One of my friends just so happened to land a job in 2009 for a well known company. He never had investments didn't even know what stocks were or how to invest, never even bought a single stock.... the company he worked for in 2009 started his retirement plan. Well it just so happened he got in at the very bottom of this market rally and has literally never seen a down quarter...well maybe one or two but its been straight up since 2009 for his investments...what im trying to point out is that many people who started new job positions with retirement accounts who never had them before like 3 of my friends in the last 5 years have never known what its like to experience a downward trending market. Not only that but think of someone starting out a new position today with markets at historical highs. What if the top is in 2015 and the markets have 3-4 years of zero gains. That's got to hurt for someone new into the market and for those who got in at 2009 just by pure luck of starting a job with a nice 401k package. ....