ISK what 401(k) means…unless this is US limited info, in which case not ISK.

Yeah it is US only (AFAIK) retirement scheme

And scheme, it is. They offloaded the responsibility of retirement planning from the employer and financial planners, to the individual. After Eron, obviously the existing system had problems, but now all the responsibility has been punted to the individual, so society can say “well, its your own fault!” When you don’t have enough money in retirement years.

It’s not a scheme, it’s the government using tax breaks to encourage the positive behavior of saving your money for when you’re old. That’s literally what it is.

Tax credits for buying EVs is another example of the government using tax breaks to encourage people to do something that’s beneficial.

Lots of people just don’t save money. 401Ks make it easy and you get good returns, and penalties for withdrawing before you’re old. So you put money in because you know you’ll have a lot more later, and then you keep it until you’re old so you don’t get penalties and lose a bunch of money.

I swear this site is full of the dumbest people on the Internet.