Vanguard data shows Americans are pulling money out of their retirement accounts early at record rates to help make ends meet.

Data from Vanguard shows Americans are pulling money out of their retirement accounts early at record rates to help make ends meet.

Last year, 6% of Vanguard’s clients took a hardship withdrawal, which allows them to access funds in tax-advantaged retirement accounts, such as a 401(k), before they reach retirement age. That was up from 4.8% in 2024, the asset management giant said.

Taking a hardship withdrawal is not ideal for a few reasons, one of them being that investors are subject to a withdrawal penalty of 10% for taking money out of their account before 59½. On top of that, they are then taxed on any gains. However, perhaps most importantly, they rob themselves of future growth potential on that money, especially if they are still far from retirement age.

  • Been132 🇪🇺@feddit.org
    157·
    5 days ago

    You all should pull out. It’s obviously a scam of the ~1% holding 90% financial markets. They’re draining your money. How can the economy provide a livable retirement in the future when it can’t provide a livable present?

    • spacesatan@leminal.spaceEnglish
      152·
      5 days ago

      This is just nonsense why is it being upvoted just because it’s ‘leftist shaped’?

      The stock market is the primary means of wealth transfer from the working class to the owning class. For a working person buying stocks allows you to recapture some of that wealth transfer.

      You don’t get to opt out of the wealth transfer part of this by not owning stocks, you’re just letting the already wealthy increase their share of the extraction.

      How can the economy provide a livable retirement in the future when it can’t provide a livable present?

      This is either meaningless or even worse, anarcho-primitivism. Assuming you meant the stock market then the people who are extremely wealthy with passive income from stocks are certainly living off it.