Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs

[a completely inoffensive name]

It's irrelevant. At most, the individual only has to select a fund for their contributions to go into. For 401ks and the like, you don't go shopping around for individual stocks- you pick a plan. I'm still fairly young, so I picked a plan that was heavily invested in stocks and fairly aggressive. When I'm closer to retirement, I would switch it to something more balanced. That's the extent of my involvement. You don't need to be a financial wizard.

No, you don't need to be a financial wizard. You just need to know what a 401k is and a basic knowledge of what stocks are and how the stock market works....oh yeah, about that....

You don't take out your retirement in a lump sum. Their plans would have rebounded just like everyone else's.

Depends on their retirement plan. You speak with certainty when you know nothing about the finances of others.