Any vehicle which gives me more control I find preferable. A pension is great if it's competently managed and the entity it's tied to is stable. The problem is

Any vehicle which gives me more control I find preferable. A pension is great if it's competently managed and the entity it's tied to is stable. The problem is that it exposes you to counter party risk you can't reasonably mitigate. Is the pension fund making sound investments? Will the city, state, or corporation be sound decades from now or will they be bankrupt or struggle to pay obligations made by their priors that were maybe inflated? Private investment vehicles are independent of your employer. If they go bust your balance is sound if it wasn't in their securities, which is again ultimately the investor's choice. If I make bad investment decisions I can live with it. I can't live with promises others couldn't keep, I'm at their mercy. I would prefer eliminating 401ks entirely and expanding IRAs. IRAs allow choice of broker and much wider investment options. If I know what I'm doing I can take more risk. Otherwise I can play it safe with mostly index funds and sensible asset allocation. If I don't know where to start I can hire an advisor or multiple of my choosing to handle it for me. It also would eliminate vesting periods which keep people in jobs they're unhappy with. > nobody reports on someone's 401(k) fund vanishing during a recession Recession dips are temporary. If you're well diversified and don't panic sell the balance should recover. Whatever balance you're relying on near term should not be in something volatile like the stock market.