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I'm sure the situation is dire, but I'm not sure it communicates an accurate picture by lumping in 21 year olds with people who've been in the workforce for decades.
21 yr olds who are just entering the workforce or are in college aren't expected to have much, if any, retirement savings at that stage in their lives.
A better picture would be to break it down by age group. Still not a pretty picture, I'm sure.
They've done that in the research, it's just a clickbait headline with very, very light details. After following a few clicks I found the PDF [1] in which they break it apart by many groups and factors (age, race, savings plan, income, student loan debt, all sorts of stuff) and that $955 figure falls under the "workers who do not have $1 in a DC" (meaning workers with no access to a savings plan). For those with access, the number is $40,000 average.
[1] https://www.nirsonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/NIRS_2026-Retirement-in-America-FINAL.pdf
For those with access, the number is $40,000 average.
Which is both in the article and OP summary.
$40,000 still approaches zero. Its one or 2 years of expenses at best.
I didn't start having meaningful savings until my mid 20s. When i bought a house paying off the mortgage became a priority over saving for retirement. I'll be better off paying less interest and reducing my expenses faster than I would be collecting interest on that money. In theory i could out perform my mortgage interest rate by trading stocks, but that is a lot riskier than paying off the mortgage.
Without universal healthcare, even if you save millions, it can all be wiped out with a single illness.
I would say that is intended. Every day I'm more convinced that the US is the Billionaire playground where they can test out how to press the most money out of the population.
With the big police state and enormous prison capacity ready to counter the eventual revolution.
Perhaps they are suprised themselves that no one revolts as they suck more and more money out of the population and reveal more and more of the degenerate lifestyle of the elites.
"They know that we f*ck and kill children and still don't revolt? What else do we need to do? We already take nearly all their money. Well, let's destroy the pension funds, perhaps that does the trick..."
well the solution is simple: deport brown people, ban trans people and give more money and tax cuts to corporations and billionaires. it'll all be over soon.
And you guys don't have a state pension either, right?
You guys really need to get on with a revolution. Work until you die is kinda supposed to be something we are moving away from
There's social security, which does give seniors enough to exist, but not much else.
Even SS is indexed by how much you earned as a wage-slave over your lifetime. If you've done something other than slaving for the Boss, or if your slaving has been for low pay, you get commensurately less in SS payments and the state will be happy to see you starve and freeze in old age.
Garbage.
Tell me the average of all people who have more than zero (and the number that represents), then tell me how many have zero.
This number 955 doesn't mean shit.
Fucking high rollers over there
My retirement plan is to die at work, that way my family is taken care of. (who am I kidding, my work will try to weasel out of paying them if that happens)
Learn from the French: burn shit before you get to the point of starvation.
Your family will be lucky to get a pizza party.
“He worked so hard, we loved him. Were like family here. KThxBye.”
The pizza dough contains potassium bromate which may be carcinogenic
Lots of people saying it's a skill issue that people aren't saving more of their earnings. The problem is much deeper: it doesn't make sense for the majority of Americans to save their money. This is the rational outcome of a political and economic system that does not offer hope, only cynicism.
If it was a handful of people, it could MAYBE be a skill issue. But when it's most people, it's a systemic issue.
I had several 401ks, I cashed them out fairly quickly because an emergency would come along and it was the only thing between me and homelessness, or not receiving medical care.
Now I have a 403(b) because I work for higher ed, and I am forbidden to cash it out, but I've taken a loan against it and paid off my credit cards, and am paying myself interest now.
So now I have my CCs freed up for the next time I have an emergency, which will be checks watch
If your employer offers a 401(k) match, not trying to take advantage of that is one of the absolute dumbest financial moves you can make. Yes, I understand people sometimes can’t that’s why I said “try”.
Another move is not investing early. The biggest boost to wealth in retirement is start saving early to take advantage of compounding interest.
I'll upvote for the "try". Most people I know in tight spots need the money NOW. They are barely thinking 1 year ahead let alone 40.
This is a terrible stat. Taking the people who are entering the workforce and averaging them with people who have spent a lifetime working. Not only that, but that’s just “retirement” savings. How many 20 year olds have retirement accounts?
The information would be far more realistic if it were grouped by decade of life.
Edit: Here. This is a little better
Savings
Retirement savings
Still very bleak. Nobody is retiring comfortably on $60k, much less $10k.
Might be worth factoring in SS, as that's the real practical retirement savings people rely upon.
JFC this is depressing. Hopefully it forces some change though. I like that post about the French boyfriend asking why we don't burn shit. Hunger will make people burn shit.
How and why would you save as someone in the US? This country is collapsing.
You can invest in international markets if you think the US market is doomed. Still not a reason not to save. The bigger problem is that so many people simply can't afford living expenses AND saving for retirement.
Well you see, dr oz has an answer for that. Just start working earlier, and dont retire. No need to save
Life is a Crudite and we are merely sliced vegetables to be browsed over distractedly by the ultrawealthy.
Even though i'm not an a american I thought it's a very negative thing to say and considered to argue. I found I have no augment to offer.
You money/investments/wealth isn't necessarily limited to just the US. Someone could take their assets and move to a different country and put those assets towards retirement.
The idea that you can't save because it's collapsing is just doubling down on sinking with the ship.
Invest everything you can into highly diversified, low-cost index funds and continue doing that for multiple decades. That's the how.
The why should be pretty obvious.
Why wouldn't someone save in the US?
The country is burning down? Sure. We don't know what things will look like in a year? Me neither!
But I'd rather save and invest because in 40 years things may or may not have turned out fine. And I'd have a couple million and you will have zero because "why would you save!?!?" mentality.
If you get started early enough, you don't even have to save a lot over time or even month to month. But if you wait until the last second(40s, 50s?) you'll need to be dumping thousands per month just to catch up.
This is a math problem, not an emotional one.
Our lavish lifestyles include paying for food, shelter, healthcare, power and water and it keeps costing more and more but there’s record shareholder profits!!!! Yeah! You should be happy that the economy is great for pedofiles who rape children and possibly(checks notes) eat babies on yachts. Cool! they’re openly using all our tax dollars with the goal of making us working people obsolete while mass surveilling us and killing dissenters in the streets. Awesome
I will be so happy eating cat food years from now knowing that I was more prepared than the average person.
They have never wanted us to retire. They want us to work until we die.
I sure wish I had 955$ saved!
Soon there will be a critical mass of people who have nothing left to lose. Thats why the Democrats and Republicans need the military in the streets. Their wealthy benefactors cannot allow anything like the New Deal to happen again.
There's gonna be a rash of people committing crimes in their 70s and 80s just to have a place to live and three meals a day.