[bb88]

United Airlines declared bankruptcy to get out of paying into a pension plan after not paying the proper amount into them for year so they could appear to be more profitable.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-may-11-fi-unite....

A 401k is probably better since the company is paying funds directly to your account, IOW they can't underfund it.

That said, Raytheon ended up fucking over their 401k plan. Raytheon matched in company stock and required that 401k owners held the company stock for 3 years once it was put into the plan. It worked great until 2005 when Raytheon's stock dropped to 1/3 of the price on news of gross of mismanagement. Employees couldn't get out of the stock, and were forced to swallow the loss.

So even on a 401k details matter.

[ghaff]

While I will be the recipient of a decent pension that probably wasn't really on my radar early-ish career, defined benefit private pensions are not really great overall.

They tend to reward long tenures at companies. Even with government sort-of guarantees they have risk of insolvency. And ultimately it's just not your money.

[bb88]

I think the big problem with 401ks though are the lack of decent investment opportunities in them and the lack of any meaningful corporate match.

I also really think that congress should forgo the Roth IRA contribution limits for most people. They're arbitrary and limiting.