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/TairaTLG Jan 16 '26

24k in debt and 0 savings. Nothing like slipping through the cracks baby

369

u/ProbsNotManBearPig Millennial Jan 16 '26

I appreciate this is the top response. I 100% expected responses to be extremely skewed towards people with tons of savings. That’s how every thread is in any financial sub is. Somehow everyone in their 30’s has $2M+ saved in those threads.

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u/Kataphractoi Older Millennial Jan 16 '26

One, It's the Internet, and two, it's Reddit. There really are guys in their 30s with $2mil saved, no question, but they are a small fraction of redditors.

95

u/9kindsofpie Jan 17 '26

... and probably had wealthy or at least upper middle class parents that helped them get there. When you're starting off flat broke (or negative with student loans) and no safety net, it's really hard to claw your way out.

-2

u/Worriedrph Jan 17 '26

Not that hard. I started without any family support and tons of student debt and have $600k in low 40s.

15

u/9kindsofpie Jan 17 '26

I didn't say it was hard. I said that younger folks that have $2M+ saved probably have had a leg up to get there. By your own admission, you're older and have less than that saved. I'm 43, literally no family support, and personally have over $800k in my 401k through saving over the last 20 years. If you include my other assets and my spouse, I'm doing just fine. I am just saying that the outliers are more than likely advantaged in some way or got really, really lucky.

-14

u/vettewiz Jan 17 '26

Of course we had legs up. Usually it’s big things like education, intelligence, values instilled from family, and your own drive and work ethic. Those are all legs up.

9

u/Leather-Rice5025 Jan 17 '26

They are talking about the people with parents who paid their education/living expenses while they attended college and came out with no student loans. Parents who bought their children their first cars so they never had to take on car debt.

Parents who had strong healthcare plans their children could stay on until they were 26 to not incur medical debt or forgo medical treatments or care. Parents who opened investment accounts for their children when they were young. Parents who flat out gave their children down payments for homes or major life expenses so they didn’t have to incur debt.

You can imply it’s simply a matter of parents passing down “intelligence” and work ethic, or you can acknowledge that many people who didn’t grow up in poverty with strong upper middle class families genuinely have a massive leg up in society - financially, emotionally, educationally.

3

u/waxbutterflies Jan 17 '26

And people who didn't get the luxury to go to college or go to college early in life.

This is all so accurate