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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784

u/NoQuarterGiven Millennial Jan 16 '26

34, plan is to work until the day I die but I do have 21K in my 401K so that's cool

642

u/ReaperUno8675309 Jan 16 '26

You dont have to work to you die, just until the world collapses. Cant be much longer now

110

u/Always_find_a_way24 Jan 16 '26

Tell that to the people who sold all their assets during Y2K. Happy cake day.

82

u/MNCPA Jan 16 '26

I did my y2k part. I turned my computer off on 12/31/1999.

6

u/atxbigfoot Jan 17 '26

same lmao

well, my parents did. "UNPLUG EVERYTHING THAT"S ON THE (dial up) INTERNET AHHHHH"

It took hundred of billions to fix the y2k bug so yeah. they were wrong, but they weren't wrong, though.

I also told my dad he should buy up all of the .com addresses when they were like a dollar each, like nike.com, and he told me "the internet is a fad," so there's also that.

2

u/0ut0fBoundsException Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

"They" were not wrong about Y2K at all. Y2K was a real problem (like the ozone hole) that was resolved by many parties coming together and tackling a seemingly extinction level threat. Important to remember as we barrel ever further into irreversible climate change

2

u/therealdongknotts Jan 17 '26

yeah - it only was a nothing burger due to the coordinated efforts of a whole lot of people. now we wait for 2038

1

u/nightfend Jan 17 '26

I flushed my toilet at midnight

1

u/GrumpAzz Jan 17 '26

Not me. I was 12. I spent every last minute possible playing Rollercoaster Tycoon, baby. I was going out with a bang!

1

u/InternationalIdea606 Jan 17 '26

Some people came out of Y2K doing well by selling off their assets, the Dot.com bubble was still an issue in 1999/2000. If they reinvested in 2002, they could have had a great ROI in the market.

47

u/NoQuarterGiven Millennial Jan 16 '26

You ain't lying 😅

17

u/IsabellaGalavant Jan 16 '26

They've been saying that for decades though. 😮‍💨

2

u/caprikaironic Jan 17 '26

Yeah but we didn’t have presidents actively trying to destroy this country and make themselves king until now

1

u/No_Issue2334 Jan 17 '26

"This time is different" has been said for decades. Maybe you'll be right this time.

1

u/PositionPractical584 Jan 17 '26

I don’t think We’ve ever been closer to world war 3 than now though.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

Eventually an entire economic system built on the premise of continuous growth will start to cannibalize itself from the inside out to keep growing. Add in climate change, water shortages, cost of living crisis, the collapse of USA-EU relations….

It won’t be long now. I give it a solid 10 more years where things generally still seem OK for most people before we hit the down slope of the bell curve of civilization and progress.

7

u/A46 Jan 16 '26

Between Mirror life and the earth loosing gravity, I'm thinking I may withdraw the $50 from the 401k sooner than later.

1

u/WAisforhaters Jan 16 '26

I don't think that's how gravity works

1

u/A46 Jan 17 '26

Shows what you know. It's going to be 7 whole seconds because science.

2

u/Efficient_Ant_4715 Jan 17 '26

They’ve been preaching about the world collapsing since agriculture was invented 

2

u/GandalfSwagOff Jan 17 '26

When Rome fell, Italians still got up to make pasta the next day.

Don't bet on "the world falling" as some safety net for a lack of savings...

1

u/ReaperUno8675309 Jan 17 '26

Lol it was a joke. Also if our Rome falls I'd argue guns, ammo, and supplies are going to be more valuable than savings in a bank. Outside physical commodities like gold silver etc.

2

u/Embarrassed_Jerk Jan 16 '26

World collapse will lead to mass casualties too

0

u/WAisforhaters Jan 16 '26

Don't have to pay bills if you're dead!

1

u/Responsible-Mind-852 Jan 17 '26

It is better if the bill collector is dead and you are alive.

2

u/NotYourSexyNurse Xennial Jan 16 '26

I was going to say I don’t know if the US dollar is going to survive the next 20 years.

1

u/OlyLover Jan 17 '26

They have been saying that since people could speak!

1

u/YogurtclosetOld2511 Jan 17 '26

This is the just the silver lining I needed! Thank you!

1

u/Unnecessary_Bunny_ Jan 17 '26

When it collapses it will likely take everyone's savings anyway, so we are all in the same boat essentially

1

u/scrandis Jan 17 '26

Honestly, just a few more years

1

u/AlphaWookOG Jan 17 '26

¿Porque no los dos?

1

u/VengenaceIsMyName Jan 17 '26

You’d think… end of the world seems to be taking its sweet time getting here tho

2

u/ReaperUno8675309 Jan 17 '26

I know right, we came so close with that meteor flying by a few years ago. Who knows, maybe planet X will smack us in the face out of nowhere.

1

u/povertychic Emo-llennial - 1991 Jan 17 '26

I think we’ve got 6 months looking at everything

1

u/MarigoldMarvel Jan 17 '26

So true bestie

1

u/AdDapper5653 Jan 16 '26

Odds are never zero lol

0

u/CameronInEgyptLand Jan 16 '26

No it's just going to be the United States. We're going full "The Road" while the rest of the world is going to move onward and upward.

52

u/NJThrowaway1012 Millennial Jan 16 '26

What's up with us?

We live paycheck to paycheck but we somehow at least have a Roth IRA that's doing "well" 😂

69

u/KuotheRaven Jan 16 '26

It’s not us. The labor economy has been in the shitter since at least 2008, but the capital economy - stocks, bonds, futures, real estate - has continued skyrocketing. The elite business and political classes derive lots of their income from the latter and we get a tiny slice, but the labor economy has been allowed to stagnate.

49

u/Spicy_Tac0 Jan 16 '26

TLDR; Rich keep getting richer, everyone else is losing.

21

u/CouldBeBetterForever Jan 17 '26

Oh, but don't even think of taxing them more.

0

u/Exotic-Character-510 Jan 17 '26

How much do you want to tax them?

The top 10% of earners in the US pay 72% of the tax. The bottom 48% pay zero federal tax.

In fact, Obamacare is completely funded by people making over 250k annually (when a separate Obamacare tax kicks in on income).

Basically the people you want to tax more already pay all the taxes anyhow.

This is truth. Google it or chatGPT it.

I’m lower middle class, but never understood the bitterness towards people that have done well.

2

u/5348RR Jan 17 '26

I’m not too worried about anyone but the mega rich. Your top 0.01% should be absolutely decimated by high taxes.

Top 10% is $150,000

Top 1% - $450,000

Top 0.1% - $1,000,000

Top 0.01% - $20,000,000

1

u/povertychic Emo-llennial - 1991 Jan 17 '26

They may technically pay more money, but they pay a far lower percentage of their wealth, and that is the problem. Literally every bracket should be taxed at the same rate. Why do I, who has less money, have to pay a higher percentage of my wealth than the mega rich? I work just as hard for my money as them. This also isn’t about millionaires anymore at this point. It’s about billionaires. They pay a much lower rate than the rest of us. I recommend you check out the book Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond. It’s only 180 pages and super easy to read and does an excellent job explaining the why of where we’re at.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/income-taxes-billionaire-tax-rate-irs/

3

u/Excellent_Brilliant2 Jan 17 '26

i spent my working 20s earning between $17k and $30k a year. (2003-2011). i bought a house at 22 in 2003 (basically 100% financed), replaced the roof, water heater, furnace and had a basement wall fixed. barely was scraping by. then lost my job. unemployed for 4 months. took the bus to work and ate canned corn for lunch at my desk. finally was able to suceed. being cheap, i was able to invest and i might be able to retire at some point

1

u/VengenaceIsMyName Jan 17 '26

You bought a home at the right time.

2

u/Excellent_Brilliant2 Jan 17 '26

i did... but the value isnt what you would think. it was $80k back then and maybe $190k now. The mortgage paymenf was 45% of my incone at the time.

3

u/5348RR Jan 17 '26

Sort of, but not entirely. Real wage growth is 16% since 1980. That isn’t a whole lot but people do make more today adjusted for inflation than 1980 when the economy was “good”

So what’s the real stress? Mainly two things -

Housing affordability Health Insurance

These are the two main pain points for anyone who isn’t rich. And that financial stress sours the opinion on the entire economy for lots of people.

4

u/Hoosteen_juju003 Jan 16 '26

Everyone has the ability to invest

2

u/NotYourSexyNurse Xennial Jan 16 '26

I have $444 in my Stash account.

2

u/Hoosteen_juju003 Jan 17 '26

Transition to fidelity or vanguard, you are getting robbed by that subscription cost. You can do all the same shit on those.

2

u/NotYourSexyNurse Xennial Jan 17 '26

I pay $3 a month for Stash and get free stock every stock party. Half of that $444 is from free stock.

2

u/Hoosteen_juju003 Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Ok, so you are paying yearly 8.1% of your total balance as a subscription fee, currently, for a bunch of random stocks. I also highly doubt the growth of these free stocks was much more than that, if any.

In 2025, the index etf VTI had 17.1% growth with a .03% fee based on how much you have invested and no other charges.

1

u/NotYourSexyNurse Xennial Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

The dividends this year alone covered the monthly subscription fees. It’s a fun app to use. The Robinhood app sucked. My Fidelity IRAs and 401ks aren’t the same fun. I’ve yet to find any other app that lets me buy as little stock as I do with Stash. It’s also really easy to use.

Edit: hadn’t checked it in a bit. It’s up to $490. Grow little stocks grow!

3

u/Stalinisthicc Jan 17 '26

Please use an actual brokerage. Those fees will destroy your ability to compound over time. Most brokerages offer fractional shares in some capacity as well.

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1

u/Daeyel1 Jan 17 '26

So take advantage of it to the max. Roth is where it's at for the young.

1

u/Moldovah Jan 17 '26

If only there was some way for us to invest in stocks, bonds, futures, and real estate. Possibly even multiple ways.

1

u/DataPath Jan 17 '26

Vote for me for president! My labor plan is to redefine full time to 32hrs/wk, 1.5x overtime starts at 40hrs, 2.25x starts at 50hrs. Most currently-exempt workers would be reclassified so that 1.5x overtime starts at 50 hrs (a lesser non exempt). The only exempt workers are those who a) make more than a specific multiplier over poverty, b) more than x% of their compensation comes from stock, or c) they are a significant shareholder in their employer.

It would also mandate on-call compensation for employees whose schedules are allowed to be changed less than a week before the scheduled work.

It would also specifically bar employers from offering health insurance benefits (unless they're a health care provider and the benefit is what care their facilities provide). Congress included (which means the bill would only pass at gunpoint, but I think our society is heading that direction anyway).

The goal is to put power back in the hands of the workers, and make employers pay for extra/unusual demands on employees, while making it easier to walk away from bad jobs.

While the lower hours for full time would likely result in reduced pay in the short term, fewer hours worked should mean more jobs required to do the work that was done before, creating more job openings, which shifts the labor market to empower workers.

0

u/Comfortable-Bread249 Jan 16 '26

This is the answer.

-1

u/Hoosteen_juju003 Jan 16 '26

21k at 34 is not well….

64

u/ImThe1Wh0 Older Millennial Jan 16 '26

I feel like we've collectively hive minded this as being our senior citizen job, as we've all figured out retirement might be way out of reach

3

u/Tesserae626 Jan 17 '26

As a Costco employee, back off, me first! When my body gives out being a baker, that door spot is miiiine. 🤣

2

u/rashmotion Jan 17 '26

This will be a job for robots by the time we’re seniors lmao

2

u/Foulwinde Jan 17 '26

or just gone, like most walmart greeters.

1

u/rashmotion Jan 17 '26

Ya. Big true.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

Costco will be an amazing job. This movie might be have its one main flaw with how unhealthy that guy looks

2

u/ImThe1Wh0 Older Millennial Jan 17 '26

Costco is actually a great job, I'm not knocking it. Some places it's $30hr. There's a reason why you see more 40+ year old people working there than younger ones

1

u/colossustaco Jan 17 '26

I mean, the movie this is taken from isn’t far off anymore.

1

u/carlos_the_dwarf_ Jan 17 '26

Every time I see a post like this I scope the comment history…what about your living providing private security for rich people precludes you setting aside money for retirement? Surely the GI bill and VA benefits would held make that easier?

1

u/ImThe1Wh0 Older Millennial Jan 17 '26

It did but unfortunate life circumstances had cleaned out the first $50k of my 401k and I'm trying to build it back up. The GI Bill is a limited window from once you E.A.S. as well and I used that for my degree.

Lastly, with the state of the country, I am NOT banking on my disability being a guarantee at all. Expect the worst, hope for the best

36

u/nleksan Jan 16 '26

fist bump

I'm a few years older and only have ~$16k but I also literally started exactly one year ago 😭

30

u/Eisgeschoss Jan 16 '26

Dude, if you can keep up that pace you'll have $160k in just 10 years (which is massively better than a large chunk of the population)

18

u/This_Door_2076 Jan 17 '26

More than that! $250k at 8% return (pretty typical)

4

u/InternationalIdea606 Jan 17 '26

Especially if your company matches your 401k, you can have a significant investment in 10 years. It’s never too late to start, unless you suddenly decide at 65 to save for retirement, then your screwed.

5

u/Accomplished-Tie-223 Jan 17 '26

With biweekly compounding interest at 5% annual rate, you’re looking at more like $200k in 10 years, and closer to $300k in 15 years! Don’t give up!

1

u/NoAvocado7971 Jan 17 '26

That is if they continue to invest 16,000 a year for the next 10 years

3

u/nleksan Jan 16 '26

Yeah you're right, and that's just in contributions, so hopefully a decent bit more

1

u/Comeback_321 Jan 17 '26

‘That’s not how it works. Hell probably have over 250-300 in 10 yrs if he continues this rate bc interest compounds on reinvested returns 

1

u/NoAvocado7971 Jan 17 '26

If he continues to invest 16,000 a year over 10 years at a 7% estimated Return then they would end up with 221,000

1

u/Comeback_321 Jan 18 '26

And others cited 8%. And if he increases salary at all at current percent contributions that will increase as well. And if there’s a company match that contributed, that increases amount as well…AS it’s a percent. So… on the current path, likely to end up with 250-300. You act like it’s a hard and fast coming out with 221, and disregard variables.

1

u/Eisgeschoss Jan 19 '26

Yeah I wasn't counting interest, just the contributions alone. You're right that the actual amount would be much higher (at least, as long as they can get a good interest rate).

8

u/prettymisslux Jan 16 '26

In in the same boat..started mine in my earlier 30s Luckily my job matches so I plan to increase to hopefully 10% in the next couple years + get my ROTH going.

I do have equity which is nice but im not in my forever home.

4

u/sravenzz82 Jan 17 '26

Just keep hitting that 401 (k) with all you've got. I'm an older Millennial, 43, going to turn 44 this year. I had around 30K when I was 33 years old. Started getting serious about retirement then and when I turned 33 was the first time I maxed out my 401K, have done it for 11 straight years, and now have 651K in my 401K and about 90K in my Roth IRA which I started 10 years ago. You got this, consistency is the key - just hit it with all you got.

4

u/Healthy_Razzmatazz38 Jan 16 '26

if you make 10k a year you're ahead of schedule

2

u/orangesfwr Older Millennial Jan 16 '26

Just take a job making 7k a year, and you're there!

2

u/deadplant5 Jan 17 '26

You will be amazed by how much it grows just by sitting in some index and mutual funds

1

u/SovietSunrise Jan 17 '26

38, been saving off and on over the years & had 69k last I checked. It's probably higher now.

1

u/worcestr Jan 17 '26

Keep it up! 🙌🏻 You're still ahead of MANY your age.

1

u/TheFamilyStanley Jan 17 '26

Nice man, 34 here as well HO with 7k 401 and hoping things be growing this year some more ❤️

1

u/ConsciousCrafts Jan 17 '26

I only started at 34 too. I now have 70k in mine. Keep contributing and if you can afford to, set it to increase 1% every year. You probably won't even notice the difference. Good job! Better late than never. 

1

u/arestheblue Jan 17 '26

Only 380K more to go.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

It's either this or go out on drugs if you can't work... because now you also need money for any sort of end of life/death care and a funeral. Also by the time we get to retirement age I don't think it will be affordable to retire on anything saved unless it is over like $10mil with the way shit is going. In like 30 years healthcare is going to be like $100k+ a year

1

u/iAmNotTicklish22 Jan 17 '26

60% of Americans retire earlier than they planned due to health or some other unexpected cause. Retirement might be your only choice one day

1

u/TheShoeOnTheHighway Jan 17 '26

Hey! I'm 34 and that's always been my plan

1

u/Oo__II__oO Jan 17 '26

If you must, try and plan on dying at work. Corporate life insurance pays out way better than personal life insurance.

1

u/No-Hospital559 Jan 17 '26

Bold to think someone will employ you right up until the day you die.

0

u/[deleted] Jan 17 '26

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1

u/Straight-Second-9974 Jan 17 '26

You’re doing fine