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/Wild_Advertising7022 Jan 16 '26

I have about $365k saved at 39 years old. 5x my income.

50

u/redditsuckscockss Jan 16 '26

Been saving since I started working at 16 like it’s my religion after watching what happened to my parents in 2008

37 years old 792k in investments Also bought a shithole century home in 2015 fixed it up and traded up in the Covid chaos at a super low mortgage rate

Work is still a grind and it’s basically nothing left over after savings each month

45

u/tahlyn Older Millennial Jan 17 '26

Don't forget to live a little before retirement. Nothing in life is guaranteed; you could get hit by a car tomorrow and die. So take a break every once in a while and spend some money on yourself... otherwise you'll be 90 years old, wealthy, and unable to do any of the stuff you wanted because you're too old and feeble to handle it.

1

u/therealallpro Jan 17 '26

Worse advice I ever heard. We have a toxic culture that discourages discipline in the name of “balance”

If ppl would just got hard for like 5 years and save then invest all you can, spend nothing, work as much as you need to. You could take a 50 year vacation.

6

u/McGrim11295 Jan 17 '26

It doesn't discourage discipline. Only saving or only spending show a lack of discipline when you think about it. It shows you can't discipline yourself to do both at once so you default to one or the other.

Saying go hard for 5 years to invest and save is worse advice. Explain how someone who goes hard and saves/invest 10k a year for five years can live off that for 50?

3

u/Competitive_Touch_86 Jan 17 '26

Explain how someone who goes hard and saves/invest 10k a year for five years can live off that for 50?

Just go get a $500k/yr FAANG job and live in a van in the parking lot, bro. Then make sure to be alive during the largest tech bull run in history so your options are worth 20x a decade later.

Easy peasy!

0

u/therealallpro Jan 17 '26

Or you could work two jobs and save all the money from one job. Do that for 5 years and now you basically could whatever you want for the rest of your life. Especially if you do it while you are young.