New York — Elon Musk Says Long-Term Saving Is 'Pointless'

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, says setting money aside for decades into the future no longer makes sense to him, describing long-term saving as "pointless" while pointing to what he calls a coming era of abundance, according to a report from Business Insider.

The remarks put Musk's view of saving at odds with decades of conventional financial planning guidance, which assumes that money set aside today — through retirement accounts, index funds or basic cash savings — will still be needed years or decades from now regardless of how technology evolves. Advisers typically urge consistent contributions starting early in a career, citing compounding growth over long stretches of time. Musk's comments raise a practical question for households that have followed that guidance for years: whether it still applies if his predictions about the future play out.

What Did Elon Musk Say About Long-Term Saving?

Musk's comment, as reported by Business Insider, used the word "pointless" to characterize saving money over long stretches of time. The outlet tied the remark to Musk's broader vision of abundance, under which he suggests that automation, artificial intelligence and robotics will eventually push the cost of goods and services down so far that the traditional reasoning behind saving — setting money aside now to cover needs decades later — no longer holds.

What Does Musk Mean by a "Future of Abundance"?

Musk has used the word "abundance" before in connection with his companies' work on robotics and automation, though Business Insider's report does not detail a specific timeline or mechanism for how that abundance would arrive or how it would affect existing currency, markets or retirement systems. Musk did not elaborate, according to the report, on what becomes of accumulated savings, pensions or retirement-style programs under the scenario he describes.

What Do Financial Advisers Generally Say About Saving for Decades?

Financial planners have long built retirement strategies around the idea that prices, wages, health costs and life spans are uncertain, and that compounding returns over long time horizons help absorb that uncertainty. That conventional approach underpins widely used tools such as target-date retirement funds and diversified index funds, designed to grow steadily across multi-decade periods rather than respond to short-term predictions about where technology is headed. Because nobody can be certain how quickly automation will lower costs, if at all, advisers tend to treat saving as insurance against a range of outcomes rather than a bet on any single forecast, optimistic or otherwise. Business Insider's report does not indicate that mainstream financial institutions have revised their guidance in response to Musk's comments.

How Does This Fit With Other Personal-Finance Coverage This Week?

The question of whether conventional saving habits still hold up comes as The Wealthy Will has covered related ground. A report on investing in the Vanguard Utilities Index Fund ETF Shares (VPU) examined how income-focused investors weigh long-horizon holdings in a single sector — the kind of strategy that assumes decisions made today will still matter years from now. Separately, a survey out of San Francisco found many respondents hold a negative view of credit scores, another sign that attitudes toward standard financial planning tools are shifting even as most advisers continue to recommend them. For readers trying to build more deliberate habits around spending while those attitudes shift, apps such as the mindfulAI Keyboard, available through Smorgi Apps, are built around that kind of day-to-day awareness.

Should Savers Change Course Based on One Executive's Comments?

Musk's position represents one end of a spectrum on long-term saving. Many financial professionals continue to recommend disciplined saving regardless of long-range technology forecasts, pointing to near-term obligations — housing, education, health care — that arrive well before any abundance scenario might take hold. Others note that if automation genuinely drives down the cost of essentials the way Musk predicts, the calculus of how much to save, and for what, could look different in the coming decades. For now, the comments stand as one widely discussed data point in an ongoing conversation between a prominent technologist and the conventional wisdom of personal finance, with no indication from the report that either side has shifted its position.