The amount of Americans who are 401(k) millionaires — those holding $1 million or more in their retirement funds — jumped up by 20% in the final months of 2023. Yahoo Finance readers had a lot to say about this news, even offering an array of financial advice for younger workers seeking to save.

Yahoo Finance Columnist Kerry Hannon details the response to her latest story, highlighting some of the strategies for maxing out 401(k) savings.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: The number of savers with more than $1 million in their retirement accounts rose significantly, according to Fidelity Investments. And "Yahoo Finance" readers had a lot to say about this one.

Let's bring in "Yahoo Finance's" Kerry Hannon who, of course, wrote the story out there. Kerry, I've been tracking the comments on here. Thousands of people weighing in. What are they saying?

KERRY HANNON: I just loved it Akiko. We had over 4,000 people right off the bat. They were just on top of this story. And I think there's something exciting about the idea that there's this bump up in 401(k) millionaires. And can I be one? Am I one?

But here's what I really saw. I was so heartened when I went through. And I didn't read every single one, mind you. But as I went through these comments, there was a common thread. And this was so beautiful. It really was this movement of older people giving advice to younger people.

It was as if they were saying, hey, you've got to understand the value of investing, and saving, and starting right now, because these people that became 401(k) millionaires were because they were consistently investing over-- the average was 26 years.

So the message the older people were reaching back and telling younger readers of "Yahoo Finance," start now. Max out as much as you can put in your 401(k) to get your employer match. And if you have to start small, start small and gradually increase it.

The second big thing of that advice that they were giving to the younger people reading our column was, absolutely do not raid your retirement account. And we saw last year, a lot of retirement savers actually did dip into their retirement accounts to borrow money, and, also, just to take it out completely. And we know there are penalties there. There are taxes there.

And, in fact, the money's gone. Really, it's just a bad move. And so they tell people not to do that. And the third piece of advice that came out of this, Akiko, is they said, there's this real need for financial education. A lot of people were commenting saying, employers need to do more to really help employees understand how to invest their 401(k) money, as well as going all the way back to policy things.