Average Retirement Savings by Age: Where You Should Actually Be in 2026

If you've ever Googled "average retirement savings by age," you've probably walked away feeling either smug or sick. Both reactions are usually wrong — because the headline averages you see circulating in 2026 are profoundly misleading.

Here's the quick version: Fidelity's Q4 2025 Retirement Analysis put the average 401(k) balance at $146,400, up 11% year over year. But the Vanguard How America Saves 2025 report — which covers a similar participant pool — pegged the median 401(k) at roughly $38,000. That gap isn't a rounding error. It's the difference between how a handful of mega-savers distort the picture and how the typical American household is actually doing.

Medians always tell the truer story, and they're always lower. If you're benchmarking yourself against a misleading average, you're either getting falsely comforted or falsely panicked. Let's fix that.

Below: what the data actually says about retirement savings by age bracket in 2026, how to read it, Fidelity's age-based target multiples, and the 2026 contribution limits you can use to catch up.

Why Averages Lie: Median vs. Mean

Before we get to the age-by-age numbers, you need one mental model.

The average (mean) adds up every account balance and divides by the number of savers. A single $10 million 401(k) belonging to a 63-year-old tech founder drags the "average" for his age group up by tens of thousands of dollars.

The median is the middle number — half of savers have more, half have less. It tells you what a typical person actually has, not what a hypothetical "everyone" has.

In retirement savings, the mean is roughly two to three times the median across every age bracket. That's how skewed the distribution is. Whenever you see a chirpy headline about six-figure retirement balances, assume you're looking at the mean and ask where the median is.

Average Retirement Savings by Age in 2026

Here's how the two most-cited data sets stack up — Vanguard's How America Saves 2025 (analyzing participants in Vanguard-administered defined-contribution plans at the end of 2024) and the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which measures all U.S. households, including those with zero savings. The SCF is the most recent complete survey from the Fed and covers all retirement accounts held by a household, not just a single 401(k).

Vanguard 401(k) balances — end of 2024

Age group	Average (mean) 401(k)	Median 401(k)
Under 25	$6,899	$1,948
25–34	$42,640	$16,255
35–44	$103,552	$39,958
45–54	$188,643	$67,796
55–64	$271,320	$95,642
65+	$299,442	$95,425

Federal Reserve SCF 2022 — all household retirement accounts

Age group	Median	Average
Under 35	$18,880	$49,130
35–44	$45,000	$141,520
45–54	$115,000	$313,220
55–64	$185,000	$537,560
65–74	$200,000	$609,230
75+	$130,000	$462,410

Two things to notice:

1. The Fed's medians are consistently higher than Vanguard's because the SCF captures every retirement account a household owns — IRAs, multiple 401(k)s, pensions, the works — not just a single employer plan.
2. The Vanguard medians are the more honest number if you want to ask, "How much has the typical person saved in a single 401(k)?"

Your actual retirement picture sits somewhere between these data sets depending on how many accounts you've consolidated over a career.

The Age-by-Age Breakdown

Your 20s: Building the Habit ($2,000–$17,000 territory)

Vanguard's median for savers under 25 is under $2,000. For 25- to 34-year-olds it jumps to about $16,000. Fidelity's generational data pegs Gen Z 401(k) balances at an average of $17,900 (Q4 2025).

These numbers look tiny, and they are. But this is the decade where compounding matters most. A 25-year-old who saves $500 a month at a 7% real return is sitting on roughly $1.2 million by 65. A 35-year-old who starts the same contribution gets to about $570,000. Same dollars in. Half the outcome.

What to aim for: Fidelity says you should have roughly 1x your annual salary saved by age 30. If you're making $75,000, that's $75,000 across all your retirement accounts. Most people aren't there — and most will still be fine if they accelerate in their 30s.

Your 30s: Catching Up on the Curve ($17,000–$40,000 median)

The 35–44 bracket shows a median 401(k) of about $40,000 at Vanguard and $45,000 across all household retirement accounts at the Fed. Fidelity's Millennial average is $83,700. The gap between average and median is already hundreds of thousands of dollars — that's a reminder that a small cohort of high earners is pulling the mean skyward.

This is also the decade where most people get slammed with competing financial priorities: housing, childcare, student loan payoffs. EBRI's 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey found that 60% of workers say high housing costs are already hurting their ability to save for retirement, and seven in 10 workers are worried housing costs will affect their retirement.

What to aim for: 3x salary by 40. The math-friendly way to get there: a 15% total savings rate (employee + employer match), which is Fidelity's recommended target. Fidelity's own Q4 2025 data shows the average worker is at 14.2% — close, but not quite there.

Your 40s: The Peak Earning Years ($40,000–$115,000 median)

By the 45–54 bracket, Vanguard's median 401(k) is about $68,000, while the Fed's all-accounts median is $115,000. Fidelity's Gen X average balance hit $222,100 in Q4 2025 — but 25.8% of Gen X savers have a 401(k) loan outstanding, the highest rate of any generation. That's a big deal. Loans aren't free money; they're opportunity cost.

What to aim for: 6x salary by 50. If you're earning $150,000, that's $900,000 across your retirement accounts. If you're behind, this is the decade to ratchet your savings rate as aggressively as cash flow allows — and to think hard before taking a 401(k) loan.

Your 50s: Catch-Up Contributions Kick In ($68,000–$185,000 median)

Fed data shows the 55–64 median jumps to $185,000 for all retirement accounts combined — a meaningful leap from the prior decade, partly because people do accelerate saving once kids are launched and mortgages are smaller.

This is also when IRS catch-up contributions become your best friend. In 2026:

• Standard 401(k) limit: $24,500
• Age 50+ catch-up: add $8,000 → $32,500 total
• Age 60–63 super catch-up (SECURE 2.0): add $11,250 → $35,750 total
• Standard IRA limit: $7,500
• Age 50+ IRA catch-up: add $1,100 → $8,600 total

If you're over 50 and behind, these limits are why the race isn't over. A 53-year-old who maxes a 401(k) at $32,500 a year for 12 years with a 7% real return is adding roughly $580,000 on top of whatever they already have.

What to aim for: 6x salary by 50, 8x by 60.

Your 60s: The Home Stretch ($95,000–$200,000 median)

Vanguard's 55–64 median is $95,642. The Fed's 65–74 median is $200,000 across all accounts — the peak. After that, medians decline as retirees start drawing down.

If you're in this range and on track, your focus shifts from accumulation to sequencing: when to claim Social Security, when to start Roth conversions, how to manage required minimum distributions (RMDs), and how to protect against sequence-of-returns risk early in retirement.

What to aim for: 10x your salary by 67. For a household earning $150,000 in their final working years, that's $1.5 million.

70+: Decumulation, Not Accumulation

The Fed's 75+ median retirement savings drops to $130,000. That's not necessarily bad news — it's the expected result of people living off their savings. The question at this stage isn't "how much do I have?" but "how long will it last, and how do I protect what's left?"

Fidelity's Age-Based Savings Targets

Fidelity's widely cited salary-multiple rule is the cleanest benchmark for "where you should actually be":

Age	Target
30	1x your salary
40	3x your salary
50	6x your salary
60	8x your salary
67	10x your salary

The rule assumes you save 15% of income annually starting at 25, invest in an age-appropriate mix, and plan to retire at 67 with Social Security covering a meaningful chunk of income. Miss any of those assumptions and your target multiplier changes.

If you want a more realistic benchmark for your specific situation — including expected retirement age, spending, and legacy goals — this is exactly the kind of thing a wealth coach or a comprehensive wealth management review is designed to map out.

The Social Security Piece Most People Under-Count

Social Security matters more than the retirement-media industrial complex usually admits. For someone retiring in 2026 at full retirement age (67 for those born in 1960 or later), the maximum monthly benefit is $4,152, per the Social Security Administration. Claiming at 70 instead pushes that maximum to roughly $5,181. Claiming at 62 drops it to about $2,969.

Very few people hit the maximum — it requires 35 years of earnings at or above the Social Security taxable wage base. But even the average benefit (in the low-$2,000s per month) replaces about 40% of pre-retirement income for a median earner. That's meaningful, but it's not enough on its own.

How to Read Your Own Number

Four honest questions to ask:

1. What's my total across every retirement account? 401(k)s from old jobs, current 401(k), traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP-IRA, 403(b). Sum it all.
2. What's my current gross household income? The Fidelity multiples use pre-tax salary.
3. Where does my number fall against both the Vanguard median and the Fidelity multiple for my age? If you're ahead of the median but behind the multiple, that's normal — most people are.
4. What savings rate am I actually at? Employee contribution + employer match, as a percentage of gross income. Fidelity's target is 15%. The national average is 14.2%.

If you're under 15% and behind the Fidelity multiple for your age, your catch-up plan starts with closing that savings-rate gap — not with market-timing heroics.

The 2026 Policy Changes Worth Knowing

A few SECURE 2.0 provisions are already in effect and worth flagging:

• Roth-only catch-ups for high earners. Starting in 2026, if your 2025 FICA wages were above $150,000, your 401(k) catch-up contributions must go to a Roth account. This is a major planning shift for high-income late-career savers. Our 2026 Roth conversion strategy playbook walks through the mechanics and the tax-bracket math.
• The super catch-up (ages 60–63). The $11,250 additional catch-up is one of the most generous windows ever offered. If you're in that age band, it's arguably the highest-leverage retirement move available.
• Permanent TCJA brackets. Because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made TCJA's lower income-tax brackets permanent, Roth conversions and tax-loss harvesting decisions that were pegged to "the 2026 cliff" now need to be rebuilt. Our tax-loss harvesting 2026 guide covers how that's changed the near-term playbook.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average retirement savings by age in 2026? The most reliable 2026 data sets come from Fidelity's Q4 2025 Retirement Analysis, Vanguard's How America Saves 2025, and the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. Vanguard's average 401(k) balances in 2024 ranged from about $6,900 for under-25s to $299,000 for savers 65+. Medians are materially lower — roughly $16,000 for 25–34, $40,000 for 35–44, and $95,000 for 55–64.

Is it better to look at the average or the median? Almost always the median. Averages are distorted upward by a small number of very large accounts. The median tells you what the typical saver actually has, which is the number you should benchmark yourself against.

How much should I have saved for retirement by age 40? Fidelity's guideline is 3x your annual salary by 40. That assumes a 15% savings rate, starting by age 25, with age-appropriate investing. If you're behind that multiple, you're in the same boat as most Americans — the Vanguard median for 35–44 is about $40,000.

What are the 2026 401(k) and IRA contribution limits? The standard 2026 401(k) limit is $24,500. Workers 50+ can add an $8,000 catch-up ($32,500 total). Workers 60–63 can use the SECURE 2.0 super catch-up of $11,250 ($35,750 total). The IRA limit is $7,500, or $8,600 for those 50 and older.

Will Social Security be enough to retire on? No, unless your retirement budget is unusually low. The maximum 2026 benefit at full retirement age is $4,152/month ($49,824/year), but most people receive far less. Social Security is designed to replace roughly 40% of pre-retirement income for a median earner — it's a floor, not a full retirement plan.

What if I'm way behind on retirement savings? Start with your savings rate, not the stock market. Push contributions up to 15% of gross income (including employer match) as quickly as cash flow allows. Use every catch-up contribution you're eligible for after 50. Delay Social Security if you can — each year you wait from 62 to 70 adds roughly 8% to your benefit. And if the plan feels overwhelming, get help: that's exactly what a wealth coach or full wealth management engagement is for.

The Bottom Line

The "average retirement savings by age" numbers you see in headlines are misleading in both directions. The averages are too high to use as a real benchmark. The medians are often uncomfortably low, but they reflect a real structural problem: most Americans are not saving at the rate their future selves will need.

The good news: the 2026 contribution limits, the SECURE 2.0 super catch-up, and the permanent TCJA tax brackets give late-career savers more tools than any generation before them. The data says most people are behind. It doesn't say they have to stay there.

If you want to pressure-test where you actually stand — and what a realistic plan looks like for your age, income, and goals — that's exactly the conversation a fiduciary wealth manager is built for. Nicole's book Rich AF is a good starting point if you'd rather begin on your own.

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This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Please consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.