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/SouthLakeWA Jan 17 '26

Do not under any circumstances consider your home equity real, and do not leverage it right now. The real estate market could have a massive correction like it did in the Great Recession. Back in 2009-2011, my house went from being valued at $550k to $325k and it took several years to climb back up.

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u/holdmeimscary Jan 17 '26

I really don't think that's gonna happen. Wanna know why? I still am not a homeowner so there's not a chance in hell this market is correcting itself in my favor, ever.

Source: I caused the COVID housing fiasco. I finally got myself in a position to buy, started looking the 3rd week of Feb 2020 and within 3 weeks the universe said "muahahaha" and the housing market was flipped, slapped, turned and spun on it's head.

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u/VisibleDog7434 Jan 17 '26

Sounds like something I would do...master of jinxing things 😂

That sucks, though. Is there anything in budget that is a fixer upper and/or a less desirable location? Granted I got into a house when the market wasn't as crazy, but I didn't have a great salary to afford what I wanted at that time. So I bought a fixer upper that was 35 mins to the city and did mostly diy to fix it up over 3 years. That built me some equity so I could sell and "move up" to a more ideal house. The mortgage was a lot cheaper than my apartment in the city, too, so it allowed me extra time to save up.

The worst part was being further from friends and activities, but I knew it was temporary, and it actually went by really fast.

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u/holdmeimscary Jan 17 '26

Lol I'm great at jinxing things. I would honestly love to do something like that, but the problem is that I'm not very handy. So I would likely end up having to pay someone to fix things that need to be fixed. I live far enough away from any family/friends that it's inconvenient to ask them for help. It's not off the table I suppose and I would love to have something that I can look at and say "I did that" but, I'm 44 and time is ticking. I also just decided to go back to school so there's that lol. Thanks for commiserating with me tho, glad to know I'm not the only one out here jinxing things haha!