<prompt> Human: Hi guys, I need some advice. First, here is our stats: 30 years old both of us We live in SF Bay Area expensive I am a Machinist and she is a Funeral Director She has a B.S. in journalism and I am a journeyman Machinist going back to school for a mechanical engineering degree Rent is 1300 a month for 1 bedroom 105K a year combined income 10k in liquid savings I have 14k in 401k with 4 contrib and upto 2500 employer match and PRR of 5.95 She is UAW Teamsters She has 2k in 401k with unknown contrib She has a pension unknown stats She has fully paid for healthcare coverage, we only have to pay small deductibles We have no debt, but are big spenders. She loves fashion and I technology. I work on the side fixing peoples computers for small income, and only by word of mouth. We have to support both of our parents because they did not save for retirement.We were both raised to spend and be happy and dont worry about the future. She actually comes for Indian middle class and had a good upbringing where they didnt have to struggle for money, while my background is U.S. poor and I can remember times of having very little money and sometimes going to bed hungry. I was raised on government welfare.On top of being raised to not care about retirement, I have a strong distrust for wallstreet and 401ks. I have seen old couples with a million dollars of hard earned savings that were wiped out in 2008. My own 401k took a 5k hit. With the fundamentals of wallstreet still operating with values that caused the 2008 crash and no bankers being put in jail, I dont see 401ks as a trusted place to put my money. Yeah, the company match is great, but that money will do me no good if wallstreet tanks again. I see 401ks as a way for wallstreet to earn lots of overhead on my money while giving me a small percentage back to keep me feeling like I am gaining something in return. I am still contributing 4 of my income because I also dont trust my thinking.So do any of you have trust issues with 401k? It seems that these are our only option for retirement saving these days with pensions being thrown by the wayside. This stuff is really stressing me out because I dont want to end up like our parents and be a burden on our own children someday.Thanks.  <response>: Let me just address the old couples with a million dollars of hard earned savings that were wiped out in 2008. Im not sure what you mean by wiped out, but if they had a reasonably diversified portfolio of index funds, etc, by today, they would be about 10 below the peak of 2008 and still quite a bit more than they had in 2005, for example. Now its possible that they had a very concentrated and risky portfolio -- but thats the reason to diversify and go for cheap index funds. 