401jK – 401k, The 45 Year Trap – 401jK

For most Americans the 401k starts as a line on their first HR form: tick the box, let a slice of every paycheck disappear into an invisible account, and trust that decades later it will deliver freedom. The brochures promise that if you just stay disciplined, skip a few nights out, keep driving the old car, funnel cash to that account, you’ll retire a millionaire.

However, for millions the ending is not a tropical-beach postcard. After forty years of work and sacrifice, the balance they unveil is only a few hundred thousand dollars, barely enough to keep budgeting like a broke college kid for the rest of their life. That is not a flaw in the design; that is the design.

The 401k replaced the old-fashioned pension plans of the previous generation. It shifted the responsibility for retirement income away from employers and placed it squarely on the worker’s shoulders, while Wall Street collected fees for managing the money. In theory the deal sounded fair: contributions reduce your taxable income today, the employer might add a match, the market works its magic through compounding, and at 65 you ride off into the sunset. In practice the average sixty-something American today holds roughly $200k – $250k in their account; even those regarded as “good savers” often top out around half a million. At the traditional 4% draw-down rule, that pot pays $20k a year before taxes. But wait… Those figures include the wealthiest billionaires pots as well. What about the median values? $87k…. 4% now pays you $3,480 per annum. How’s that retirement looking now?

A figure that feels closer to survival than to freedom.

Read the rest of the Medium article here
https://medium.com/@401jkk/401k-the-45-year-trap-513fe3b1ad65

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