Brian J. O’Connor, columnist at the Detroit News, has this piece today: Workers discover 401(k) plans are failing them in retirement.

He makes good points about the unrealistic expectations that have been placed on ordinary people via converting retirement money to 401(k) plans to make complicated financial investment decisions. A snippet:

All this is not to say that disciplined savers who make the right investment choices and educate themselves can’t build a successful retirement with a 401(k) or similar plan, notes Ted Lakkides, a certified financial planner and director of Cygnet Financial Planning in Waterford.

“The short answer is that people can achieve satisfactory retirement if they do things the right way,” Lakkides says. “But they don’t know how to do things the right way.”

Even doing all the right things means retirement savers still must trust to the fates that they’ll dodge a layoff, illness or other financial calamity, as well as stock market meltdowns.

Now, since the 401(k) plan is often the only retirement program available from an employer these days, what can one do about that?

You’ll want do whatever you can during your working years to limit your monthly household expenses with informed choices on financial services, saving money through frugal living techniques and paying down debt.