One of the most valuable commodities in the world is water -- without it, mankind can't survive. While more than 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, but 97% of it is saltwater and only 1% of the remaining 3% is readily available for consumption. Water is becoming scarce, and upcoming water shortages are emerging as the population of the world increases, particularly in emerging markets like China, India, and Mexico.

A great way to include water as part of your portfolio's commodity allocation is by buying an exchange-traded fund (ETF). An ETF is a basket of stocks that allow you to invest in a single asset class, sector, country, or theme with one stock. In one ETF, you'll own not only water utility companies but also related businesses, like those that help build the infrastructure for making water suitable for drinking. You won't have to pick a single stock, rather you can own the most important stocks in the water industry -- worldwide. ETFs are perfect building blocks for building a diversified portfolio using an asset allocation strategy.

Welcome to Way Off Wall Street, a column dedicated to providing Main Street opinions on topics of interest to investors. Each installment highlights the views of Americans who are far removed from the canyons of Wall Street -- and who often see things more clearly as a result.

This is the second part of a two part report in which I have examined current retirement attitudes. In Part One, I revealed some of the current thoughts and concerns that were expressed to me by people who are already retired, and by people who expect to retire within the next five years. In Part Two, I present the thoughts and attitudes of people who expect to retire more than ten years from now, and people who believe that the concept of a traditional, full retirement cannot be applied to their lives.

When examining the attitudes of people who will reach the retirement stage of life more than a decade from now, I found it difficult to form a well-rounded picture. I had expected that I would encounter numerous strategies and "secret formulas" for retirement success. However, what I actually encountered was a vast swamp of bewilderment, misinformation, and noncommittal apathy. I'm still rather stunned by it. These are people generally ranging in age from 45 to 60. I find it quite distressing that most of these people don't have a solid grasp on their own retirement planning. An article presented by redwoodage.com quotes Peter Smyth, executive vice president of The Hartford's International Markets, as stating: "The overall level of financial preparedness globally remains low and is deteriorating."

Most of these distant retirees seem totally blind to their own retirement financing. They complain that it's going to be difficult and expensive, but then they defer the responsibilities of their future financial security to employer-provided savings plans and government entitlement programs, including Social Security. Rare was the person I found who was involved in creating their own independent retirement nest egg. Additionally, I never expected to encounter such a stark contrast between this group and the people who are only about ten years older than they are.

Of this distant retirement group, those people who are actually taking an active hand in planning for their own financial futures seemed to favor two particular strategies. The first strategy encompasses those people who have engaged a professional financial planner for guidance in retirement planning and those who are utilizing their own skills and knowledge to actively develop a retirement portfolio on their own. The second active planning strategy is generally defined by a slow, and sometimes questionable, accumulation of tangible assets.

Here is a frightening statistic: about 63% of people with retirement accounts have stopped contributing to them. That little nugget comes courtesy of a recent survey conducted for TD Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD).

Half of those who stopped contributing to their retirement accounts cited "financial strain due to the economic downturn." Another 32% cited unemployment, while 25% mentioned health care costs, according to a company press release. Of those polled, 34% had less than $50,000 in investable assets.

Many of the people who've quit or curtailed contributing -- nearly one in four -- are aged 35 to 44, which should be prime earning years. I am not going to bore you with financial planning 101, but the earlier you start to save (absent a market meltdown), the better because over time the stock market is your friend. Lately, though, it has not been much of one.

Mulling over this survey got me thinking that whoever is elected president is going to face the gargantuan challenge of rebuilding the financial security of millions of Americans who are being forced to push back their retirement plans or who have mortgages they can no longer afford. It's going to take years for people to rebuild their nest eggs and undo the damage they have done to their credit by over-extending themselves. Many people may never be able to return to their former lifestyles.

Of course, that may not be such a bad thing. If this crisis has taught us anything, it's that people need to live within their means.

In the most recent issue of Money, Walter Updegrave answers a reader's question about whether, given the prevalence of low-cost market-tracking index funds, a financial adviser is really necessary.

Good question! Updegrave explains the benefits that a financial advisor can provide: How much do you need to save? Which index funds should you buy? What about rebalancing?

He's not wrong about any of these ideas, but the reality is that, if your retirement savings are as paltry as most Americans, the benefits of paying a fee-only financial advisor (the only kind you should work with) are likely to be completely our of proportion with the benefits.

If you have $5,000 to invest and spend even $100 on a financial advisor, that's the equivalent of a 2% front-load. That can be pretty hard to overcome, and it's unlikely that a financial advisor will provide enough benefit to make it preferable to going it alone after doing your own research.

If you're a young worker just getting started on the whole idea of retirement planning, a financial advisor is probably a luxury that doesn't make any sense.

Here are some great books that you can get at the library that should make up for it: Yes, You Can Get a Financial Life!, The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, and The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke.