Episode 186

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Published on:

12th Mar 2026

Your 401(k) Was Never Meant for Retirement

Eighty-one percent of workers fear losing their jobs in 2025 — and most of them can't afford to quit anyway. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley call the Great Stay what it is: a debt trap dressed as job stability. Then they crack open the retirement system. The 401(k) was never designed for you — it's section 401(k) of the tax code, a corporate cost-saving accident that got rebranded as a future. Only 15% of workers still have a real pension. Dave's late wife had one — it paid out pennies on the dollar. Average 401(k) balance: $97,369. Unfunded liabilities: $145 trillion. Nobody's asking how we pay for any of it.

Timestamps:

  1. (00:00) 78 million new AI jobs by 2030 — and neither host believes it – the lived reality is kiosks replacing waitstaff and tax prep going fully automated
  2. (00:00) 81% of workers fear losing their job but can't afford to leave – the Great Stay is a debt trap, not loyalty
  3. (05:44) The 401(k) is literally a tax code section, not a retirement plan – corporate America off-loaded the risk and called it empowerment
  4. (05:44) Dave's late wife had a real pension — it paid out $15,000 – that's what a "defined benefit" is actually worth when you collect

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Transcript
Alex:

Seventy-eight million new AI jobs by 2030—that's the PROMISE.

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But Jerremy's already ordering

burgers from a screen that asks

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for a tip with no human behind it.

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The numbers say recovery...

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the lived reality says

replacement is ALREADY here.

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Jerremy: The gr the Great Resignation

or the Great Stay, the pandemic

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permanently shifted workers, psychology

workers have leverage, expect

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flexibility, we'll leave for better

conditions held by popular media.

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Some HR professionals work

in strong labor markets.

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and then the Great resignation and

over quit rates have plummeted.

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Eight 81% of employees in 2025 report

anxiety about losing their jobs.

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this one's interesting man.

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Essentially like, are people

going to stay in their positions

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because they have so much debt?

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That's really the question, right?

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Really the question is like, I can't

lose my job 'cause I can't afford to,

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Dave: Right.

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Jerremy: like, that's it.

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I can't quit my job

'cause I can't afford to.

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I believe that this puts this podcast

and a lot of my material and everything

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I want to create for this country

in the forefront, because ladies and

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gentlemen, that's going to happen.

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You going to have to shift

your employment, your form of

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employment in less than five years.

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Dave: Mm-hmm.

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Jerremy: If you're listening to

this podcast, your, your job will

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probably shift, it'll probably

change, it'll probably alter.

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Dave: Yep.

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Jerremy: And if that happens, which

it, it will, or a very high degree of

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certainty, like 80% likelihood, you'll

need the ability to be flexible, to

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shift, to learn, to create more value.

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And you need the financial stability,

the financial acumen, and you need

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to lock in as a 20-year-old, say

for a period of time to just make

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sure that your financial house is

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Dave: Mm-hmm.

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Jerremy: you have liquidity, you have

access to that liquidity, you know how

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to access that liquidity and why, and

how to move it and how to capitalize

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on it, and how to shift it and how

to invest it and how to actually.

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Be in a position where you can move

jobs, you can move cities, you can move

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to potentially a different country.

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You can go online or offline at a moment's

notice to create income for your family

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because it is gonna shift and every single

person listening is going to need to be

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very, very good at understanding money and

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Dave: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Jerremy: And I like how

you said that earlier.

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Like if you're in a position in

your business where you're in,

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you're in touch with the money.

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Good.

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Dave: Close to money.

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Jerremy: Become

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Dave: Yep.

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Jerremy: it.

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Dave: Yep.

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Jerremy: better at it.

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'cause there's gonna be more

money coming in and there's

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gonna be more jobs going away.

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Dave: Yeah.

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I,

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so I'm, I'm, I'm of a

couple of minds here.

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One of them is, like companies

are gonna be able to do a lot more

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with, so like, if, if they add more

people, they're gonna be doing a lot.

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So, like, there's, companies are

gonna be able to grow the pie, not

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necessarily shrink the workforce.

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Companies that are shrinking their

workforce are either restructuring, right?

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Like they're, they're, they're

saying, hey, or, they are,

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shrinking for other reasons, right?

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But if a company is doing what

a company does best, which is

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like, okay, let's go kill it.

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Let's go bigger, better, stronger, faster.

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like they're gonna need all

the people they get and they're

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gonna need AI on top of it.

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So like there's a, I think you're

a hundred percent right that

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everybody listening to this.

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If you are working for a living,

your job is going to change.

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And it is very unclear as

to what that's going to be.

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And that's a certain amount of anxiety

is going to be, wrapped up around that.

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And you do have to have

your, your house in order.

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like it is not only just, making

sure that your financial life is in

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order, but also that your health.

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Is, is a set your, your

relationships are set.

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You have the connections into

your community, into your family.

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Like those are the things that successful

people have that unsuccessful people

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don't have, which is a strong sense of

community, family love in their lives.

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Like, those connections are the

things that get anybody through.

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So, and making sure that you're,

not putting garbage in your

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mouth that you're, staying fit.

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Because as soon as something

goes wrong, like all of your

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attention's gonna go to that.

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So, just steal yourself is, is, and, and

be strong, and the plan B will develop.

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That's what I got.

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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Yeah, totally.

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And we're gonna, we're, there's some

of the big changes will need to be made

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too, are gonna be tax code related,

pension related, investing related,

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which I'm gonna be interested, I'm very

interested to see how it's gonna change.

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Because again, think

about it this way, right?

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If you're a company and

you have less employees,

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Dave: Yep.

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Jerremy: who are you

paying a pension to now?

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a government, allowing all these

companies to make all this money, and

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the middle class is getting murdered.

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Dave: Right

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Jerremy: So again, back to the

awareness of some version or some

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form of getting everyone imaginable

to be invested and very intrigued

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in the stock market's gonna be.

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So in crucially, so crucial, man.

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So crucial because companies

will make more money.

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The profits will go up, the

revenues will go up, the margins

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will increase, they'll become even

more profitable with less people.

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Therefore, we, we need to go invest

in these companies because they're

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gonna become bigger and better

and more and more profitable.

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Dave: Well, here's the other side

of this is that these companies

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also have to have somebody to sell

their goods and services to, right?

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Jerremy: Mm-hmm.

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Dave: if the people that they sell

their, their goods and services to

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are being replaced, in the, in the

restructuring of the economy, then

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your product market fit is broken.

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So, it's

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Jerremy: no money for your product.

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Dave: I mean, people are gonna stop

buying it, like people still buy buy

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records, but it's not gonna, you're not

gonna make a, make a, a killing on it,

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Jerremy: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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It's gonna be so fun to

see how it changes, man.

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It really will.

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But I mean,

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Dave: That's one word for it.

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Jerremy: yeah.

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But 4 0 1 Ks pensions, like those

are, those are going to need to shift.

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I mean by, by 2023.

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So not that, that long ago, 15%

of private industry workers had

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access to a defined benefit plan.

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The financial contract between

employer and employee had a big shift.

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retirement risk, if not all retirement

risk transferred to individuals.

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So the company no longer has to have any

retirement safety for their employees.

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Right.

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the company, company stopped

guaranteeing the future.

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Dave: Yep.

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Jerremy: And that caused a big

decline in employee loyalty.

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And again, I'm all for jobs, right?

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Keep that in mind for people who are,

are working in jobs, I'm all for it.

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I, I would love for our

companies to take care to take

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better care of their employees.

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But the commonly misattributed, the

401k is presented as like a deliberate

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policy to help workers build wealth.

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But it was originally a corporate

cost savings opportunity built

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on an accidental tax provision.

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Dave: Yeah.

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Jerremy: And so it is the only

way now, that 85% of people

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are saving for their future.

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It's like, oh, I got a 401k, and

they don't contribute to it enough.

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Right?

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It's way undervalued.

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And the average 401k right now in the

United States of America is $97,369.

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Dave: Oof.

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Jerremy: That is not good.

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And that's the only real

retirement that the vast majority

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of this country puts towards it.

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And I, I think that it's again,

something not talked about,

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it's not talked about in school.

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It's not focused on enough.

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It's not determined enough.

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But there does need to

be other, other plans.

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Like you have traditional IRA and

you have, which you have a max

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that you can contribute to a year.

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You have a Roth IRA, which you have a

max that you can contribute to a year.

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Or if you make too much money,

you can't contribute to it at all.

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Dave: Right.

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Jerremy: And so there's, there's going

to need to be some other things that

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are kind of forced because again,

ultimately if other, if the employee

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workforce declines, you're gonna need

a large influx of individuals and

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companies and people and, and teams that

help other people learn how to invest.

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Know when to invest, know why, to invest,

no where to put it, how to put it, what

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buttons suppress, what orders to use so

that it can grow because it needs to,

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People are, are going to face extremely

strong financial challenges, in this,

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in this little turbulent market shift.

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It's, that's coming.

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I mean, it's un unequivocally coming.

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Dave: That was a big shift.

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My, my, my late wife actually, when,

I was going through the estate, she

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actually had a, defined, pension, which

I'd never seen because I, I started, she

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just happened to be in a, in a field that

still had, pen a, a defined pension plan.

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But what was really weird about it,

unlike, like me who had 4 0 1 ks, that's

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all I had, that defined, benefits thing.

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Paid out like pennies to the

dollar right when she passed.

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So it wasn't real money, it was just

like whatever they decided it was.

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because at some point they did

transition the company into

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like 4 0 1 Ks and got out of it.

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And so she, whatever money that

she had, set aside for her that

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was now part of the estate.

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I, I mean, I think it was

like, 10 or $15,000 that,

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that they sent me a check for.

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But that's, like that wouldn't

have, it was not much.

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It was like 10 or $15,000.

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Jerremy: What?

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Dave: Right.

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Jerremy: I was like, is

that a typo in your voice?

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I'm confused.

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I'm confused.

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dude.

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So, yeah,

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Dave: so.

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Jerremy: had this big

number that was there.

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They didn't have to do anything with it.

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Dave: No.

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Yeah, it is like, Hey, this is worth

hundreds of thousands of dollars,

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but here's your $15,000 check.

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I'm like, oh, okay, great.

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And there's nothing you could do about it.

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So I appreciated 4 0 1 Ks because

I didn't know anything better about

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it, but I, what I didn't know until

actually looking at this, that it was

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never meant to be a retirement thing.

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like we pitch it as a 401k

is actually the tax code.

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That's what that means.

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I had no idea that 401k is, if you

looked up the, the, the 401k section of

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the tax code, it would say this, like,

no, it's not, it's not for retirement.

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It's a tax thing.

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Jerremy: yeah, yeah,

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Dave: And, it was meant for people

who had like options and, and,

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it was for senior leadership.

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It wasn't meant to be what

everything everybody does.

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And then when I got my 401k, like

they, they did a pretty generous match.

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And so I maxed it out every

year, but you could max it out.

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But that was it.

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there was no extra money.

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And then I had to invest

into the companies that

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they said I could invest in.

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Like, there was like

six brokerages, right?

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so I, I don't know what 4 0 1 Ks are

today, but I think if, if people are

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counting it on them as retirement, I

think that that's, that's, who you know.

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And what were you just saying?

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Most people aren't even

contributing to 'em.

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So if they're not even contributing

to 'em, then you got social

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security, which is God only knows,

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Jerremy: God knows dude.

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That's exactly right.

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With Social Security, I

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Dave: And you can only work so

long, or, you, you can technically

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work forever until, something

comes up and says, no, you can't.

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Jerremy: yeah, if I'm being honest, I

don't even know if I'm gonna get, like,

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I don't even know if I'm, I'm eligible

to get Social Security in 30 years.

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I don't even know what it is.

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I, I am so assuming that it's

not gonna happen for me, that

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it's not even in my wheelhouse.

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Dave: You might not have

worked long enough in a W2 job.

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Jerremy: Promise, unemployable.

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Dave: Well, no, you were

doing your own thing.

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Like you had to be in a W2 job

for I think five or six years,

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and then you get the minimum.

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You, you should get a, benefits

if you go into Social Security.

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Jerremy: I got five

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Dave: Okay.

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All right.

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Jerremy: I

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Dave: Go to social security.gov.

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Jerremy: how 412 years old?

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Dave: you can get your, you can get

your, whatever it is you're, you're

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eligible for, you just go onto the social

security website and, request your, your,

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Jerremy: Pumped.

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Dave: your, data.

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And you can see it'll actually

say how much you made, and, the

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year and how much social security.

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Yeah.

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Not that any of it's funded, but

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Jerremy: right?

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Yeah.

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Don't, let's not mention that the US has

$145 trillion of unfunded liabilities.

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They've conley, I don't even

know what, 145 trillion, I don't

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even know what a trillion is.

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I'm

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Dave: I,

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Jerremy: my way, figuring

out what a billion is.

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Dave: I'll tell you, you wanna

hear, you wanna hear It is,

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Jerremy: million millions.

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Dave: can do the math.

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I, I, let me,

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Jerremy: I get it.

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It's

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Dave: I'm a visually Okay.

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Jerremy: Unparallel large.

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Dave: You probably have a hundred

dollars bill in your pocket right now.

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Right?

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So you get a stack of those, right?

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And then you get enough stacks of

those to create an 11 story building.

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11 stories up, 11 stories cube.

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Jerremy: stories.

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I think you're, you're an 11 story almost.

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'cause you're in a penthouse.

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'cause you're rich.

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Keep going.

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Dave: I'm a am on, I am on the 12th floor.

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Yeah.

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Jerremy: There you

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All right, so we're, we're at

Dave, we're at Dave's house

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Dave: it's a.

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Jerremy: A hundred dollars bills.

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Dave: Block.

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so a billion dollars is about your living

room full of, of a hundred dollars bills.

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It's a, it's like a living room.

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It's like 40, like 24.

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That's a billion dollars.

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A trillion is an 11 story building

of a hundred dollars bills.

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That's one.

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Right now, the current

US debt is 40 of those.

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I mean, that's like the biggest

building that you could conceive of.

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That's one of those Abu Dhabi like, like

buildings, two of 'em stacked together.

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like the biggest things

that you can imagine.

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Imagine they're made outta a hundred

dollars bills and that's, 40 trillion.

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It's unimaginable.

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Jerremy: Crazy dude.

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Dave: I am like, well, this, this

whole thing isn't about, national debt.

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We'll, we'll get back to that one.

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We did a, we did it for, for those

listening, we did a test broadcast

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on national debt, or I don't know if

we sent it out or not, but we had,

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Jerremy: we

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Dave: we had the craziest, coolest cast

of characters, just like back and forth.

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And it's like crypto and like,

we talk about everything.

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It's like, oh God, I,

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Jerremy: people argue about their

plane, the size of their jets.

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It was a great convo.

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Great convo.

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So

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Dave: it's very relatable

how big my bb j is.

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it's like, well, what about helicopters?

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And I'm like, oh God, really?

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Jerremy: yeah.

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Dave: guy.

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Alex: Companies off-loaded retirement

risk onto workers, then stopped

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guaranteeing the future—and the Great

Stay locked everyone in place with DEBT.

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The trap is set, the 401k is

an accident, and the average

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balance won't cover two years...

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next, the hosts ask who in

Washington is actually fixing this.

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About the Podcast

Solving America's Problems
Solving America’s Problems isn’t just a podcast—it’s a journey. Co-host Jerremy Newsome, a successful entrepreneur and educator, is pursuing his lifelong dream of running for president. Along the way, he and co-host Dave Conley bring together experts, advocates, and everyday Americans to explore the real, actionable solutions our country needs.

With dynamic formats—one-on-one interviews, panel discussions, and more—we cut through the noise of divisive rhetoric to uncover practical ideas that unite instead of divide. If you’re ready to think differently, act boldly, and join a movement for meaningful change, subscribe now.