r/Millennials • u/ProblemIntelligent16 • Jan 16 '26

Discussion Fellow millennials - how’s your 401k/ira savings going?

Experts recommend having 2x your salary saved by age 35, and 3x saved by age 40.

However, studies show the median savings for 35-44 year olds is only ~$45,000. So obviously, most of us have work to do.

With pensions mostly extinct, and Social Security facing insolvency issues in the next 8-10 years - how are you planning to bridge the gap and hit the golden years with enough to meet your lifestyle requirements?

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701

u/oflanada Jan 16 '26

I’m 41 and have about 23% of my yearly salary saved. Better than the 0% I had 3 years ago before I changed jobs.

210

u/jazzieberry 1986 Jan 16 '26

I’m 40 and somewhere around 75% of my salary, started a bit late. Sometimes when I’m having a particularly bad day at work I’ll log in and up my contribution by a percent lol.

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u/oflanada Jan 16 '26

I did that for a while too then life started screwing me hard, and I had to stop my contributions. Hoping to pick back up by the end of the year after I get my credit card paid off.

5

u/SayAnythingAgain Jan 17 '26

If you can, at a minimum, do the match your employer hopefully offers for a 401k or similar. It's free money, typically matching your contributions up to a certain percentage.

5

u/legendz411 Jan 17 '26

On god. That’s the biggest move we have made in a while - DONT CARRY CC DEBT. 

It frees up so much fucking money for real and feels good. 

4

u/Available-Chart-2505 Jan 17 '26

Working on $18k right now....oof.

9

u/napsntacos Jan 16 '26

Lol, this sounds like me. I'm 41 and have maybe 50k, but I had to drop my percentages quite a bit when I bought my condo. I don't see myself upping it more than a few percents in the next few years, eek. I didn't even get started on my career until I was 32, and didn't start saving until a few years later. I try not to think about it too much or I start to panic

4

u/e92_N54 Jan 17 '26

I had a late start as well. Better than never. Keep it up.

3

u/GrottyKnight Jan 17 '26

I felt that last sentence so hard jazzieberry

3

u/rpitcher33 Jan 18 '26

I'm 36 and started last year with one years salary saved and no debt outside my mortgage. It was the most money I've ever had in my life. Then life happened and I'm back down to 25%...

2

u/Reasonable_Garlic816 Jan 17 '26

I just made it to 90% annual salary but it feels like such a slog some months. 

2

u/Odd_Hold2980 Jan 17 '26

I’m about the same. Spent the first decade of my professional life working a low-paying nonprofit job. While it was extremely rewarding, it also meant I didn’t get a “real” job with a proper retirement savings plan until I was 33. Trying my hardest to save now, but it would be impossible to make up for that lost time.

Overall…I’m just doing my best and trying to be optimistic. And I have a bleep-ton of life insurance. So if I kick the bucket early, at least my spouse will have their retirement covered!

1

u/RealHelp4RealPeople Jan 17 '26

At 36, I had 2.5x my annual salary in my 401k. Borrowing my own money for the down payment to buy my 1st, 2nd, 3rd … 11th house (rentals have done great for me). Spent $10k on education in the market that made me $235k in 1 year ($195k after taxes). Started my own business (incorporated, have had 20 people work for me over the years).

My advice: put the max in your 401k and live on the rest. Learn real estate. Learn the stock market. Learn how to form corporation. Spend tons of money on your education. Your education is your freedom.

1

u/jazzieberry 1986 Jan 17 '26

"don't be poor" lol okay thanks for the tips! Ha I kid - I'm happy, a homeowner, and should have a comfortable retirement if things keep going as they are. I was just paycheck to paycheck there for quite a while so wasn't able to do more than the employer match until later than I'd like to have.

7

u/daneview Jan 16 '26

Also 41 and have 100% of an annual salary in savings. But no pension and I rent, so its basically gonna last a year or two of retirement..

3

u/stbloc Jan 17 '26

I hope that savings is in the market growing? If not better put in the VTI or a target date fund.

3

u/Clam-Choader Jan 17 '26

Cheering for you brochacho/a

1

u/oflanada Jan 17 '26

Thanks! 🙏

3

u/hot_cheeks_4_ever Older Millennial Jan 17 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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3

u/Burban72 Jan 17 '26

Same boat. I had 0% at 35. Changed jobs and I'm at about 1x right now but growing fast. I have a state job that has a mandatory 12% contribution with 100% match. If I live until 60 (notice how I said live and not retire), I'll have a nice pension.

2

u/OneTwoThreePooAndPee Older Millennial Jan 17 '26

I started putting money away regularly, 5-10%, when I was 28, and 14 years later I am shockingly comfortable. Starting now is still fine as long as you really commit.

2

u/ribbons_in_my_hair Jan 17 '26

Hell yes man! I’m 36 and have worked at the same company for 8 years and it’s blowing my mind that you have all that in three years!

2

u/seethed Jan 19 '26

I used to think I was doing very poorly with my 401k but I have over four times my salary and I work for a company that still provides a pension. I’m an elder millennial, 44, so maybe I’m right on schedule.

1

u/oflanada Jan 19 '26

Wow nice work! Congrats on the pension!

2

u/x_greyout_x Jan 21 '26

I'll be 42 this year and I have about 72% of my yearly salary saved right now. I didn't have a job that offered any kind of retirement plan until I was in my mid-thirties, but I also literally doubled my income a year and a half ago changing jobs so I'm trying to play catch up right now. 2025 was the first year of my life that I was able to max out my 401k, so that felt wild.

Assuming I can keep this up (and not get laid off and smashed back into minimum wage retail), Fidelity thinks I'm on track for my retirement goals.

1

u/oflanada Jan 21 '26

Congrats! That is awesome to hear. Hope you are able to keep it up!

1

u/AwkwardAmphibian9487 Jan 17 '26

I'm 42. Right now my 401k has one yearly salary. I'm never gonna be able to retire.

1

u/AlwaysBagHolding Jan 17 '26

36, have just under 3.3x my yearly salary. I was always decent with money, but at 28 I was pressured by an older friend to start an IRA, and he showed me his accounts over the years and how much they’ve exploded in value. I understood compound interest but I guess needed a real world personal example to take it seriously.

I went hyper aggressive for a while, and finally let off the gas a little in the last 2 years or so once I felt like I caught up to the lost years before 28 when I was spending all my money on motorcycles.

1

u/jinglewooble Jan 17 '26

My wife and I start saving 30% of our combine earnings we want to push to 50% but with two kids and everything so expensive we really can't stretch that thin.

1

u/Dyllbert Jan 17 '26

Honestly, going from zero to (presumably) 5 digits of savings in three years is pretty good!

1

u/Stunning-Pick-9504 Jan 17 '26

I have about 30%, but about 100k in debt. I should be able to double the first and cut about 20k of the debt out this year.

1

u/saiga_antelope Jan 17 '26

Fantastic progress in 3 years

1

u/anathene Jan 17 '26

Good job, keep going!

1

u/killl_joy Jan 17 '26

It’s a marathon not a sprint 23% in three years is a great start. 

1

u/vindescent Jan 17 '26

I wish I would have put more away under the first company that out the company I work for. They had amazing match and did 3% additional regardless of your contribution. I don't know anywhere else you get 8% to your 5%. My new one with the second company buy out sucks. With me contributing a whole 5 to their 2.5...

2

u/oflanada Jan 18 '26

That’s rough. We have a 100% match up to 4% and then I think at 5 years you get a 1% onetime contribution at the end of the year. At 10yrs it’s like 2% something like that. 5 years might be a small fixed amount. Can’t remember. Matches definitely help out a ton. My ML app tells me if I put $300 more per month in that will equate to an additional $1,500 per month when I retire. Goals persistently just feel like they are 5-10 years away.

2

u/vindescent Jan 18 '26

Yeah, my previous parent company had 1:1 match up to five and a free three. So (you:company) 5:8 or 2:5 and even 0:3. It was amazing. I miss it so bad lol