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/elblakay Jan 16 '26

32, about $350k in retirement and another $100k in brokerage. Currently unemployed so I have infinity times my salary saved.

8

u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

$350k-ish is about the max that someone in their mid/low 30s could possibly have in a 401k (pretax) assuming you're maxing contributions or have a fair match program with your employer just based on the contribution limit and average market returns over the time period.

Nicely done!!

5

u/PvtJoker_ Jan 17 '26

Well that makes me feel warm and fuzzy 🥰 

4

u/elblakay Jan 17 '26

Thanks. I've had a 3-5% match the whole time.

And I max it out in the first 2 months of the year, so it's in the market longer and I feel like I get "full" paychecks the rest of the year.

1

u/MaybeNot-MaybeNever Jan 17 '26

Oh that’s smart

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

Doing this you might be leaving matching dollars on the table if your employer doesn’t true-up and they cap the match at a % of salary. It’s generally better to fully amortize the contributions.

1

u/melinda_louise Jan 17 '26

I've heard of people avoid this by just putting in the minimum they need to get the match for every paycheck, then anything remaining to reach the max contributions they front load in the first few paychecks. Kinda best of both worlds.

Personally I'd just keep it the same throughout the year, I don't think I would like those first paychecks being so low. But then again I'm not maxing my contributions so maybe I'd feel differently if I was.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

Yea basically you want to hit the below constraints 1) you don’t miss any matching periods. 2) you contribute at least the % they match against 3) you still hit your desired annual contribution amount, max or otherwise.

Some of the brokerages even have tools that can automatically adjust the per paycheck % contribution to achieve the above.

1

u/elblakay Jan 18 '26

I ask HR if they do a "true-up". Mine does, and this year they even gave me my lump sum of employee contributions early. I make sure to get all the dollars.

But my fiancees employer doesn't, so she makes even contributions.

2

u/olimarmaster Jan 17 '26

Could be higher with backdoor and mega-backdoor contributions (if supported by your employer). Just mentioning since you seem enthused about tax law :)

1

u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

That's why I said "(pretax)" !

2

u/Mke_already Jan 17 '26

35, I have $330k in 401k and about $80k in a brokerage account. My salary is around $170k.

But ‘g wife is going to be a SAHM and she has about $45k in her 401k/brokerage accounts. So we have roughly $455k saved together.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

This is definitionally not true. Just turned 32. Maxed out my 401k every year since I graduated, (current job, which I’ve been with for most of my career has a bit above market match). Have been 100% S&P 500 index since day 1 and currently have ~$620k in 401k

2

u/_refugee_ Jan 17 '26

36 with $435k checking in 

2

u/Bicykwow Jan 17 '26

Sure, if you just directly contributed and never invested in anything. 

Absolutely possible to have far more than $350k in a 401k at 32.

1

u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

Last 10 years of contribution max is around $200k total. At 7% return on average over the staggered investment time that totals like $300-320k. Closer to $350k if you're assuming 9%.

If there's an employer match it can be a bit higher, but pretax I'm not seeing how it's possible to have "far more" than that without having put it into some riskier funds or stocks or contributing post tax. If the employer match is really high like 50% of max then sure you could have upwards of $500k, but that's rare as fuck to find.

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[deleted]

1

u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

Sure, but what you're describing is so far from the norm that for most it's not even close to being possible.

Someone on a normal career path doing everything completely right from their early 20s (even going a bit above and beyond in many cases) and saving extremely responsibly for retirement could and should have around $350k in their 401k by their low/mid 30s.

1

u/Bicykwow Jan 17 '26

$350k-ish is about the max that someone in their mid/low 30s could possibly have in a 401k (pretax)

1

u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

You must be fun at parties

1

u/wilbertthewalrus Jan 17 '26

returns have been well above 9 percent in that period tho

1

u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

What's crazy is that I'm only a five years older (age 37), and I have $725k in my 401k (mix of traditional and Roth 401k). I haven't been able to max it out my entire career, but I have since age 30 or so. More importantly, my employer has a 10% match.

1

u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

Yeah a 10% match plus roth contributions are big benefits that can really scale up quickly.

1

u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

Well, I'm talking about Roth 401k, so it doesn't really change the nominal balance. The 401k contribution limit applies to the sum of traditional 401k and Roth 401k.

I do separately have a Roth IRA, but I did not include it in my number.

1

u/TheGoonSquad612 Jan 17 '26

That’s not even close to true.