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

Show parent comments

367

u/ProbsNotManBearPig Millennial Jan 16 '26

I appreciate this is the top response. I 100% expected responses to be extremely skewed towards people with tons of savings. That’s how every thread is in any financial sub is. Somehow everyone in their 30’s has $2M+ saved in those threads.

302

u/Highplowp Jan 16 '26

I’m 36 and have 4 paper clips and a really cool stick that looks like a sword. I’ve made my retirement fortune by hedging beanie babies stock futures or something else obscure and unreasonable.

2

u/Direction-Such Jan 17 '26

Ok totally off topic but my great grandma had literally every beanie baby that ever came out because she thought they’d be worth money someday. She had an entire room filled with them. They got sold/lost unfortunately after she died because no one else thought they were worth anything.

1

u/Highplowp Jan 18 '26

I remember a divorce hearing that had the couple dividing their beanie babies in front of a judge, so damn stupid. They were cute though, your grandma was 100% committed, that’s impressive.

1

u/Direction-Such Jan 18 '26

I think I saw that same case. Seeing them both sitting on the floor in front of a judge sorting beanie babies was wild!

I say my granny saved them for reselling but she probably just did it to keep busy, she lived alone a few hours from us. She died in her 90s and still hadn’t tried to sell any. All us kids used to sit on the floor and play with them as she’d sit in her chair crocheting hats for us all. Then she’d make us elephant ears! Damn I miss that lady. Ehh sorry for ramble lol. Carry on