Have HR help you set up the 401(k) and contribute $20 to it each month. Tell your parents the retirement account is in place and you are building on it slowly. Hopefully everyone will shut up.

The majority of Americans will not have sufficient assets or income for a comfortable or even tolerable retirement, and your parents might be worried that you'll suffer the same fate. Social Security has an annual cash flow deficit of approximately $50 billion.

You might point out that in servicing your mortgage debt responsibly, you are preserving ownership of your most valuable asset, your house, which will not be yours until your mortgage is paid off. You could posit that your mortgage payment is logically equivalent to a 401(k) contribution, as both are retirement investments and both are tax-deductible.