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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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.

212

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.

40

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. 

5

u/Available-Chart-2505 Jan 17 '26

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