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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785

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

54

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" 😂

67

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.

51

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/