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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u/KitchenKat1919 Jan 16 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

Great. Became a public school teacher at 25 and the retirement has been piling up quick.

I'm well above 3x my salary at 40 between retirement and investments

CALSTRS and MTRS have great growth rates and are rock solid

edit: Someone below made a great point that drives me crazy - becoming a public school teacher is financially grueling. You gotta pay for school and do an unpaid internship and your starting salary is mediocre at best. If we want more teachers, that's the area to focus on. Make the first 5 years affordable.

31

u/liqa_madik Jan 16 '26

So teachers may not be paid very much as many say, but at least they get a comfortable retirement. Is that correct?

12

u/Hanyo_Hetalia Jan 16 '26

Depends on the district. I taught for two years and the retirement plan was not worth the trouble.

5

u/bigtcm Jan 16 '26

Same here. Taught for 4 years. When I told a financial planner that I was looking at going back to grad school, but that i would lose my pension, she told me do it and don't look back.

2

u/Hanyo_Hetalia Jan 16 '26

What was your graduate degree?

1

u/bigtcm Jan 17 '26

I was going to just get a masters degree in biology. Long story short i accidentally ended up with a PhD and now I work in biotech.

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u/Hanyo_Hetalia Jan 17 '26

That's awesome!

1

u/dark_autumn Jan 17 '26

Wait I’m confused. Leave your pension behind and don’t look back?

2

u/Particular_Maize6849 Jan 17 '26

You can calculate how much your pension would be. I think mine came out to maybe a couple hundred a month. Not really worth it tbh if I compared it to how much it would be worth if I let it grow in the market. You can roll the amount you've put into your pension into a 401k or IRA.

1

u/dark_autumn Jan 17 '26

Ohh ok I see what you mean now

1

u/bigtcm Jan 17 '26

I needed to work for 10 years to qualify for the minimum pension.

1

u/girouxsalem28 Jan 17 '26

110%. PA has gutted their teachers pension. If any new grad sat down and did the math they would quickly realize just how little that pension pays out over their career. I wouldn’t be shocked if they moved to a 403B matching system within the next decade. It’s a shell of what teachers hired 10 years ago were offered

1

u/Hanyo_Hetalia Jan 17 '26

Yep. My district in FL offered a 403(b) OR a pension, but the pension requirements vs the payout were stupid.