The news of the retirement crisis is inescapable.

The latest numbers illustrating the point are, as usual, alarming. An Employee Benefit Research Institute survey about retirement confidence, published last week, echoes what we’ve been hearing for years – Americans haven’t saved enough to get them through a comfortable retirement. The survey found that 28% of workers are not at all confident about having enough money for a secure retirement -- essentially unchanged from the record lows in 2011. More troubling is that 57% of workers reported that the total value of their household’s savings and investments (excluding the value of their home and pension plans) is less than $25,000. Ouch.

So what do you do if you find yourself nearing retirement with little savings?

Beyond the worn-out advice to work longer and cut expenses, the reality is there are very limited choices, says Harold Evensky, a certified financial planner and president of Evensky & Katz Wealth Management in Coral Gables,

The first quarter of 2013 clearly has been a good one for the equity market overall, and on Thursday, the S&P 500 reached its all-time closing high. According to FactSet, five stocks in the index have surged 50% or more since the beginning of the year, and to this point, movie renter Netflix (NFLX) is No. 1 overall.

Yahoo Finance data show that, as of the previous close, the S&P is better by 6.9% from the first trading day in January, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is ahead by 8.3%. The Nasdaq Composite has added 5%.

However, those upward moves are, as always, going to be paltry compared with the biggest percentage-gaining shares. So far, the S&P's winners are led by Netflix and its increase of 106.8%.

Doubling a share price in a quarter is always impressive, but that said, the major part of Netflix's climb occurred over just a few days in January after it reported a strong holiday run for its business. The shares closed at $97.81 on Jan. 22, and by Jan. 25, they were at