The past 50 years have seen incredible advances in investment accessibility for average Americans. With the development of simple indexed mutual funds in the 1970s, average investors gained access to the equity and bond markets that had traditionally only been open to wealthy families and institutions. Further innovations such as ETFs, retirement savings vehicles, and online banking opened the gates even wider. Today, average investors by and large play on a level field with even the wealthiest among us. Yet, because of poor personal finance management, many middle and working class families are missing out on their full retirement potential.