The new company I am working for now after being laid off from my previous company (almost 29 years there) does not match. I think many of our kids are going to end up in companies that don’t match in the future.
I do not think that the companies will completely stop matching 401k because they use delayed vesting/matching as an incentive to keep employees. My son’s company has a very elaborate matching process where in the beginning they match very little but after 10-15 years matching gets very generous. I have never seen this type of plan before.
We now have large group health care. Why not a large group 401k? The participants pay the cost, with so many, fees are low (I pay fees). Give it the 18k limit. Your employer sends the amounts directly from your check. I’ve never understood why we don’t have this.
I don’t feel like this is a “millenial” way of thinking. My father is 60 and expects to work until around age 75. It depends on a lot of factors.
@soccerguy315 A number of years ago I had a 28 year old who was buying a couple hundred of dollars of lottery tickets per month. He said, “I want to be a millionaire.” I told him start saving for retirement and he could be a millionaire. He replied he didn’t care about 40 years from now. I told him he’d be broke now and 40 years from now if his investment strategy was lottery tickets. I don’t know if he ever woke up to financial realities.
H’s friends who are in their 70s are varied. Some have been retired since their 60s or so while others expect to continue working until they die. A lot depends on circumstances–who they are supporting, their resources, obligations to employees (if they are owners), disabled dependents, the COL where they live, and other factors. H is grateful that after 45 years he was able to retire and we were able to pay off kids’ college expenses and tuition. We did NOT save as much as we would have liked, but his COLA-adjusted pension and subsidized healthcare is huge for us in being comfortable now, even though he didn’t get as much salary as private sector employees for his entire career. We are and will remain very financially comfortable.
I grew up in a house where I learned nothing about saving, only about debt. I always did the 401k savings if the employer offered it, but often matching didn’t vest until a certain anniversary was reached (3 years, 5 years) and I really didn’t understand how it all worked. I ‘cashed out’ to buy a house because that was allowed, so why not. Of course I regret it now, but I just didn’t know and had many periods of unemployment so thought I needed that saved money.
In my last job I knew better. I socked away everything I could, the max each year plus the catch up. Had a great match so that added even more. I think employers should offer more information about the different programs, and some do a better job than others, but too many employees still don’t understand. I was pushy, bossy, nosey, whatever you want to call me, but I told everyone to contribute, especially the younger employees, the single parents struggling to make the rent payments, those who don’t think they need it.
@twoinanddone I think part of the problem is some supervisors don’t understand how 401k’s work or why investing regularly is so important. It’s hard to explain what you don’t understand fully and you won’t push what you don’t believe in. Sad.
This thinking is certainly not limited to millenials. My mother is 81 and still works full time. I don’t think she has any imminent plans to retire. She does not have a pension, nor do my husband or I. DH and I do have 401(k)s and other money saved for retirement, though.
While everyone is different, it is a fact that your brain slows down and your mental dexterity decreases with time. We are presumably speaking of knowledge work, not customer service, so it seems to me that people are deluding themselves if they think their mind will be as sharp @70 as it is @35. Just like 50 year olds can no longer play “A league” recreational sports they also can’t compete mentally with young people in the workforce outside of customer service and management where experience and people skills trump a sharp mind. The service we need to provide is getting young people to realize this. There is nothing sadder than working with a person in their mid 60’s who used to be sharp but just can’t keep up anymore.
I work in finance, in a building that has dozens of financial firms. Much of our business is investing union pension funds intended to help workers in their retirement…
The irony is that our building’s security workers buy lottery tickets by the bucketful from the building’s convenience shop where I go to buy my gum.
A bit confused about mid60’s not being as sharp? More sleep, sure. Physically can’t keep up with young bucks? Sure. But years of experience and honed decision making can keep someone starp in 60’s. Most 4 star generals/admirals will be near 60 or over. Ditto for many executives civilian and government. These folks have kept their brains sharp by disciplined reading, studying, etc. The brain must be excercised like the body but 60’s is not the end.
@ShrimpFarmer You sound like a kid lacking in real world experience. Your ageism is not based on facts.
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That is exactly what I said. Yes the top people are still sharp but they are rarely involved in the day to day operations and they are anomalies most people at some age in the 60’s or early 70’s are in noticeable decline. Delusional thinking and “feeling” it is not so do not amount to facts. People are not winning Nobel prizes for thought work in their 60’s and 70’s other than as the head of something, lifetime achievement or for abstract skills like peace prizes.
Actually, the primary reason that people don’t win Nobel prizes for work performed in their 60s and 70s is that the Nobel is given out anywhere from 20-30 years after the original work was performed, and it is never given out posthumously.
For examples, Merton & Scholes were given the Nobel in 1997 for their work on their valuation of stock options which was performed in the early 70s. Fischer Black, who was a co-author with Scholes, died in 1995, and therefore did not receive a Nobel.
Cognitive decline with age is a secondary reason.
@ShrimpFarmer It is always interesting when a brand new member joins in on a discussion solely to add somewhat controversial comments.
OK. Wasn’t trying to be controversial. Based on a number of factors including your social economic status, upbringing, region you have different perspectives. I think my opinion just currently resides outside groupthink where you can be anything that you wish. just pointing out that mentally, sexually, physically and I presume emotionally at some point you peak and start to diminish. We should stop telling our children that this is not so.
I think that whether you retire early die working solely depends on each individual’s work ethic.
IT has nothing to do with being in a certain generation.
Work ethic is the deciding factor, and a little bit of luck that you don’t get sick and die early.
One of the only things that is certain is that the vast majority of people do not think they way they do in their twenties vs their 40’s vs 60’s. We change as we live and experience different things.
So whatever millennial’s are saying now will be sure to change.
Baby boomers were the hippies that became the bankers and helicopter parents!