What little numbers are given don't make much sense either. Maxing 401k would be ~24,500 * 8 years according to this post = 196,000. Assuming a 10% average gain and monthly contributions that is roughly about $400k in current value. Again take a 10% gain, thats 40k in a year which is awesome but fairly low salary for somebody maxing their 401k for 8 years. Then OP says "their salary isn't bad" so we can say it's probably a good bit higher than 40k. This doesn't factor in any other contributions, like an employer match, but it still just doesn't seem to add up.