President Donald Trump’s State of the Union was more spectacle than new news. In fact, one of the only real takeaways from the nearly two hours of remarks was an acknowledgment that the U.S. government would exhume a decade-old retirement program that was retired for its high costs.

On Tuesday night, Trump announced that Americans not covered by a workplace retirement plan would soon be able to contribute to the new, still-unnamed plan. That’s a huge deal for the 50 million Americans who don’t have a workplace plan but still want to put money away for the future. Sweetening the deal, the new plan will offer a match (a.k.a. free money) for making contributions.

Why is it a big deal?

Americans are woefully underfunded for retirement. At a minimum, retirement experts recommend saving at least 15% of your pre-tax salary for a comfortable retirement, including employer matches.

That could be a problem if you don’t have a workplace plan, though. In that case, you have limited options to save. You could contribute to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), but with a contribution limit of $7,500 in 2026, the limits on this brand of qualified account are significantly lower than 401(k)s, which offer a max of $24,500 in annual savings. Plus, most IRAs don’t offer matching contributions.

If you are technically self-employed, as an estimated 10 million Americans are, you could spin up a retirement account like a self-employed 401(k) or SIMPLE IRA yourself. However, that requires paperwork, plus additional upkeep in some cases.

Return of the retired retirement account

This is where a new account could come in handy. For many years, advocates have pushed the government to revive “my Retirement Account” or myRA, which was basically a Roth IRA account for those who had never saved any money toward retirement. It too had its problems and was shut down in 2017 amid high costs and low adoption.

For many years, advocates have instead urged the government to offer something that more closely resembles the widely-acclaimed Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP. It’s a low-fee investment account offered to many federal employees. It’s cheap, simple, and elegant.

The project has been a long time coming. In fact, a government alternative to a 401(k) was part of the extensive Secure Act 2.0 passed under President Joe Biden years before. It promised to offer a new plan by 2027, while touting a key benefit: a government match on contributions.

Will it move the needle?

Per reporting by Axios, experts familiar with the new plan say that enrolling would be as easy as checking a box on your tax form. Whether Americans will check that box is harder to ascertain.

It’s a worthy shot on goal for the U.S. government. Separately, the Trump Administration is currently in the process of rolling out the new Trump Account, or 530A account, which will grant $1,000 to every American born between 2025 and 2028. Those launch Jul. 5, 2026, in a bid to get Americans invested earlier — seizing on the benefits of compound interest.

That money comes free, of course. You don’t have to deposit more funds, but your employer might; you might, too. By contrast, the money in a new “myRA 2.0” account (or whatever they decide to call it) will need to come from contributions. Here, there’s no free lunch. In order to earn up to a $1,000 match from the government, you’ll have to have $2,000 to contribute. You’ll also have to make below a certain income threshold. Eclipse that and bye-bye free money.

But critically, even a new retirement account might not solve the shortcomings of the current system. Yes, a box to check on your tax form helps eliminate low levels of opt-in. But still, a modest level of knowledge about the system will be required.

Truthfully, and this is just a feeling, but the 50 million Americans who aren’t privileged enough to work for an employer that offers a basic retirement option are likely not the kinds of folks who will have money sitting around to make those contributions. The reality is it’s hard to get people to contribute money they don’t have to savings they sorely need.

In some cases, not even the promise of “free money” is enough to change behavior. But at a minimum, a new type of retirement account with government contribution matching might be a step in the right direction.