If that sounds familiar, you're in very good company. The data backs this up: four in five Americans have anxiety about their financial situation, with 34% experiencing moderate or severe anxiety, according to a Discover national survey. And that anxiety has a direct behavioral consequence: 37% of Americans have shielded their eyes from their bank account balance or bills as a result of financial anxiety,

Skepticism grows whenever I see retirement assets heavily concentrated in annuities without a compelling planning rationale. It grows when married couples have all of their IRA money tied up in insurance products. Skepticism grows when the contracts are spread across different carriers without a clear economic reason. Skepticism grows even more when one annuity is replaced by another just as the old surrender period ends, because that pattern raises serious questions

When the market falls, investors often focus on what they are losing. A better question is: "What are lower prices making possible?" If you are investing consistently, a downturn means your dollars are buying more shares than they were before. The same contribution that bought fewer shares in a high market now buys more in a lower one. That is not a flaw in the system. That is how long-term wealth is often built.