The New York Times wrote in 1955 about the growing desire, but continued inability, to retire: “To rephrase an old saying: everyone talks about retirement, but apparently very few do anything about it.”6 It was not until the 1980s that the idea that everyone deserves, and should have, a dignified retirement took hold. And the way to get that dignified retirement ever since has been an expectation that everyone will save and invest their own money. Let me reiterate how new this idea is: The 401(k) — the backbone savings vehicle of American retirement — did not exist until 1978. The Roth IRA was not born until 1998.

Crazy doesn’t mean broken. Crazy is normal; beyond the point of crazy is normal.

The more you want something to be true, the more likely you are to believe a story that overestimates the odds of it being true.