Elon Musk has suggested that traditional retirement saving may not matter much in the future.
In a recent interview, the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO described a world transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, where productivity is so high that a kind of “universal high income” makes work largely optional and financial stress a relic of the past.
That vision sits next to a very different picture from the present, though.
A 2025 Bankrate survey found that 58% of American workers feel behind on their retirement savings, and 37% say they are significantly behind. The gap between a promised future of abundance and a current reality where many workers already feel late to the game is one reason more people are looking for a grounded retirement plan built around their income and savings today rather than around any single prediction.
Musk’s case is built on expected technological change. He has argued that by around 2030, AI could exceed the combined intelligence of humanity, that humanoid robots could eventually outnumber people and that most tasks short of “shaping atoms” could be automated. In that scenario, he says, productivity gains could support “universal high income,” making the need to work—and to save for a period without work—far less central to most people’s lives.
In that world, putting money aside for a future without a paycheck starts to look unnecessary. If technology ends up covering basic needs and more, the traditional idea of building a nest egg for retirement becomes less relevant, he argues. Even in his telling, though, there is uncertainty about how people will find purpose if work becomes optional.
Bankrate’s numbers bring the discussion back to where workers are right now. The same survey that found 58% feel behind on retirement also showed that concerns rise with age and fall with income. Among …
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