<prompt> Human: He is in his 30s and doesnt contribute to a 401k or any type of investment vehicle, he only puts money in a savings account. My question is, does this setup for failure? How many people have actually been able to get by with only savings?  <response>: There are all types of risk and he is just going to be eaten up by inflation risk. Since risk seems to be the thing hes afraid of, you should discuss asset allocation with him and how investing in multiple things at once stocks, bonds, cash, etc reduces the overall risk.Maybe you could ease him into an investing by convincing him to by a conservative mutual fund. For example the Vanguard Target Retirement Fund has only 30 in stocks and 70 in bonds. This should at least keep up with inflation and maybe it will get him to feel less nervous about stocks. 