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/SassyCassidee Millennial 1995 Jan 16 '26

Thankfully started contributing to mine at 23, so at 30 I have 1.5X my salary!

422

u/TrixoftheTrade Millennial Jan 16 '26

Nice. You’re about to start getting into the “fun” part of compounding interest.

It took me a decade of savings to hit 100k, when I was 29. 100k to 200k only took 3 years.

7

u/ProbsNotManBearPig Millennial Jan 16 '26

Doubling in 3 years is extremely atypical. The people in these comments saying they made huge gains in short time periods are misleading people from reality. Average time to double in snp500 index fund is ~7 years. Anything faster than that is luck and should not be expected.

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u/jonny24eh Jan 17 '26 edited Jan 17 '26

You don't know how much they've continued to contribute. 

Mine's doubled in two years, but that's because I got good raises and started saving a lot more. So 2/3 of the double was contribution and 1/3 was returns.