I'm a decade older than you, have been doing the same with IRA, 401K, and feel the same way. I'm terrified of outliving my retirement funds...I probably won't but it's why I live very frugally. I can't really make up lost ground when I'm 80 but I can while I am still able to work. This is why I’ve been working the past several years toward being able to sustainably trade stocks. Zero desire to work for the man, I want to be financially independent, and I want to know that I can work when I want to work, anywhere I want to work. Taking a paycheck from somebody else for the rest of my life is going to leave me right in the position you feel insecure in in 15 years (I’m 31). If you have interest in the markets in general look into it as a second hobby, maybe you find you love it and maybe you won’t. There’s no better feeling I’ve ever experienced though than a hard day “at the office” and going home with high 3 figures-4 figures to show for my work. I then cut lawns for exercise and extra income in between watching our little one ($450-500/week for child care with 6-18 month waitlists is asinine to us). I have a couple friends working the 9-5 and doing the same, strategy just has to be adjusted a bit. For the record I think I understand investing as well or better than the average Joe. And I am comfortable with how much I sock away and how much I will have when I retire. My fear, which is probably irrational, is that the cost of healthcare will continue to rise dramatically and that what I am putting away now won't be enough should me or my wife get a serious illness. I don't have the stomach to day trade. I dollar cost average into equal weighted S&P funds so I tilt a little more towards small caps. I am 100% invested in stocks so I do take more risk than most people my age. I do wonder, though, how people like you who are day traders and have never experienced a bear market are approaching things. This is my third big downturn since I started investing (dot com crash, great recession being the other two).