Do you know what a “Target Fund” is?  This increasingly popular choice for 401(k) plans is a mutual fund billed as a one-stop solution for investors saving for retirement.  You put your money in a single fund linked to the year in which you plan to retire, and the fund company does the rest.

The idea is that the company invests your nest-egg more conservatively every year, so that when you’re ready to retire, your money will be there for you.

So how well do you think that strategy worked last year, for investors who pinned their hopes on retiring next year?Well… many of these funds had losses far exceeding 20 percent, according to data from investment researcher Morningstar.  And some funds suffered losses of 32 to 41 percent.

Guess there’s a lot of folks who can kiss retirement goodbye for a long time to come.

People about to retire aren’t the only folks Wall Street has failed.  Many parents who invested in state-sponsored college savings plans are wondering how they’ll be able to pay for tuition after those funds sank – even for children who expected to be off to college in just a couple of years.

Those funds fell by as much as 43 percent in 2008!

Meanwhile, real estate and virtually every other investment has proven to be a bust.

Yet, ALL of the Bank On Yourself-policies owned by the more than 100,000 Americans who already use this method received a contractually guaranteed increase last year. They also ALL received a dividend.

Oh – and your principal in a Bank On Yourself plan doesn’t vanish in a market crash, and the growth you receive each year is locked in.

Kinda amazing that the financial “gurus” and the media keep saying there’s been “no place to hide” during the financial crisis, don’t you think?

Still Skeptical?

Take the $100,000 Challenge – It’s very simple: I’ll pay the first person who uses a different strategy that can match or beat Bank On Yourself $100,000.