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If you’ve spent years setting money aside for your future, you may be wondering whether you have enough saved to reach your goals. What’s “enough” is different for each person, but knowing how much cash your peers have stashed for retirement can give you an idea of how you stack up.
Seeing these benchmarks can help you assess if you are on track or falling behind, and that information can guide your next steps.
How much Americans have saved
Here are the median retirement account sizes for all Americans by age, according to the latest Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, which is from 2022:
- Under 35: $18,880
- 35-44: $45,000
- 45-54: $115,000
- 55-64: $185,000
- 65-74: $200,000
- Over 75: $130,000
On average, Americans expect they’ll need $1.46 million saved to retire comfortably, according to a recent study from Northwestern Mutual. In other words, they’re not saving enough.
How much you should be saving
Fidelity Investments offers age-based savings recommendations. Here’s what the firm recommends you have saved by various ages:
- Age 30: 1x your salary
- Age 35: 2x your salary
- Age 40: 3x your salary
- Age 45: 4x your salary
- Age 50: 6x your salary
- Age 55: 7x your salary
- Age 60: 8x your salary
- Age 67: 10x your salary
The optimal number may be higher or lower for you, depending on your specific salaries throughout the years. Someone who made $50,000 in most of their 20s but got a $100,000 salary at 29 may not have enough time to go from $50,000 in savings to $100,000 in a single year, for instance.
Fidelity’s projections assume that you can save 15% of your annual income starting at age 25, and you’ll retire at age 67.
What to do if you’re behind
If you’re behind Fidelity’s benchmarks, don’t panic. Try to increase how much you are contributing to tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts. You can make catch-up contributions when you turn 50, which allow you to store more in retirement savings accounts than the IRS allows before you turn 50.
If possible, you can also delay your Social Security benefits and wait until you turn 70 before claiming them. This strategy will increase your monthly income in retirement.
You can also trim your spending. While skipping the daily coffee habit can make a small difference, you get to save a lot more money by prioritizing saving on housing, transportation and food. Living in a smaller home, selling a car if you own two of them and reducing how much you dine out can help.
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