Last year around this time, I wrote an article patterned after Frank Capra’s Christmas Classic It’s a Wonderful Life (see “Plan Sponsors Smile: Hooray for the 401k!” on FiduciaryNews.com). In it, I wrote of what life would have been like for several real-life people had the 401(k) never existed. Readers gave the article such great response that I repurposed it and used it as the opening chapter in my book 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions.

I’m not the only person to sing hosannas for the 401(k). The nation is filled with many grateful employees whose employers began offering 401(k) plans as soon as they became popular in the 1980s. These folks, if not there already, are on their way to a comfortable retirement, despite the economic calamity of the late Bush/Obama era. On this journey to financial independence, these folks have learned and practiced the art of self-discipline, self-confidence and ultimately, self-endowment. No longer would their retirement benefits remain chained to a company—all the more important in an evolving economy where yesterday’s highflyer is today’s Chapter 11 filer.

The aura of the 401(k) has found itself well matched to that archetypal American persona of the rugged individual. Successful 401(k) investors forged into the heretofore unexplored frontier of personal investing. They came packed and ready, not afraid to admit what they didn’t know and not afraid to teach themselves what they needed to tackle any obstacle market cycles would throw at them.