WHEN Ms Cynthia Shank, 51, looked at her individual retirement account summary last December, she had about US$450,000 ( $640,000).

When she looked at it recently, she had US$349,000. 'I'm afraid to look,' she told the Washington Post.

Ms Shank is not alone.

More and more employers have stopped offering their employees pensions with fixed amounts and have instead moved them into defined-contribution plans that fluctuate with the stock market.

Lately, there's been a lot of fluctuating, and Americans are increasingly watching their retirement cushions lose much of their padding.

Ms Shank,who is single, is already stretching to meet her financial obligations. She has a mortgage, US$9,000 in credit card debt and a US$7,000 home-equity line of credit.

Eventually, she will have student loans to pay off as she is taking classes to get into library science, a career path that seems steadier than the one she is on now.

She is a technical writer working on a US$63,000 contract that may or may not be renewed next year.

Even the cost of petrol is taking a toll. She has an 80km round-trip commute each workday. 'That alone has been a killer,' she said.

As of last week, she had negative US$25 in her cheque account, which makes her wonder: How is she ever going to live comfortably in retirement when she can't even live comfortably with a full-time job?

And now, she has even less saved for retirement.

When it comes to picking financial institutions to take care of her money, Ms Jocelyn Reed, 37, has had a string of bad luck.

She once had money with California-based IndyMac. That bank went under earlier this year.

She has a life insurance policy with American International Group. The company was recently taken over by the US government.

She now has current and savings accounts with Washington Mutual. The government seized that bank just last week andsold it to JPMorgan Chase.

'I'm hearing a lot of discussion about safe banks, and I'm not even sure what that means,' said Ms Reed, a school psychologist.

And she is still not convinced any of her moneyis safe.

This article was first published in The New Paper on September 30, 2008.