Tony Robbins has blunt 6-word reaction on Social Security, 401(k)s | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

As Americans work to provide financially for themselves and their families, they are often also thinking about their future retirement years, Social Security, saving money, and investing.

Tony Robbins, author of Money: Master the Game, offers six words of wisdom that he suggests will help people get started taking control of their financial lives.

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Both Social Security and 401(k) plans involve some complex details that people planning for retirement would be smart to understand.

For example, it’s important to know that, while one can begin claiming Social Security benefits at 62 years of age, choosing to begin receiving the monthly paychecks at a later age increases the amount of the payments.

The average Social Security monthly benefit is about $1,980, for a yearly total of $23,760. By comparison, the 2025 poverty line for a two-person household is $21,150.

Obviously, that’s not enough money for most people to maintain their standard of living and their vision of a comfortable retirement.

So it’s important for people, during their working years, to contribute as much as they are able to employer-sponsored 401(k) plans and to invest in tax-advantaged IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts).

Robbins explains a succinct way to view strategies for building wealth and one way to understand how to get started.

Personal finance author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins is pictured. Robbins explains his recommendation how to approach retirement planning, Social Security and 401(k)s.

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Tony Robbins discusses Social Security, 401(k)s, complexity

In Money: Master the Game, Robbins wrote that one of his goals was to give people the knowledge and tools to take control of their finances.

He emphasized the fact that, because Social Security monthly benefits are too little to live on, money saved and invested in 401(k) plans and IRAs should be a bigger source of income in retirement than the Social Security paychecks.

And he addressed the complicated nature of many financial strategies with a six-word explanation of why people don’t get started on using them.

“Complexity is the enemy of execution,” he wrote.

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Robbins broke down his plan for people to build financial security into a series of steps that he believes will help remove confusion and make it easier for people to find a place to begin.

He explained that any successful wealth-building plan starts with the first step.

“You’ll uncover what it is you’re really investing for, and unleash the power of the best financial breakthrough strategies,” Robbins wrote.

Tony Robbins has advice on 401(k)s and IRAs

Robbins suggests one area of knowledge employees with 401(k) plans can educate themselves on and implement to help grow their retirement savings.

That is, if a worker’s employer offers a Roth 401(k), it’s a good choice to take that option.

Robbins believes a person’s taxes will be higher in retirement, so the fact money invested in Roth 401(k)s is done after taxes are already paid means tax-free withdrawals in retirement become all the more attractive.

The author applies that same logic to Roth IRAs and why he believes those tools are more financially advantageous than Traditional IRAs. With Roth IRAs, taxes are paid up front, so withdrawals for retirees are made tax-free.

Robbins suggests two major reasons people find they are unexpectedly paying higher taxes after they retire than they did while they were working.

By the time people retire, it is often the case that their home mortgages are already paid off. For tax purposes, then, there is no longer a mortgage deduction they can use.

Also, any children they have will likely be already grown up and have lives and careers of their own, so it is no longer possible to claim them as dependents.

Robbins notes that money saved and invested for retirement is often called a nest egg. But he has a different term for it.

“I call it your money machine because if you continue to feed it and manage it carefully, it will grow into a critical mass,” he wrote.

He describes the goal as having a “safe, secure pile of assets invested in a risk-protected, tax-efficient environment that earns enough money to meet your day-to-day expenses, your rainy day emergency needs, and your sunset days of retirement spending.”