Taken from another comment because I'm lazy. Just because the Stock Market is bullshit doesn't mean you shouldn't be putting into a retirement account like a 401k/ROTH IRA.

The smartest thing any person can do is make their best informed decision with the information they have now. Not with speculative catastrophizing of a future that will keep marching on with or without you.

Because it will, despite all the doomerism in the world lol. And take this from someone who thinks the stock market is just a money generation machine for the rich that plays with made up magic in order to subsidize workers retirements only possible through unsustainable growth based gdp. It's what makes compound interest even work lol.

The peons don't like the idea of being paid so little they can't save up for retirement without magically generating money from hoarding scraps. Heads would be literally rolling daily and worker rights and pay would be enshrined in every first world.