I also question the advice to max out 401K and IRA contributions. Recent events in Cyprus, Argentina, and some other places have made it quite clear that such m

I also question the advice to max out 401K and IRA contributions. Recent events in Cyprus, Argentina, and some other places have made it quite clear that such money is far from safe. If there's a fiscal crisis and the political class is backed into a corner, they will seize your money. They'll do some sleight of hand to claim you're getting an equal value retirement annuity, but that will be a lie. More generally it seems like all pop financial advice is based on the premise that the next 40 years will look much like the last 40 years. Historically that's been a bad bet. For example, you never hear about hedging for a deflationary crash, because that's unthinkable given recent history.