[cm2012]

Less than 2% of the US will ever see anything near $4 million in their bank account.

Most people would consider it a LOT to save $20k a year, which would be well under a million by retirement.

[TheAdamAndChe]

It would only be below a million if you stuck your money in a savings account. If it's in an investment account, after 30 years at 7% growth per year and $20k deposited per year, you should have $1.87 million dollars saved. Which isn't tons when you consider inflation, but it's definitely better than what you're suggesting.

[toomuchtodo]

7% returns are unrealistic moving forward; I would target ~5-6%.

CalPERS came to this conclusion a few months ago, and they're a bit behind the rest of Wall Street when it comes to returns estimation.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/08/calperss-sees-58-percent-retu...

Some Wall Street veterans are predicting returns even lower.

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Historical_and_expected_retu...

[TheAdamAndChe]

This honestly doesn't surprise me. The fact that tons of men aren't working anymore is an indicator that the old methods of maximizing productivity by lowering wages and increasing hours isn't going to work as well in the future.