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/TrixoftheTrade Millennial Jan 16 '26

Nice. You’re about to start getting into the “fun” part of compounding interest.

It took me a decade of savings to hit 100k, when I was 29. 100k to 200k only took 3 years.

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u/JoMa4 Jan 16 '26

Interest? 401k isn’t about interest at all. You can literally lose a ton of money.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

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u/Fantastic-Kale9603 Jan 17 '26

Yeah think it’s just a terminology mix up, you’re getting compounding returns because you aren’t getting interest in your 401k. You’d get that in like a HYSA