The Great Recession may finally be over, but the shock waves could reverberate for years—and fundamentally change the way we plan for retirement. After most recessions of the past 75 years, the economy quickly bounced back to prerecession levels, erasing memories of hard times. This time seems different. The twin miseries of a stock market crash and a deep housing bust have eliminated $14 trillion of Americans' net worth since 2007—about $121,000 per household. That's money that millions of people had been hoping to retire on. The recent rebound in the stock market has eased some of the pain, but the decline in home values is likely to continue into next year, to be followed by an indefinite plateau. Some analysts think it could take a decade for homes to reclaim the peak values of 2006—and 20 years in California and Florida.