When the 401(k) was introduced in the late 1970s, it wasn’t meant to replace pensions—it was meant to supplement them. Born out of a little-noticed section of the Revenue Act of 1978 (Section 401(k)), it allowed employees to defer compensation tax-free into a retirement account. The idea was simple: give workers a tax break for saving, and employers a lower-cost benefit option.
Artificial intelligence has ignited one of the most powerful market frenzies of the last two decades. NVIDIA, Super Micro, and a constellation of AI-linked stocks have surged with a velocity that evokes memories of the dot-com boom. But for retirees—or anyone within 10 years of retirement—the stakes are far higher than they were in 1999. A misstep today doesn’t just cost opportunity. It can cost lifestyle, longevity of savings, and financial independence.
Retiring with a million-plus nest egg doesn’t automatically translate into financial safety. In fact, for millionaire retirees, the margin for error is surprisingly thin—and the consequences of missteps can ripple for decades. When portfolios are large, when markets are volatile, when longevity looms, the wrong move can erode more than wealth—it can erode freedom. In this article we examine the sharpest investment mistakes made by affluent retirees and lay out clear, data-driven pathways to avoid them.
For decades, Americans have been told to fear running out of money in retirement. But for a growing number of affluent retirees, the opposite fear quietly dominates their golden years: spending too much, too soon.
In an age when financial services are increasingly commoditized, the choice of whom to entrust with your wealth may feel less pressing than ever. Yet the decision remains urgent and consequential: more than $84 trillion will transfer between generations in the next two decades, and the quality of advice during that hand-off may define lifetime outcomes. Against this backdrop, it turns out that smaller, independent advisory firms are quietly beating the big-box names.