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Why more Americans are making hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-more-americans-are-making-hardship-withdrawals-from-retirement-accounts

For a growing number of Americans, retirement accounts are doing double duty as savings accounts for the future and emergency funds for the here and now. Vanguard Group says that 2023 saw early withdrawals from a record 3.6 percent of the 5 million accounts it administers, up from 2.8 percent in 2022. Roben Farzad, host of NPR’s "Full Disclosure" podcast, joins John Yang to discuss.

9 comments

cabron_offsets

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Because shit’s been fucked for a while and there’s only so much people can cope?

Does Amazon sell guillotines?

toxicbubble

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Amazon is part of the problem

cabron_offsets

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Hence the comment.

itchick2014

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A lot of what the person interviewed is saying is very tone deaf. Not everyone has the problem of not being “right sized” in how they live…a lot of folks are barely scraping by and have no other option but to tap into retirement to do things like…pay medical bills, not lose their dwelling, or simply make it through a hard time. Are there folks living above their means? Sure! But I would say the vast amount of people cashing in retirement funds early are not those people.

my_hat_stinks

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"Living beyond your means" is kind of an insidious term. It is true that if you can't afford your food or rent you are living beyond your means, but the problem is that that phrase suggests it's your own fault. There's no consideration of the fact you might be working two jobs full time and still can't afford a livable home.

gravitas_deficiency

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bUt tHE ecONoMy iS BoOmiNg!1!!one1!

Sir_Kevin

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I've emptied out my 401k because food and shelter were my priority. I've had to do this twice so far in my lifetime. Once during the 2008 recession and again last year.

Sanctus

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Yes, yes we know, yes, tax corpos and the wealthy. It's that simple

MyNamesNotRobert

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I had a "good" job at one point. I didn't put money into a 401k because I knew I wouldn't be employed there forever.

Let's say you're 25 and you put 6% of $50k/yr into a 401k and then get fired 4 years later but then the best job you can find afterwards pays only a bit more than half of what you were making. You don't get that back that until you're 65 or whatever. That would have been $12k that's just gone. I want to actually live to be 65. I needed that money. I'm glad I didn't do that.

I might not have a retirement but at least I've (so far) never been homeless or had to live in my car.