The OP didn't mention kids and specifically said he didn't own a house. On top of it, even if he does own a house, in certain parts of the country, that wont even get him over the standard deduction. I have a house with a mortgage and I'm barely breaking the standard deduction. In fact, I'm in a pretty similar case. I make about what he makes, am single and don't have kids. If he's earning 90k a year and doesn't have anything other than the standard deduction, he's paying almost 14k a year in taxes which is just under 17%. This is only federal too. If at retirement he got the average social security check ($1200 a month) and took out 33k a year from his IRA on top of it he'd pay about 4k a year, which is about 9%.You think taxes will be lower when we're older? They are at historically low levels now and can only go up. When it's time to retire you don't have kids as a write-off and a lot of people don't have home payments to write-off like they used to; overall tax bracket is equal or higher in many cases.
Again, what America has been told and what actually happens are two very different things. If a retirement advisor or money manager tells you that you only need equities (managed mutual funds, stocks, 401k/IRAs) then they shouldn't be in business and you need to find someone else.
Also, who said anything about straight equities? You know that mutual funds, 401ks and IRAs can all hold things other than equities right?