> It's worse than that. The 401k generation will begin think about retiring in the next few years. Most will discover that their 401K, despite maximum contributions, will be insufficient to retire on.
I’m sorry, are you looking at the same market graphs I’m looking at? Anyone who is retiring soon and has been maxing their 401(k) for the last decade-plus is doing pretty damn well.
I’m pretty confident the majority of families that have been maxing their 401(k)s have a pretty good awareness of their retirement situation. Not a lot of people in that bracket are going to wake up one day in their sixties and suddenly realize they need to drop their standard of living if they want to make it. There’s not a lot of overlap in the Venn diagram of people who care enough to max out their retirement plans and people who don’t routinely assess their financial situation.
I’d be much, much more worried about the depressingly large number of people who have next to nothing saved, who almost certainly will be surprised to learn that retirement isn’t an age, it’s a financial situation.
> I’d be much, much more worried about the depressingly large number of people who have next to nothing saved
I agree.
> Not a lot of people in that bracket are going to wake up one day in their sixties and suddenly realize they need to drop their standard of living if they want to make it.
If all they've been doing is maxing their 401k and expecting that to be enough are likely in for a shock. I don't know if this person is more savvy than others. They likely have many other tailwinds, like paid off mortgages and kids with good careers that will ease things. But the drop in income is going to be an adjustment is all I'm saying.
How much one needs in retirement is entirely relative to the type of retirement that person wants for themselves which is typically relative to the lifestyle they lived prior to retirement which is relative to their income an ability to save for retirement. I don't get your point, but there seems to be a lot of relative factors going on.
I’m sorry, are you looking at the same market graphs I’m looking at? Anyone who is retiring soon and has been maxing their 401(k) for the last decade-plus is doing pretty damn well.