World's Richest Man Says Don't Bother Saving for Retirement
Gizmodo
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis (podcast)
“One side recommendation I have is: Don't worry about squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years. It won't matter.”
Elon Muskreported 9 January 2026- What you'll lose4/5
Your retirement savings, declared irrelevant.
- Condescension3/5
'Don't worry about squirreling money away.'
- Tone-deafness5/5
Financial advice from the richest man alive.
- Doom0/5
None.
- Hypocrisy0/5
None.
Full time12 pitchforksof a possible 25
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The occasion
Moonshots with Peter Diamandis (podcast), reported 9 January 2026.
Context
Asked about a future of AI-driven abundance on a podcast hosted by Peter Diamandis, Musk said AI and robotics would make goods and services so plentiful that retirement savings would not matter. HousingWire prints the continuation 'If any of the things that we said are true, saving for retirement will be irrelevant'; Gizmodo renders it 'we've said'. The episode date was not confirmed, so the date is the first report.
Crowd reaction
Widespread criticism
Gizmodo wrote: 'There is active harm in listening to him if he's wrong.' Value Research argued that 'his own argument says you should do the opposite'.
- Primary source, video
- Gizmodo: World's Richest Man Says Don't Bother Saving for Retirement
- HousingWire: Elon Musk says retirement savings could become ‘irrelevant’
- Fortune: Elon Musk says saving for retirement is irrelevant because AI will create a world of abundance
- Value Research: Elon Musk says stop saving. Here is why his own logic disagrees
- Where the exact words are printed