The implementation of deregulation in the financial industry has shown both positive and negative effects on the average investor’s ability to save for retirement. The increase in financial investment products and supplements to saving has provided the average investor with many more opportunities to manage his/her wealth in order to save for retirement. This paper will examine the evolution of basic savings accounts offered by commercial banks in the early 1900s to the broadening of investment opportunities in the 1990s. The paper discusses the effects of three deregulatory acts on the average investor’s ability to accumulate wealth for retirement. These acts include: The Depository Institutions Deregulatory Monetary Control Act of 1980, Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982, and the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 through the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999. Each of these deregulatory measures played a significant role in the changing of investment and savings behavior of the average investor and the definition of retirement in general.