Re-evaluating Your Retirement Game Plan

After a miserable year in the market, investors need to assess how the turmoil will impact their retirement plans.

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In Pictures: 7 Steps To Fix Your Retirement

Remember when your broker pulled you aside and showed you that neat, reassuring table of data proving how you could retire before becoming an octogenarian?

Rip it up--if you're planning on retiring anytime soon.

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The past decade's bull run lulled most people into thinking financial security during retirement was all but certain. Hold a diversified portfolio of stocks and boost your allocation to bonds as you near retirement age and you would be able to coast into your golden years. But then the financial collapse of 2008 hit, wreaking havoc on the best-laid financial plans.

Year-to-date, the stock market is down 40% and it's back to the drawing board for boomers and their advisers when it comes to retirement. With that in mind, Forbes.com called up financial planners, wealth managers and accountants to get a sense of what they're telling their clients as they navigate these tough times. The bottom line is that to secure a worry-free retirement, it's critical to re-assess and re-calculate your retirement strategy right now, after the storm.

In Pictures: 7 Steps To Fix Your Retirement

First, determine your retirement income needs. How much are you going to spend every year when you do retire? What are your expenses going to be? Once you arrive at a number, you will have a sense of the resources you'll need in order to live out your golden years in comfort.

There are a couple schools of thought about how to determine that magic number. It's common to discuss desired annual retirement income as a percentage of your current income. Depending on who you're seeking advice from, they may say it's anywhere from 60% to 80%.

Company of the Year: Nasdaq

Under CEO Bob Greifeld, NASDAQ OMX plays the stock trading game better than anybody.

The market has been open less than two hours and already 900 million or so shares worth $25 billion have changed hands. In a given second the total jumps by $3 million to $5 million--all without a sound. Unlike the New York Stock Exchange a few blocks away, this exchange has no shouting traders, no crumpled trade tickets on the floor. At the Nasdaq OMX Group, a single technician sits in front of eight flat-panel computer screens in a quiet operations center, 51 stories above the World Trade Center construction site. On one screen, quotes blink on and off at speeds barely visible to the human eye. On another, a fever chart showing orders and completed trades scrolls along like the electroencephalogram of an agitated 2-year-old.

To the extent that the Nasdaq market exists anywhere, it's within a single rack-mounted Dell server in a rented data center somewhere across the Hudson River. That machine routinely processes 70,000 orders, cancelations and trades per second but can handle up to 250,000 per second--enough to deal with trades on the Nasdaq plus the London and Paris stock exchanges with room to spare.

An entire trading floor crammed into a suitcase-size computer: That's the future of exchanges, and Nasdaq was there first, having been all-electronic--floorless, that is--since its inception in 1971. In the early days the trades were by telephone; since 1983 they have consisted of computer clicks.

With roughly 33% of the total volume in U.S. equities, and 2,500 employees, Nasdaq OMX is rushing to push more stock trades as well as futures, options and other derivatives onto its superfast, supercheap servers before competitors like NYSE Euronext catch up. "As you add scale, your incremental cost goes to zero," says Robert Greifeld, 51, a former computer salesman who took over at Nasdaq in 2003 as it was being spun out of the old National Association of Securities Dealers, now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. "Our goal is to add more incremental trades at zero cost."

In a year of spectacular market meltdowns, Nasdaq OMX Group has capitalized on the turmoil. It is our Company of the Year.

The chaos in financial markets--to say nothing of exploding volatility--has been a windfall for exchange operators. Combined U.S. trading volume on all exchanges averages 10.6 billion shares a day, compared with 4.2 billion two years ago and 1.5 billion a decade ago. The recent increase in volume is accompanied by an explosion in volatility: The CBOE Nasdaq Volatility Index, reflecting short-term expectations of volatility in the Nasdaq 100 Index, surged to 80 from 20 or so between mid-2006 and October of last year. At four-hundredths of a penny per share, Nasdaq takes in $800,000 in fees on a 2-billion-share day, just for pushing electrons through its servers.

But there's more competition for that traffic. A 2007 federal regulation ordered brokers to route their trades to the cheapest exchange, not the one that is most convenient. In Kansas City, Mo., Bats Exchange, a three-year-old competitor, now handles approximately 12% of U.S. volume, including 12% of the trading in Nasdaq-listed shares.

Traders are also doing 7% of their volume in "dark pools," the electronic equivalent of a back alley where buyers and sellers transact anonymously, according to Tabb Group, a Westborough, Mass. market researcher. "People used to talk about each stock having a principal exchange," says Daniel Mathisson, managing director in charge of a Credit Suisse division that uses computers to direct trades to the lowest-cost exchange at any given moment. "Now the trading's going all over the place, and there is nothing to stop that trend."

So Greifeld plays offense, using cheap technology to get business. In 2005 he paid $935 million for Instinet Group, one of the largest electronic exchange operators, chiefly to get his hands on the Island trading engine, particularly fast and inexpensive technology developed by a young Brooklyn, N.Y. entrepreneur in the mid-1990s. Within months Greifeld scrapped Nasdaq's expensive Tandem computers in a Connecticut data center and moved Nasdaq to off-the-shelf servers. "We have to have the same cost structure as the startups--we can't give any quarter," he says.

Americans may be cutting back on holiday shopping, but they are still buying video games - nearly $3 billion's worth in November, according to data from market researcher NPD Group.

U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories jumped 10 percent last month from the year-ago period to $2.91 billion, boosted by strong sales of Nintendo Co. (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people )'s Wii, Microsoft Corp. (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )'s Xbox 360 along with the alien shooter game "Gears of War 2."

The availability of a broad range of games is one reason for the industry's ongoing solid performance, said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. Games also provide a relatively cheap form of stay-at-home entertainment.

The industry, Frazier said, is still on track to rack up $22 billion in U.S. sales this year.

November and December are crucial months for video game companies because many of them make the bulk of their money during the holidays. Earlier this week, Electronic Arts Inc. (nasdaq: ERTS - news - people ), the publisher of the popular "Madden" football game series, warned that sales have been weak in North America and Europe. Without giving a specific guidance, EA said its fiscal 2009 results will fall short of the guidance it gave in October.

But EA's warning did not seem to signal a broader downturn for the industry.

Hardware sales, which include gaming consoles like the Wii as well as handheld systems like the PSP, jumped 10 percent to $1.21 billion.

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State TV says provinces are slating an eye-popping $1.5 trillion in stimulus spending. The reality is likely far more underwhelming.

More From Paul Maidment

If China knows about anything, it is propaganda. The considerable power of the state's propaganda machine is now being thrown behind the effort to stop the economy from slowing too much.

On Sunday, as Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was on the last day of a three-day tour of Shanghai and Zhejiang province exhorting local companies to show confidence that they would get through what he called "difficult times," state broadcaster CCTV was reporting that provinces across China would add 10 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion) to the 4 trillion yuan stimulus package that Beijing announced earlier this month.

Ten trillion yuan is an eye-catching number. It is twice the level of all state spending in 2007, not to mention two and a half times greater than the central government's proposed package of investments in infrastructure and social programs over two years. Lest we forget, Beijing was meant to be financing only a third of that directly; the rest was to come from provincial and local administrations, and from state-owned banks and companies.

It has not been clear what was new money in the 4 trillion yuan package and what old, already budgeted for in the current five-year plan or earmarked for natural disaster relief, and just bundled up to provide an eye-catching headline number. The 10 trillion yuan suffers from similar opaqueness behind the headline number.

CCTV came up with it after doing the rounds of the provinces counting up spending plans. The two biggest sets it found were 3 trillion yuan in Yunnan in the southwest and 2.3 trillion yuan in Guangdong, the southern export hub. These, though, are spending proposals, not commitments.

What we suspect is happening is this: after three years in which provincial governments have found financing infrastructure projects difficult as central government tried to stamp down on inflation by restricting credit, they are now rushing to find projects with which to lay claim to the 80 billion yuan not yet allocated out of the 100 billion yuan Beijing wants spent in the final quarter of this year. Those with the fattest pipeline, local officials believe, have the best chance of securing funding.

CCTV interviewed one local official in Hubei province who boasted how his colleagues had put in extra hours over the past two weeks as policy had suddenly reversed from curbing inflation to slowdown prevention, and had come up with 100 infrastructure and local develop projects to pitch. The official said their marching orders were to find already started projects being held back for lack of capital, or new projects that could give a quick boost to the economy.

In Pictures: Top 10 Games Starring Female Characters

After quickly disarming and incapacitating your pursuers, you clamber up some stairs and burst out onto a sun-drenched rooftop. Running full-tilt to the lip of the roof, you leap, roll to your feet and vault over air ducts before sliding to safety beneath a descending steel gate a few buildings away. Speedily threading your way through such obstacles is essential for survival as a lone runner against an entire police force that's trying to prevent you from discovering the truth behind a political assassination.

Welcome to "Mirror's Edge," Electronic Arts' (nasdaq: ERTS - news - people ) new parkour-inspired action game landing in stores Tuesday. What's unique about the game--beyond its use of the first-person vantage point, which is usually reserved for shooters--is that the main character is a woman.

The games industry has long catered to the core 18- to 34-year-old male demographic, so game developers often choose burly space marines instead of petite heroines as protagonists. But as the general audience of games expands--thanks to devices like the Nintendo (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ) Wii--it calls into question why female heroines are so under-represented in games.

In Pictures: Top 10 Games Starring Female Characters

According to the Entertainment Software Association, 40% of all game players are female, and nearly 30% of all console game players are women. But only 3% of games appearing on the current crop of Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), Nintendo and Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) consoles star female characters, according to the research firm Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. Men fill the lead role in 46% of titles created for the latest consoles. The remaining games feature either customizable characters (normally found in role-playing games) or don't feature a lead character (such as the puzzle game "Tetris").

The industry is not necessarily opposed to putting females in games--some of gaming's most iconic leads are women. Bounty hunter Samus Aran made waves when it was revealed at the end of the first "Metroid" game that the person behind the suit was female. Lara Croft, the female adventurer modeled after Indiana Jones, has been raiding tombs since the late '90s. And there are a host of other games like Ubisoft's "Beyond Good & Evil" and Sony's "Heavenly Sword" that star strong female characters. Still, these heroines are vastly out-numbered by their male counterparts and, historically, developers have exploited female characters for their sex appeal.

That's why EA's decision to put the sleek and athletic Faith in the leading role of "Mirror's Edge" is so unique. "I find it's wearing a bit thin and [is] kind of childish," Owen O'Brien, the game's senior producer, says about the typical portrayal of gals in games. "I wanted to create an action hero who happened to be female--but could just as easily have been male--who wasn't trading on the fact that she was a sexual being. I was trying to create a character that was aspirational but attainable...[without] gravity-defying breasts."

Besides, says O' Brien, Faith fits perfectly into the role of a hunted runner far better than a man ever would. If she were male, he says, players would have immediately entered shooter mode--hunting for bigger guns and better armor--instead of relying on Faith's speed and agility to disarm or dodge opponents.

In the action genre that "Mirror's Edge" falls into, only 3% of titles released during this console cycle starred females. Men helm 51% of action games. Male characters also drive 73% of shooters while women star in a mere 1% of the games. The only genre where women have the upper hand is in Sims-like games where they star in 14% of the games versus 5% featuring men.

See chart for a full genre breakout

The only market where women are represented with the same frequency as men is in the casual games space. "The [casual] industry has leaned toward female characters," says Jessica Rogers, marketing director of Nickelodeon's Kids and Family Games Group. "It has a lot to do with the audience being predominately women."

With respect to the industry at large, O'Brien has a "gut feeling" that it's moving toward equal representation. "There are more girls playing games, but there's still a long way to go," he says.

Sarah Hoeksma, group marketing director at "Tomb Raider" publisher Eidos, says the ratio of female to male leads in gaming overall is already increasing. "A number of top publishers are now releasing games with leading female characters in games designed for gamers rather than the casual market," Hoeksma said in an e-mail. "If consumers show there is a demand for these characters, then the industry will continue to invest in the development of more female leads."

10. Rumble Roses XX

"Rumble Roses" is unapologetic in touting this wrestling game's "visual 'enhancements'"--it renders scantily clad women entangled in suplexes. If the female wrestlers--dressed up as cowgirls, schoolgirls and nurses--weren't scintillating in their barely there apparel, they also fight with bared breasts.

9. Petz: Horsez 2

The "Petz" franchise, alongside the "Imagine" line, is one of Ubisoft's core revenue generators in its Games for Everyone initiative, which generated some 25% of the companies revenues in 2007. The "Petz" games give players a virtual animal to dutifully play, train and groom. Horses, of course, appeal primarily to wee lasses, so it's of little surprise that "Horsez" stars a young female rider who gets to raise and breed steeds and participate in competitions.

8. Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey

Disney Princess is a $4 billion brand. All one needs to do is name drop Jasmine or Ariel and the toy will sell like hot cakes. "Enchanted Journey" is no different. Playing as a young girl, gamers must help four magical kingdoms--governed by the likes of Jasmine and Snow White--return to order after a witch stole attributes like color or time from the worlds. It's not deep, but Disney Princess is just right for the brand's 3- through 5-year

7: Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2

Team Ninja, the developers behind the "Dead or Alive" franchise, is well known for its catalog of busty vixens willing to fight to the death in mixed martial arts bouts. "Xtreme 2" is the follow up to spin-off "Xtreme Beach Volleyball"--basically a game about collecting various revealing sets of swim wear. The sequel beefs up its activity line up to include tug of war and jet ski racing. Don't forget the fan favorite "hip wrestling" where the girls face "back-to-back and cheek-to-cheek" as they attempt to bump each other off a platform and into a pool with their hips.

6. Okami Loosely based on a Japanese myth, players take control of the goddess Amaterasu in a quest to restore peace and beauty to a demon-infested land. Throughout her journey, a wolf, the corporal manifestation of the sun goddess, is called upon to both help out citizens and fight monsters. "Okami" was critically acclaimed for its art style and innovative use of calligraphy--armed with a "Celestial Brush," players could wipe out enemies with a single stroke.

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5. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary

Lara Croft is one of videogaming's most iconic women; she was even awarded the title of most successful heroine by the Guinness World Record in 2006. Modeled as a female Indiana Jones, Lara--unsurprisingly--raids tombs in search of archaeological artifacts. The "Anniversary" edition is an ode to the original 1996 classic in celebration of the brand's 10th birthday.

4. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend

Lara was always meant to be a strong female lead character, but as she aged her original developer decided she needed "sexing up." For 2006's "Legend," a new development team took the reigns and rebuilt Lara and her world from the ground up in the hopes of reinvigorating the franchise. In the process--and in an attempt to appeal to more female gamers--Lara's look shifted from buoyantly bosomed to an athletic build.

3. Hannah Montana: Spotlight World Tour

Catering to the young female audience on the Wii (and the PlayStation 2), "Spotlight World Tour" lets gamers dance along with Hannah Montana as she performs musical numbers from the Disney television show at venues across the globe in a rhythm game mash-up.

2. Heavenly Sword

Nariko, a female warrior wielding a life-sapping sword, must defeat an invading army intent on capturing and harnessing the sword's deadly power. There is also a complicated backstory about how Nariko was supposed to be born the great male heir who would save her clan.

1. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Bounty hunter Samus Aran, the star of Nintendo's "Metroid" franchise, is one of the first female protagonists to appear in videogames. When "Metroid" debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986, Samsus was depicted simply as a cybernetic-suited hero. It was only at the end of the game that players learned the person behind the helmet was a female. "Metroid Prime 3" is the third installment in Nintendo's popular first-person adventure reinvention of the

Tune in to Anderson Cooper on CNN and watch as he counts down the "10 Most Wanted Culprits of the Collapse." Pick up the New York Post and read about FBI investigations of top financial firms under the headline "Fraud Street." With a bewildering and frightening financial crisis in full swing, the new national pastime is finding someone to blame.

As markets crash and retirement dreams fade away, media and the public are full of outrage at everyone from mortgage brokers and Wall Street CEOs to real estate investors to experts who failed to predict the crisis was coming. Congress hauls the most prominent executives before tough committee hearings, while political candidates blame each other. Pundits proffer lists of the mustache-twirling villains who caused the whole thing.

An Epic Whodunit

Investigators will undoubtedly uncover fraud, cheating, and other criminal behavior. But for now, there is no shortage of players who stand accused of having a hand in the crisis. It just depends on where you think the landslide began or who gave it the biggest push.

If you blame loosened financial regulations, maybe former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) or Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox are your men.

Think that a political push to boost homeownership handed too many people mortgages they couldn't afford? Why not single out Franklin Raines, former CEO of Fannie Mae?

Maybe you think the whole housing bubble could have been avoided with an interest rate increase (Alan Greenspan, step right up). Or, that folks should never have signed up for no-doc, interest-only loans, no matter how many silhouettes danced across their computer screen in a Web ad. In that case, the villain may be no further than your bathroom mirror.

(For a walk through some of those people who are blamed for having a hand in the meltdown, go to our slide show.)

"Whole System" at Fault

Of course, all of these people had something else in mind other than wrecking the U.S. economy. Some of them were making lots and lots of money—for themselves, of course, but also for their investors. Others truly believed in the virtue of freeing the marketplace's animal spirits from the cold hand of government regulation. And how many people were arguing against the virtues of homeownership?

Just the fact that one can assemble such a long list of possible villains gives a hint as to how many institutions, officials, and regular Americans made mistakes. "It's so difficult to pinpoint one person or two people," says Georgetown University finance professor Reena Aggarwal. "It really was the whole system."

Even Presidential candidates eager for votes have acknowledged there's no easy scapegoat. "Part of the reason this crisis occurred is that everyone was living beyond their means—from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street," Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said on Oct. 13.

Indeed, it was a series of bad ideas, surprising linkages, and all-too-predictable blunders that came together to send the U.S. financial system, and then the entire world economy, into a serious credit crunch and global stock panic. That's not to say that it couldn't have been prevented.