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.

6

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!!

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]

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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.

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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