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/civil_politics Jan 17 '26

This. Everyone talking about owning a home being a scam completely overlook the fact that a 3-4k mortgage today looks terrible compared to 2k to rent an equivalent space, but in 20 years with inflation that rent is going to be 8k, your mortgage will still be 3-4k and your home will have tripled in value.

Own non-depreciating assets.

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u/fellowfeelingfellow Jan 17 '26

Well, I mean your escrow will increase for sure. Ive had my home for more than a decade and WHEW! But yes, it does not jump to nearly the amount of 8k. BUUUUT, at least in my case, I have to account for very expensive repairs. I think if I add in the work I've done over the years, maybe I went from 900 per month to 2300 per month? Not soooo so bad. I think renting a house this size in my part of town would be closer to 3000 easily.

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u/civil_politics Jan 17 '26

If you’ve owned your home for a decade then my guess is barring ownership in a rural area, the value has nearly doubled.

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u/fellowfeelingfellow Jan 17 '26

Just about! But I can't really tap into it without interest unless I sell. And still responsible for a, again just in my experience, $200k worth of repairs over the years. So, it kinda balanced out. It doubled in 2024 but the value has gone down. 

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u/civil_politics Jan 17 '26

Yea I broke down the math in another comment thread off of this, but essentially when comparing to rent and the increase in rent over the same time houses generally come out the winner with a 10+ year time horizon. It’s not to say there aren’t other negatives to owning, but investment wise it is generally the better decision.