“How can that possibly be if you’ve worked for 20-30 years”
Fancy cars, fancy clothes, private schools, colleges, credit card debt, bad investments, poor life decisions, and health problems not covered by insurance.
There are many reasons. However, many people just spend too much. I work in an office where traders make six figure incomes. Many of them spend it all.
But that’s all outside of 401k. That’s my point. Unless they’re also tapping retirement assets to support their lifestyle they should have more than 5k if they sleep walk.