[coldtea]

>Naturally one could avoid saving anything for 39 years and then plop down a $600,000 lump sum in the final second and you would be in the exact same place as someone who slowly amassed $600,000 over the span of 40 years

Sure, they could for example win the Powerball.

[randomdata]

The other thing with the previous comment is that it only looks at registered retirement accounts. What about savings that can be used for retirement, but aren't registered as such? How much is found there?