If it's a new day, it must be time for yet another depressing retirement fact, right? Well, I'm here with today's factoid, and … wait for it … some good newsabout it.

Our friends at the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College have just released their National Retirement Risk Index report. One of its key findings is that 51% of American households "will not have enough retirement income to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living, even if they work to age 65." That percentage is up from 44% just two years ago and 30% a decade ago.

Yikes!

It may not be quite as bad as it seems, though. Remember that between 2007 and this year, there was an annus horribilis , aka 2008. It brought down the value of many homes and put most Americans' all-cotton retirement accounts in the dryer on high. That's why so many more Americans' retirements look bleaker.

But things change. Even though the market fell big last year, it has risen strongly during the current rally. Retirement accounts are recovering, and home prices will eventually start rising again, too. Check out how the following names have done -- noting that each has received top ratingsfrom our 140,000-member Motley Fool CAPS community, suggesting that many investors are still quite bullish about their futures:

Company

1-Year Return

Recent P/E

Western Union (NYSE: WU)

19%

15

Akamai Technologies (Nasdaq: AKAM)

53%

29

Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM)

22%

23

Suncor (NYSE: SU)

39%

95

Precision Castparts (NYSE: PCP) Continued...