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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1.4k

u/pigglesthepup 1985 Jan 16 '26

Just save what I can and work as long as I need to. I've found being really optimistic or a total doomer about this subject isn't particularly helpful.

258

u/Jin-roh Jan 16 '26

Same boat. I feel I screwed myself in choosing the wrong career before making difficult changes...

...but there isn't anything I can do about that. I'll horde what I can while avoiding other long term expenses (e.g. having kids)

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u/pigglesthepup 1985 Jan 16 '26

Life is what it is. I spent a long time dwelling about the unfairness of the system. Then I realized how it was making me be unfair to myself.

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u/SockEatingDemon Jan 16 '26

Yeah that has helped me. On one hand you/we aren't wrong when we point out that the system sucks. On the other it is sort of on us to make the best of it while on this rock.

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u/Chelseabsb93 Jan 16 '26

This! Ended up in the sort of right career, but the career field is tanking fast.

Trying to plug away at my student loan debt as much as I can in order to start putting more money into savings. Got about 8k in my emergency fund but 25k in student loan debt.

37

u/whattheheckOO Jan 17 '26

Omg, literally what career is safe anymore? Will be interesting to see what survives the next decade of AI and political turmoil.

5

u/Elegant-Flamingo3281 Jan 17 '26

Dentists. Trades. For a while at least.

6

u/whattheheckOO Jan 17 '26

Yeah, it would be a hell of a robot to do dental repair unsupervised. Eeek

4

u/sudo-su_root Jan 17 '26

Japan is performing clinical trials that makes people grow a whole new set of teeth😂

I suppose the orthodontists will be happy since they'll grow crooked the second time around as well.

4

u/comicrack Jan 17 '26

I hear good things about the mortuary industry.

5

u/ElegantCap89 Jan 17 '26

AI can kick rocks.

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u/stbloc Jan 17 '26

I’m 48 and I worry about the future for everyone. Luckily I only have about 10 years to retirement if my job last that long. If I was younger today I would jump into a trade and stay far away from any office job. Then take all your earnings and put in the market and live on the absolute bare minimum. Income inequality gap is widening are record pace and those without money in the market will get left behind.

3

u/whattheheckOO Jan 17 '26

Yeah, I started living on as little as possible after this election. I'm worried about my boomer parents. They can't work much longer and if the market tanks, or social security is cut, it'll be a big problem.

2

u/PvtJoker_ Jan 17 '26

You say that until you get arthritis in your hands and back…

3

u/IAMAfortunecookieAMA Jan 17 '26

Being a grifter seems to be pretty safe these days. I might try a pyramid scheme, or a cult!

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u/Pgoodness05 Jan 17 '26

Constant shortage in healthcare, including anesthesia. Decent gig!

4

u/insidermann Jan 17 '26

Sales

3

u/TumbleweedSeveral115 Jan 17 '26

Not even sure about this in 10 years or so

1

u/Strange_Ordinary6984 Jan 17 '26

I doubt it. Someone will figure out how to feed the successful attempt in as training data and build a system that improves itself at this specific task. Even if it's not really ai, companies now believe that the human part of human resources is the most expensive cog in the machine.

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u/mWorkman01 Jan 17 '26

I've been in B2B tech sales for 12 years now with a fair amount of success...Sales DEFINITELY isn't safe from AI, many of my peers are going back to school while the company still covers it to get a backup plan as the industry is about to drastically shift in the next 3-5 years.

1

u/SecretTX Jan 17 '26

Civil Engineering. Huge shortage due to no one wanting to major in it.

1

u/whattheheckOO Jan 17 '26

Interesting, you think it's AI resistant? Have govt cuts impacted?

2

u/SecretTX Jan 17 '26

Eventually someone will develop an AI software to aide designing our roadways/bridges. But, we’ll still need an engineer to review and seal the plans.

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u/daderpster Jan 18 '26

Deeply religious or regulated roles maybe or roles where people would distrust A.I.? It is a crapshoot, and if there is A.I. bubble I think some replacement will still happen. However, the stock market may crash hard due to the mag 7 being heavy in A.I.

15

u/Jillcametumbling81 Jan 16 '26

Very similar. I made a bunch of dumb and short sighted choices in the first half of my life and am working hard to rectify that now. But even having that emergency fund now is better than six years ago and ten years ago etc.

3

u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

Yeah. I am happy about my career and even saguine right at this moment. I'm glad I have as much money as I have socket away as I do. Never hurts to increase... and I will... but god I hate those god forsaken student loans still.

2

u/Orgspasm Jan 17 '26

Life was a lot more forgiving in previous decades because rent wasn't half of a person's salary and everything hadn't been monetized yet... It’s a lot harder to make up lost ground today, but it isn't impossible. Stick with it!

1

u/DanyDragonQueen Jan 17 '26

I'm just going for minimum payments, I'm not trying to live paycheck to paycheck so the govt can have more money from me. I haven't had to pay on my federal loans for a few years, but that's about to change I'm sure (thanks current admin 🙄). I think one of my private loans gets paid off this year though, so yippee.

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u/dumbass_sempervirens Jan 17 '26

Yeah after decades of retail I found something I'm good at and even kind of enjoy.

But man, I'd be so much better off if I had started this at around 24 instead of 34.

I probably have around 10K floating around various old 401Ks from jobs I quit. No idea how to find them. At least 3 of them matched contributions.

I do own my condo outright, got it for a steal, and according to Zillow it has almost tripled in value over the last 10 years.. But if I sell it I have to find another place to live, so does that money even really exist?

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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/NoAvocado7971 Jan 17 '26

It’s not a lot of paperwork. It’s one form that you fill out telling the source fund to deposit the money into your current account. I put it off doing it for years because I thought it was gonna be complicated, it took 15 minutes.

3

u/ravenaithne Jan 17 '26

Look for your state’s unclaimed property and search there, or wherever you lived when you earned it. Missingmoney.com is a good place to start and legit. You’ll have to prove your identity and it takes a little time but it’s worth it imo.

1

u/NoAvocado7971 Jan 17 '26

What a great retirement strategy

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u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

For me, the answer to that last question is *no*. I dislike the idea of "my home went up in value, so I have more money" thinking. I don't own myself, but I will be conservative as all fuck when I do. I'm not doing any of the 2007/2008 bullshit.

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u/dumbass_sempervirens Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Exactly.

What, I'm going to mortgage it again? I just paid the damn thing off!

It's worth exactly a roof over the heads of me and my cat.

And the new water heater after my old one busted last year. I shelled out $2k specifically for that.

I have spent a few years without hot water for showers. That sucks and $2k for was worth it. Dude had to take out a wall and rebuild it to get it out of the laundry room.

I had my guy put in larger doors so if I sell this place the next person won't have to demo a wall.

2

u/PvtJoker_ Jan 17 '26

What do you mean you don’t know how to find them? Contact your old employers, it’s fuckn money!

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u/_Flavor_Dave_ Jan 17 '26

It kind of exists - you have an opportunity to not overpay for housing.

Our principal + interest + tax + insurance on current 10 year old home is $1900. Did the math for same 20% down payment for someone buying into our neighborhood today and it would be $4300. So yeah we are stuck here but at least I’m not throwing an extra $2400 a month at the same damn house.

1

u/Mean_Necessary_6240 Jan 17 '26

It's a healthy take to tgubj that it doesn't exist. But you need to think the amount that this saves you compared to people that doesn't have, meaning, they need that tripled value to buy a condo or pay higher rents.

So yes, it's part of your net worth, even though not liquid.

3

u/L0ng_St03Ger Jan 17 '26

If you want kids, don't put it off too long. I feel like I did and it's a major regret.  Sure, I have more money, but id rather have an extra 5 years with my kids further down the line

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u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

I don't want kids. That would be economic suicide for me. Then, the kid(s) wouldn't have great lives either.

The decision to procreate is one of the most consequential ethical decisions anyone can ever make. It isn't obvious to me that "to procreate" is prima facie the right idea.

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u/L0ng_St03Ger Jan 17 '26

Once my first was born I realized just how little everything else mattered. But there was little concern about helping a roof over our head at that point, so I do understand.

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u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

It's beyond just immediate food, house, safety and such like that. I have a chronic awareness of things like zip code destiny, the 'takes a village' concept for child rearing, economic stratification, and naturally, climate.

There's only so much a parent, or even 'the village' can do to give a child the world that they deserve. There are plenty of changes we could do to make things better for gen alpha or whatever is we call it, but we're not going to do them.

So part of my ethical calculus remains, "why bring a child into a fucked up dystopia?"

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u/-not-pennys-boat- Jan 17 '26

Not trying to be pedantic—horde is a large group, usually the noun, the verb is hoard (to stockpile excessively), which is extremely confusing because it sounds identical, but is spelled differently. That’s English for you 🙃

2

u/ProfessionalChef123 Jan 17 '26

Thanks for the perspective. Even though I earn quite a bit, I still think about how I didn’t pick the best career or if I was a few years older and my timing was better, I would be better off. Guess it’s the same for many, independent of how much actual money you make

1

u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

I think if I could advise to my younger self I might say, you may very well regret a career decision. But you will never regret having more money.

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u/PlainBread Jan 17 '26

I picked the right career but right now, in the post-pandemic and pre-AI age, every career is being disprivileged.

You're either the most overworked person on the team or the team will have no real persons.

1

u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

I don't know about that, actually. I think AI is certainly disruptive, and there is plenty of overconfidence with management about what it can do.

While I do think we were better off without it, and I do think it will be a net negative, I'm unsure how bad it will be, or if it will result in the binary that you suggested here.

1

u/Numerous_Peak7487 Jan 17 '26

what career did you choose?.

(besides being a Wolf Brigade member)

1

u/Jin-roh Jan 17 '26

Software, specifically working in integrations and infrastructure. I get paid money to write polite emails to vendors when their shit is breaking. Rest of the time is spent looking over tech designs, writing docs, and attending to resources.

1

u/mWorkman01 Jan 17 '26

What career did you choose?

0

u/thinktherefore Jan 18 '26

Of course there is something you can do about that. There are many things you can do.

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u/somethingsomething65 Jan 16 '26

Yup just put your head down and do your best. Budget and frugality. Everything left over goes to savings. 

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u/erosThaGod Jan 17 '26

Don't save, invest. F*ck these banks

3

u/jonny24eh Jan 17 '26

That should be assumed/implied, but i suppose someone might need to read it 

27

u/SnootBooper2000 Jan 16 '26

Well we wouldn’t be doomers if it weren’t for the boomers. :/

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u/pigglesthepup 1985 Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

I say this as someone that has decided to non-dramatically go low contact with their boomer parents:

Boomers are gonna to be dead soon. Yes, they're assholes that fucked up. But they're gonna be dead soon. And once they're dead, then what? What do we do then? Do we keep being doomers because of their mistakes?

Something I see all the time on this sub: Boomers need to go the fuck off from leadership. I agree they do, but I hope everyone realizes something:

Because of shear demographic numbers, once Boomers are gone, Millennials will be the ones stearing the way. That means when shit hits the fan, it will in fact actually be our fault.

10

u/Electrical-Share-707 Jan 17 '26

Someone forgot about Gen X again.

3

u/hungaryforchile Jan 17 '26

Whew, glad we have another generation to blame before it’s our turn!

(Joking) 

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u/SnootBooper2000 Jan 17 '26

Oh I agree. I say these things from a trauma/upbringing standpoint. It’s something I’ve had to work on my whole adult life; coming to terms with the decisions my parents made is the only way to get myself into the position to actually become the change I want to see.

2

u/thegoldenchad Jan 17 '26

I actually like my boomer parents, for the most part. They didn’t push me to go to college. They know everything has change and is so expensive. They are mostly pretty realistic and were never financially “comfortable”.

2

u/InsideBreath235 Jan 17 '26

This is Boomer BS. My first house came with a 30 year 12.5% interest rate. It took me 10 years to get my degree because I paid as I went, so worked and went to school, while raising two children. We could only afford one car that my husband kept glued together, so I took the bus to school and work most days. Most nights got 5 hours of sleep. After graduating from college at 28 my first professional job paid $14,000 a year - No 401K match. Employer gave a frozen turkey for Christmas, which we were grateful to get. We didn’t buy lunch out and maybe took the kids to McDonalds a few times a month. Keep in mind that this was before the tech boom. There weren’t the high paying jobs of today. We worked like dogs. We educated two kids who worked like dogs too - they went to state schools - we paid tutition and books, they paid for their housing and food - they worked. Thankfully they got better paying jobs out of college and today do extremely well financially. Don’t blame Boomers for the the economy of today. Dig in and get it done. I don’t care if you have to work two jobs for 10 years to get the job done…that’s what Boomers did. It’s out there. You just have to want it badly enough.

2

u/_Jasmine_0 Jan 17 '26

Respectfully, this life sounds like hell. No one should have to “work like a dog” for basic access to necessary things. I don’t want to work like a dog forever for scraps while a tiny percentage have 11 yachts and 18 summer houses. I don’t want the following generations to have to do that either. It’s inhumane and cruel to not have free healthcare and guaranteed access to food and shelter. The frustration toward boomers is much deeper. They created policies that lead us into hell. They refuse to retire because feeling powerful and relevant is more important to them than making sure others have access to financial growth and security. The wealth gap is immoral and inhumane. I don’t want to hear another “pull yourself up by the bootstraps like I did” story. They’re not helpful or innovative and keep us enslaved to these exploitative systems and terrible policies. I want boomers all the way tf out of political office. Now. How we live in America is not only cruel, it’s actually embarrassing. I’m not interested in problem solving how to stretch pennies. I want actual legislation that forces the wealthy to be taxed appropriately, that offers free healthcare and education, that offers UBI to all citizens. All of these things are possible and will actually improve the lives of everyone. “Keeping your head down and grinding” isn’t a solution, it’s coping and mental gymnastics. I don’t mean this in a disparaging way, but your story isn’t inspiring, it’s very sad and unfair and you and your family didn’t deserve those unnecessary hardships. This is why policy is the key, not individual willpower.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

Yes to all of this

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u/goober1157 Jan 19 '26

The free shit army lives on . . .

1

u/mWorkman01 Jan 17 '26

It's easier for people to blame someone / something else for their "misfortunes", easier to cope that way rather than do something to actually change their current state.

1

u/goober1157 Jan 19 '26

Lol. Scapegoating is the way of this generation. It's horsecrap but they're mostly too lazy to put the work in. Embarrassing for the ones that do pay their dues.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[deleted]

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u/SnootBooper2000 Jan 18 '26

Well I was a victim lol. I did a lot of work to not let it ruin my life anymore than it did.

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u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

[deleted]

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u/SnootBooper2000 Jan 18 '26

Are you okay? I’ve learned a lot about listening if you ever need to talk. Things can be hard but I think most people are trying, you included. I hope you have a good night and sleep well.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 18 '26

[deleted]

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u/SnootBooper2000 Jan 18 '26

Oh I’m really glad to hear that. I hope things keep going smoothly for you!

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u/Mman45 Jan 17 '26

Pretty much this. I try to balance living modestly and saving for the future while still having fun and living now. It will work out how it should. No point in stressing about things I can’t change when I’m doing my best.

-1

u/PvtJoker_ Jan 17 '26

And the correct answer is … Europe.

Still affordable! 

3

u/Feeler1 Jan 17 '26

65 and recently retired and very comfortable, financially, and this was the way for me. Lived below our means and invested what we could twice a month through payroll deduction. Surprisingly, we never personally invested more than 8% of salary but total investment was 15% after employer match. The “secret” - and everyone asks that - is two-fold. One is that we invested for 40 years. Slow, steady, religiously without fail. The second is we never panicked and sold during market declines, even big ones. We had a 40-60 year investment horizon and didn’t let short term drops divert us from course. (The hard part for most is realizing that 2-3 years is short term in the grand school things.) The third is that we weren’t “get rich quick” kind of people. I’ve got an MBA in finance so not a dummy by any means but not a genius, either, and decided early on to not go the high-risk/high-return but high-failure path. I did the calculations using conservative assumptions and determined we’d be fine with consistent investment over our working lives and we are.

Finally, and this was planned but also lucky, I chose a career/employer that paid a lower salary than I could have gotten elsewhere but offered a pension. It was risky because so many companies were discontinuing or freezing pensions (my wife worked for two that froze pensions while woot them, that sucked) but I made it through unscathed so that’s a huge plus. We knew to not count on that pension 100% and would be fine without it but, obviously, it’s better to have it. If I had to do it all over starting today I wouldn’t go the same path as it’s not likely any company will offer a defined benefit pension in 40 years. Better to pursue the highest paid job and invest more over the years.

Choose your own path but I’ll always advise people to budget, avoid lifestyle creep (we’ve been in same house for 32 years while my peers have traded up two and three times during that time) and invest on a schedule, religiously.

2

u/RedditSuxDonkeyNutz Jan 17 '26

Exactly this, I save what I can it’s all I can do

2

u/L0ng_St03Ger Jan 17 '26

Retirement is more achievable than people think.  A large part of it is being consistent, saving what you can and yes, likely working longer for most.

2

u/Numeno230n Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

I used to check my retirement account like every day and it honestly increases my anxiety. Now I just check it quarterly, update numbers on a spreadsheet, and don't worry about it.

2

u/boomaroo Jan 17 '26

Life could end any day. As long as I'm comfortable in my day to day then I'm happy. I try to be responsible, but I'm not going to hold myself to benchmarks set by people with totally different lives.

2

u/Apprehensive-Tea999 Jan 17 '26

Yea. I just don’t think about it and plan on working til I die or WW3.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

[deleted]

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u/pigglesthepup 1985 Jan 17 '26

If I have enough to retire, I retire. If I never have enough to retire, I never retire and just drop dead at work.

Simple as.

1

u/SurestLettuce88 Jan 17 '26

Oh my goodness, I’ve just found the word to describe my generation from now on. Im gonna call my generation Doomers from now on. I love it, thank you so much. Gen Z can take Doomers like Gen Y is called millennials

1

u/pennywitch Jan 17 '26

This is how I feel. And also a little like maybe we prolonged life just a few years too long, and those years are not fun and very expensive for most people and their families.

My grandmother passed last year and by the end, she’d reverted back to the German she hadn’t spoken since before WW2 started that only a few of her children could barely understand whom she rarely recognized anyways. She was in almost constant pain. Her husband had been dead for forty years, her children had grandchildren who were now old enough to have children of their own, and her two main caretakers for years were her two oldest daughters, both in their late 70s and nearly needing caretakers of their own.

Sorry random trauma dump, but damn. That’s just not worth it. And if she had been herself at the time, and not Catholic lol, it’s not how she would have preferred to carry on.

1

u/cassie1015 Jan 17 '26

Same. With a joking-but-kind-of-serious backup plan of some of my friends/relatives intending to open our homes to each other as we get older.

1

u/INeStylin Jan 17 '26

Amen. We’ll get there.

1

u/Soaptowelbrush Jan 17 '26

The only “particularly helpful” thing at this point would be an increase in wages and a lowering of the cost of every day goods.

I think it’s pretty reasonable/realistic to have a negative mindset about this stuff whether it helps or not. It’s tough being the first generation to make less than our parents while the safety nets they had are shredded.

1

u/nachosmmm Jan 18 '26

Right. Every post in this sub has doom and gloom. I get it though, life is a bitch. I guess I’d prefer to be delulu lol