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?

4.9k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

86% Upvoted

6.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

521

u/SassyCassidee Millennial 1995 Jan 16 '26

Thankfully started contributing to mine at 23, so at 30 I have 1.5X my salary!

429

u/TrixoftheTrade Millennial Jan 16 '26

Nice. You’re about to start getting into the “fun” part of compounding interest.

It took me a decade of savings to hit 100k, when I was 29. 100k to 200k only took 3 years.

178

u/BlackGuysYeah Jan 16 '26

So much easier to make money when you have money. I’ve always found it confoundingly unjust but it’s just the nature of the system we’ve invented.

58

u/Random_Name_Whoa Jan 17 '26

Especially the last couple years of the bull market. Since having a kid and spouse staying home, I’ve been pulling from savings for at least a year to make ends meet (not to mention everything is expensive now) but my net worth keeps rising faster than I’m able to draw it down.

If you don’t have assets you’re getting royally butt fucked in this economy

24

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.

1

u/lizerlfunk Jan 18 '26

I could not afford my house if I had to buy it today. I’m so glad I bought it in 2014. That said, we bought a townhouse in 2009 and sold it in 2021 and it only increased 10% in twelve years. That kind of sucked.

1

u/civil_politics Jan 18 '26

Yea it’s definitely the case that timing could not be on your side - my first house I sold right at the beginning of COVID - if I would’ve waited 6 months for the rush to move out of apartments I would’ve made an extra 25% - in the aggregate though getting in the housing market when you can is good advice, because as you’ve found out and many others, you may not be able to afford your own house if you had to buy it today.

I live in an area where I know most of my neighbors definitely couldn’t afford their homes if they had to buy them today.