People with 401Ks or IRAs are people who have taken active measures to improve their own financial security decades from now in exchange for lower in-pocket fun

People with 401Ks or IRAs are people who have taken active measures to improve their own financial security decades from now in exchange for lower in-pocket funds at this moment. If retirement accounts were ended tomorrow and all that money was deposited directly into their checking accounts, they wouldn't go out and spend it on televisions and new rims. They would invest it, probably into the same low-risk ETFs or mutual funds that were being held in the retirement accounts. The only difference would be a change in when the money is taxed.