it does seem that the possibilities are limited.

A new employee investing in these volatile times may or may not be buying stock at wholesale prices. Any upturn in the economy could reap valuable rewards, all without (much of) the risk that the rest of us have already taken. However, the majoruty of the herd has already lost tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars, myself included. What do we do? One possibility is to invest what's left in a safer venue, but

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