I lost faith in any sort of organized or even worse, government-sponsored retirement decades ago. I have been insulating myself through the value of the company that I own which is pretty bullet-proof (construction: people are always going to need stuff built!) I think something that has been quite important for me is that I live a simple life and put away more than half of what I make each month.
I know this isn't really the topic of your post but I think the main thing that is killing most people's futures isn't necessarily bad investing, but irresponsible spending. One of my high school buddies, via nepotism almost entirely, makes SERIOUS BANK, yet the dude is kind of a financial idiot and just spends spends spends. He has 4 cars even though there are only 2 drivers in his family. He has an absolutely massive plot of land that he does nothing with other than get forced to mow the grass by the county every couple of weeks. His house is also absurdly large considering it is just him, his wife, and one child. He always has the latest gadgets the day they come out and one day when I was visiting him, even though he makes probably 3 times as much as I do, he was hesitant to go to Hooters (a ritual we have since college) because he couldn't afford it. I paid.
The thing is the guy is very close to 50 now and has made zero changes to his spending patterns because of his pension that he has what I consider to be far too much faith in. If that goes tits up, as they say, he is extremely screwed.