Tony, I doubt very much that you are the only one disenchanted with the stock market. The excesses, greed, and downright thievery probably contributed to the severity of the drop in the stock market. Not to mention that the housing/banking scam ALMOST flushed our economic system down the toilet. It's probably going to be a long time before peoples' trust comes back into the market.

That said, if you put 5% into the TSP, and stay 100% in the G fund, you get a match of that 5% (doubling your money) and NEVER have to worry about losing when the market drops.

In an inflationary environment, though, this isn't going to do it for you. That's why I too am wondering about the 401K. A nice little bout of inflation for a couple of years would pretty much cut your retirement account in half. The idea behind the 401K was to get people to set money aside for retirement, and let it grow, tax-free. I can envision a scenario wherein taxes could increase enough in the future that the 401K strategy would backfire on the "savers". That's why a Roth IRA might be something to look at after you get a nice chunk of change in your traditional IRA.

Since I am near retirement, I am being pretty conservative with my TSP money - right now I'm mostly in the G fund. For those who have many years until retirement, though, you almost have to put $$ into the market to build your account.