That is a good question, but I took it to mean the average at retirement. a lot of people start their 401ks too late, when they are near 50 and then have them in very conservative investments.

401ks are only marginally beneficial if you don't make much money to begin with.

12/17/2009 9:32:04 AM

I mean even if your 401k only kept up with inflation, you'd still be better off than if you put that money into social security.

All these people whining about 401ks are old people who got in late and dont want us to stop giving them money or people who made bad investments. I mean hell, most 401ks these days have money market type funds where its a guaranteed positive rate of return (mind you positive in this case includes 0%). Thats quite a bit better than the -30% rate of return on SS.

Any young person against 401ks has probably received a ton of bad advice from some old person.

12/17/2009 9:51:29 AM