I more or less wanted to call attention to the fact that the 401k was created for the masses, and as such, it is not a great product in my opinion. I understand that the point was to encourage people (who otherwise weren't saving at all) to invest and save for retirement because companies were doing away with pension plans and social security is not reliable, nor enough for most people to retire on.

I say this as a woman who holds a BS in accounting and an MS in tax. In my master's program I took a full semester class on retirement plans. The class did not provide any opinions on the different options, we just learned how they worked from a tax perspective.

I was surprised with an extra $4,000 tax bill on top of the 20% they withheld (which was supposedly to cover the 10% penalty as well as the tax bill). The 20% withheld did not come close to covering my tax liability because the withdrawal threw me into a higher tax bracket.

My point is, this will likely happen to many seniors as they are withdrawing their funds on the back end. It's impossible to predict what tax rates will be decades down the road, so tax-deferred plans, while great for your tax bill now, may not be great for the long-term.

When evaluating certain investment strategies, I like to look at what the wealthiest among us are doing. While some wealthy people are investing in their 401k, most are investing in real estate.