Trystan Trenberth warns that retirees with $300,000–$400,000 in 401(k)s face a six-year runway at $50,000 annually, with inflation cutting deeper. Low-wage jobs like Walmart greeter roles offer no security, and Medicaid rules force seniors to drain assets before qualifying for assisted living benefits.
I've heard some statistics that show as little as $300,000 is in people's 401 to retire with. And if you look at a $50,000 a year salary, if somebody, you know, finishes and there's no inflation, that's 6 years of retirement before they need to start work again at best. Now, if we look at inflation, if $300,000, maybe let's call it $350,000, maybe 400 if we're generous, by the time we get to whatever that age of retirement might be. Their wages will have gone up by that time. The cost of living is going to have gone up. So it might even be less than that 6 years that they have. And I know Walmart only have a few greeter jobs, and that's not to demean the value of the people doing that work, but those are the sort of jobs that are there for people at that time. They don't really have a great choice and they're not really well taken care of in that position. So they could just be working to the grave. And that's not even considering Medicaid, Medicare for assisted living. And I've done a lot of that in the last couple of years, working with people in those areas to understand a lot more about how that works. And they want you to sell any assets of certain classes before they'll start contributing. So it's a horrific, horrific future for a lot of people.
