” young people to NOT donate to their retirement accts”
Strong disagreement.
Unlike wages, most types of retirement accounts are safe from various types of legal predation.
The best advice I have is
-Open up a brokerage account and self-managed Roth IRA.
-Put all spare and available funds into it paying the taxes up front.
-Roll that snowball using a good index fund or daytrade to build faster growth.
TMK only a ROTH IRA protects your savings and retirement.
Retirement accounts (IRAs) when self-managed can easily surpass the rate of currency debasement (inflation).
Stay ahead of Inflation. Otherwise - Doomage
2. Another advantage to a 401(k) account is that you can borrow from it if necessary. I funded my first business investment with a 401(k) loan that was a rare case of winning at least three ways: (A) I borrowed the money by cashing out a portion of my bond funds that were yielding low returns during a period of low interest rates; (B) I paid the loan back to myself; and (C) the interest was tax deductible because it was for a legitimate business purpose.
3. The one downside I see to a Roth IRA is that nothing prevents Congress from changing the law in the future and making your withdrawals taxable. This is why I’ve always said that a Roth IRA is OK, but I would never recommend doing a conversion from a traditional IRA to a Roth.
The ability to take loans is a plus to these accounts.