Average Retirement Savings Balance by Age
Average Retirement Savings Balance by Age
Here are just the number for all of you degenerates who just want some milestones for your spreadsheets.
Average total retirement savings by age:
- <35 - $49,130
- 35-44 - $141,520
- 45-54 - $313,220
- 55-64 - $537,560
- 65-74 - $609,230
-
=75 - $462,410
Average 401k balance by age:
- <25 - $5,236
- 25-34 - $30,017
- 35-44 - $76,354
- 45-54 - $142,069
- 55-64 - $207,874
- 65 and older - $232,710
And retirement savings targets from various advisors:
Fidelity:
- 1x by 30
- 3x by 40
- 6x by 50
- 8x by 60
- 10x by 67
Rowley:
- 1x by 35
- 5x by 50
- 7x by 70
Anyway, do you like metrics like these?
You're viewing a single thread.
How am I supposed to read those savings targets?
Generally I like metrics to see how I compare, but those US-only ones are pretty useless.
I believe that's usually expressed as mutiples of your annual income with the general idea being that if you hit those benchmarks you should be able to maintain your current quality of life in retirement. So if you make 50k euro, Fidelity would want you to have 50k total savings by age 30, 150k by age 40, 300k by age 50, etc. People in the US generally plan on a 4% safe withdrawal rate. So the 10x savings that the Fidelity chart recommends at retirement age would provide a safe 40% of your prior income withdrawal with social security making up the rest.
I personally express my own savings goals in terms of desired retirement income since earned income can vary quite a bit. In which case if I wasn't counting on social security I would want to have 1/(4%) = 25 x my annual retirement income before retiring. 25x is definitely a big mltiplier, but if your actual spending level is significantly lower than your current income level, it's a lot more attainable than it initially sounds.
I mostly like how this article frames time to retire based on savings percentages. It's worth a read. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
It's also averaged across the US, so it's doubly useless. I mostly posted it as an interesting anecdote.
But if you want something similar, just look up average retirement savings in your country. The income multiplier should work across countries though (the 1x, 3x, etc).
That said, if your goal is early financial independence, you probably have better metrics anyway. I just use stuff like this to pad out my milestones, since it's fun to have more things to celebrate.
If you want something more generally applicable (e.g. calculate time to financial independence), I'm happy to make a post about what I'm doing.
Ah ok, gotcha. I've set my own milestones based on a relative savings rate in such a way that x% monthly savings equate to y years of earlier retirement. Never thought of doing it in terms of multiples of annual income since those include my savings rates, and my actual cost of living are significantly below my income.
Yeah, the multiples thing is not a great way to estimate early retirement because it assumes your retirement spending is directly related to your employment income. That's true for many people with traditional retirement plans though, and it's certainly easier than estimating expenses, so I guess there's merit to it.
Anyway, I just think it's an interesting set of milestones to track. Like, "oh, I'm where I should be at X years old, so I'm Y years ahead of 'normal' retirement." But it doesn't impact my retirement planning one bit though.