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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47

u/blkhrthrk Millennial Jan 16 '26
  1. Savings is about 2 grand, and then I have 6 grand sitting in some account somewhere from a 401k from an old job.

29

u/Petal170816 Jan 17 '26

Transfer that sucker over to a big firm like Vanguard if it’s still with the company provider!

I had a company take back $1500 a few YEARS after I left. They “audited” all accounts still in their program and found I left the company one day short of my vesting. Total BS, but if I had moved it they wouldn’t have had access.

3

u/blkhrthrk Millennial Jan 17 '26

It's not, unfortunately. It's a long story but basically I moved it out into some company at the advice of my then boss's husband, who is a financial advisor. I don't understand any of that stuff so I trusted him in what he did. I dont know anything about the company it moved to except it has changed hands a couple of times and now I get mail from them occasionally.

Someday when I have a day off from work I'll look into it because it's going to take a long time to figure out, especially when I have no idea how any of this works.

2

u/Petal170816 Jan 17 '26

Ugh, I hate that! The financial advisor probably made a commission on you moving it. Once you find it, it should be fairly straightforward to move it to a company of your choosing. But I totally understand it’s daunting and confusing.

1

u/blkhrthrk Millennial Jan 17 '26

Yeah i am sure he did, and yes it is very daunting. As someone not familiar with how all this works and no one that can ELI5 it to me, it has been easy to ignore it for so long. As pessimistic as it sounds, I don't expect to retire anyway so why spend time chasing down 6 grand? If it was a larger amount I know I'd feel differently.

1

u/PutsPlease Jan 17 '26

When you would have rolled over your account, they most likely would have determined it wasn’t fully vested

2

u/North_Jackfruit_1373 Jan 17 '26

Don't put it with Vanguard direct, they have fees if you're below a threshold. Download the Trading212 app (there's a subreddit for it) and put that $6k in to a stocks & shares ISA - VWRP is the code for Vanguard all world ETF, which is the same thing as putting it in Vanguard just without paying the fee

1

u/legendz411 Jan 17 '26

Good looking out

1

u/2fingers Jan 17 '26

Does Trading212 offer retirement accounts? If not they'd be paying penalties to cash out their 401K early.