It doesn’t matter if a business offers it or not - it’s still an account anyone can setup where you have significant pretax benefits, whether your job offers it or not

With that said

60% of Americans who have a job that offers a 401k, do not contribute to their 401k

Many of those jobs include a match which is painfully ignored

And 70% of the 30-35% (total Americans who contribute to 401k) do not change their default company plan

Company plans are 99% of the time inferior to a freely managed vanguard etf, Over the long term

I can provide data to support these statistics when off my phone

I totally agree many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and above their means. Credit card debt is outpacing wage growth and net savings has been dropping monthly for the last 2 years

This post was edited by Bazi on Nov 3 2023 10:16am

Canada just introduced another tax advantaged account and my wife just opened her's yesterday. The bank, TD was so insistent, to the point of hostility that she does not have the investing experience for a self-managed account. I had to essentially say, do what we're asking or ill move all her assets. You take people who have no experience, conversations can be difficult with these people despite it being your money. Too many people roll over and end up in some mutual fund with a 2.5% fee.

This post was edited by SBD on Nov 3 2023 10:25am

Replace that by money devaluation and we're good

on the other hand, I just looked at avg healthcare cost for us and it's crazy, I think only Switzerland can compete with such in eu

This post was edited by Melatonina on Nov 3 2023 10:27am

I believe you.
People are known to be lazy, too - so if you factor in convenience, a lot of people do not go out of their way to set up a 401k if the convenience provided by the employer isn't there. It's baffling that they don't contribute even when a plan / match is offered but the cost of living / overspending hindering contributions is a reality.
The burden of retirement planning is certainly on the individual, along with all the risk, and it's not exactly simple / straight forward. I can see why people generally don't get involved. I suppose with all things in life, to those who pursue knowledge and work hard, it can pay off.

To be fair and transparent

I did not contribute a dollar to retirement in all of my 20s. I was in school for a lot of it but I had jobs throughout and definite of the last 3 years in 20s I could have contributed but still didn’t

I think it’s a genuine knowledge gap our society as a whole has that penetrates multiple income brackets

You think the majority who invest are included in that? That’s where you’re wrong. Someone already mentioned only -35% have a 401k. The people who invest aren’t your average Americans and definitely aren’t holding that credit card debt just to pay a 15%+ APR.

Yeah I mean I have 3 credit cards and I’ll put every bill I can on them over a month then pay it off. One of them is still 0% interest for another 6-8 months iirc. The perks are insane and it’s foolish to not have credit cards if you’re living in America where you consume on a daily basis

Yeahhhh

Not surprising and I am sure this tactic works on A LOT of people sadly

There are 2 americas ? Anyway, it includes everyone.

This post was edited by Melatonina on Nov 4 2023 03:23am

Here's a good read for long term investors.

https://www.greaterfool.ca/2023/11/04/corrections-bear-markets-oh-my/