Retirement sounds like hell to me and has long seemed merely like a way to convince massive amounts of the population to delay taking earnings (pensions) or indirectly give their money to hedge fund managers to operate against their interests.

"traditional pensions" is a misleading lie. The idea of ceasing to work after reaching a certain age, has been around since around the 18th century, quite new stuff considering how long homo sapiens is around.

And don't get angry at me, I personally think it's a great thing, I'm not an entrepeneur, I'm salaried and I'm hoping to retire eventually, but how the world economics is going, I'm not holding my breath.

Retirement plans worked great during the wars, lots of fine men never reclaiming their retirement money after years of paying for it because they're all KIA. More money to share with fewer people.

Then, after the war, we got the baby boom, lots of fresh meat eager to work to support the retirement of the previous workforce, or what remains of that, after all the PTSD and diseases.

Now? Since you are reading this here on Lemmy, I'm supposing you're tech savy, educated and curious. So you already know population is shrinking around the (first) world. Retirement plans as we know are not sustainable.

What I suggest, is talk to your bank, your consultant, your insurance. Figure out what kind of products they offer as "private retirement plans" and what's their suggestion. Don't expect the government to do something for you (especially in the US).

Do it yesterday, if not possible, then as soon as you can. The earlier you start planning your future, the better.

And if you change your mind, you could always withdraw that money and buy a house, which is something almost impossible until you escape the "living paycheck to paycheck" mentality.