Investing in treasuries is OK if you plan to hold on to that treasury bill until the end. Treasuries & Bonds can fluctuate in price quite a bit, something a lot of novices aren't aware of. For instance, if future treasuries pay a higher interest than the one you bought (something I think will happen), then your treasury is worth that much less. That is not a concern if you will hold the treasury until term - 5,10,30 years, whatever. You still receive the promised interest on it. But, if you had to sell the bond earlier to raise capital, you lose money.

Something to keep in mind, is the erosion of your money via inflation. It's not a secret the government skews the inflation figures for their benefit. The official inflation number should be much higher. Just take a trip to the grocery store or gas station to find that out. Bottom line, whatever interest you make on your money HAS to exceed the inflation number, otherwise you're going backwards.

One more thing - you buy US bonds or treasuries, you buy them in US dollars. If you haven't noticed, the dollar has fallen more than 30% in the last 5 years and probably will fall much more. And that doesn't just affect you if you make trips abroad, but because most of our manufactured items and a lot of our raw material (oil) is purchased from foreign sources, your costs go up by how much the dollar drops.

There's no easy way to ensure you have anything left when you retire. In the old days, before government interference, people either saved (inflation wasn't much of a worry), built business or bought rental property that would provide cash flow, or relied on family to take care of them.

It's truly a new 'paradigm'. The average Joe/Jane has to develop a financial acumen that they have neither the time, motivation, or education to do.