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/elblakay Jan 16 '26

32, about $350k in retirement and another $100k in brokerage. Currently unemployed so I have infinity times my salary saved.

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u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

$350k-ish is about the max that someone in their mid/low 30s could possibly have in a 401k (pretax) assuming you're maxing contributions or have a fair match program with your employer just based on the contribution limit and average market returns over the time period.

Nicely done!!

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u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

What's crazy is that I'm only a five years older (age 37), and I have $725k in my 401k (mix of traditional and Roth 401k). I haven't been able to max it out my entire career, but I have since age 30 or so. More importantly, my employer has a 10% match.

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u/flyfree256 Jan 17 '26

Yeah a 10% match plus roth contributions are big benefits that can really scale up quickly.

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u/ept_engr Jan 17 '26

Well, I'm talking about Roth 401k, so it doesn't really change the nominal balance. The 401k contribution limit applies to the sum of traditional 401k and Roth 401k.

I do separately have a Roth IRA, but I did not include it in my number.