{"id":2580124,"date":"2026-03-15T22:56:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T02:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/more-americans-make-this-money-move-in-possible-sign-of-economic-woes\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T23:02:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T03:02:49","slug":"more-americans-make-this-money-move-in-possible-sign-of-economic-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/more-americans-make-this-money-move-in-possible-sign-of-economic-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"More Americans Make This Money Move in Possible Sign of Economic Woes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmore-americans-make-this-money-move-in-possible-sign-of-economic-woes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2580124&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>U.S.retirement savings are growing but more Americans are tapping their 401(k)s to cover emergencies, highlighting both improved saving behavior and increasing financial stress.<\/p>\n<p>Key points:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Fidelity data for Q4 2025 show average 401(k) balances at $146,400, marking a third consecutive year of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/congressman-cnns-political-viewpoint-drives-everything-they-report\/\" title=\"Congressman: CNN\u2019s \u2018Political Viewpoint\u2019 Drives \u2018Everything They Report\u2019\">double-digit growth<\/a>. The figure is $14,700 higher than 2024, and there are about 665,000 401(k) millionaires, up from 537,000 the prior year. Fidelity executives emphasize that savers remain committed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/greta-thunberg-is-wrong-americans-should-be-first-in-line-for-american-made-vaccines\/\" title=\"Greta Thunberg Is Wrong. ... Should Be First In Line For American-Made Vaccines.\">long-term goals<\/a> and that consistent saving benefits retirement outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Vanguard data indicate tougher nuances: 6% of workers with 401(k) plans took hardship withdrawals in 2025,up from 4.8% in 2024 and a new record. Before the pandemic, the rate was around 2%. Withdrawals are typically used for emergencies such as preventing foreclosure, delaying eviction, or paying medical bills. Vanguard notes that federal law changes eased withdrawal restrictions and that more plans now offer hardship withdrawals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Despite the rise in hardship withdrawals, retirement balances are higher overall. Vanguard reports average participant balances increased about 13% in 2025, reaching nearly $168,000 by year-end. The trend reflects stronger savings behavior,aided by automatic enrollment,even as some workers rely on withdrawals as a safety net.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Commentary from Fidelity\u2019s Sharon Brovelli and Vanguard\u2019s statements underscore the idea that staying invested and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >maintaining long-term savings discipline remains beneficial<\/a>, while temporary financial pressures can make hardship withdrawals a necessary option for some.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>While the balances of Americans&rsquo; retirement accounts are generally rising, more households are withdrawing funds to cover financial emergencies &mdash; a worrying sign in a bullish economy with persistent affordability issues.<\/p>\n<p>Fidelity &mdash; one of the largest 401(k) providers in the country &mdash; revealed that average account balances increased to $146,400 in the fourth quarter of 2025, per a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsnationnow.com\/business\/your-money\/401k-balances-hardship-withdrawals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> from NewsNation.<\/p>\n<p>That marks the third consecutive year of double-digit growth as Americans save more and benefit from a surging stock market.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s also a $14,700 increase from 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Fidelity added that there are now 665,000 401(k) millionaires as of the fourth quarter &mdash; an increase from 537,000 just one year earlier.<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\tdocument.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\", function() { \t\t\t\t\tfunction loadAnyclip() { \t\t\t\t\t\tconst container=document.getElementById(\"anyclipvideo\"); 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\t\t\t\t\tobserveElement(paragraphToObserve); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Despite uniquely challenging times, retirement savers remain committed to their financial futures by staying the course with their retirement savings,&rdquo; Sharon Brovelli, the president of workplace investing at Fidelity Investments, said in the data <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fidelity.com\/data-and-insights\/q4-2025-retirement-analysis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The consistency so many Americans show in maintaining responsible savings behaviors and keeping a long-term perspective will serve them well in retirement,&rdquo; she added.<\/p>\n<p>But there&rsquo;s a massive catch.<\/p>\n<p>Vanguard &mdash; another major provider of financial services &mdash; released data showing that 6 percent of workers with 401(k) plans took hardship withdrawals.<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s an increase from 4.8 percent in 2024, and a new record for the metric.<\/p>\n<p>Before COVID, the  of workers taking hardship withdrawals was around 2 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Such withdrawals are usually made in emergency situations like preventing foreclosure, delaying eviction, or paying medical bills.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&ldquo;Last year, a record 6% of workers in 401(k) plans administered by Vanguard Group took a hardship withdrawal [from their 401k]. That is up from 4.8% in 2024 and a prepandemic average of about 2%, according to Vanguard.&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dDyyA97ygd\">pic.twitter.com\/dDyyA97ygd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomselliott\/status\/2029182141435646410?\">March 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Given that it&rsquo;s now easier to request a hardship withdrawal and that automatic enrollment is helping more workers save for retirement, especially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/4-welfare-policies-that-hurt-the-people-they-claim-to-help\/\" title=\"4 Welfare Policies That Hurt The People They Claim To Help\">lower-income workers<\/a>, a modest increase isn&rsquo;t surprising,&rdquo; Vanguard said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/workplace.vanguard.com\/content\/iig-transformation\/pdf\/previewing-how-america-saves-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;And for a small subset of workers facing financial stress, hardship withdrawals may serve as a safety net that may not otherwise have been available without plan-implemented automatic solutions,&rdquo; the company added.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, a change in federal law eased restrictions on hardship withdrawals, according to NewsNation.<\/p>\n<p>More retirement plans are offering hardship withdraws as well.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the findings about hardship withdrawals, the Vanguard data indicate higher retirement savings, alongside the release from Fidelity.<\/p>\n<p>In 2025, average participant balances increased 13 percent, reaching nearly $168,000 by the end of the year, per Vanguard.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite retirement accounts generally growing, more American households are withdrawing money to cover financial emergencies, which is worrying in a strong economy with ongoing affordability problems. Fidelity, a leading 401(k) provider, reported that the average 401(k) balance rose to about $146,400 in Q4 2025-the third consecutive year of double-digit growth and roughly $14,700 higher than in 2024. Fidelity also said there were about 665,000 401(k) millionaires at the end of 2025, up from 537,000 a year earlier. Fidelity\u2019s leadership stressed that savers remain committed to long-term financial goals and maintaining prudent saving behavior.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Vanguard data show an uptick in hardship withdrawals: 6% of workers with 401(k) plans took such withdrawals in 2025, up from 4.8% in 2024 and surpassing the pre-pandemic average of about 2%. Hardship withdrawals are typically used to address emergencies such as preventing foreclosure, avoiding eviction, or paying medical bills. Vanguard noted that easier access to hardship withdrawals and automatic enrollment have helped more workers save, especially lower-income workers, and that a federal law easing hardship-withdrawal restrictions contributed to the trend, with more retirement plans offering these withdrawals. In 2025, Vanguard also reported average participant balances rising about 13% to nearly $168,000.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, while challenges persist, retirement savers continue to stay the course and maintain consistent saving habits for the long term<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2580125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Michael-Featured-Image-795.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[75852,75851,69967,10069,9894],"class_list":["post-2580124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-economic-woes-2","tag-emergency-fund","tag-personal-finance-2","tag-recession","tag-savings"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Michael-Featured-Image-795.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2580124"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2580128,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2580124\/revisions\/2580128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2580125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2580124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2580124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2580124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}