How Far Behind Is the Typical American on Retirement Savings?

How much should you have saved for retirement? The answer depends on your age. Unfortunately, a substantial number of Americans are behind on their investment goals and could be at risk of running short of money in retirement because of it.

Let's take a look at where current workers should be based on their age, and how far behind many people are when it comes to hitting this goal.

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Here's how much you should have saved by age

First things first: Here are the recommendations for how much you should have saved by age, according to Fidelity Investments:

• Age 30: One times your annual salary
• Age 40: Three times your annual salary
• Age 50: Six times your annual salary
• Age 60: Eight times your annual salary
• Age 67: 10 times your annual salary

These recommendations exist because it is much easier to invest for your future if you do so over time. When you start saving at a younger age, compound growth can work for you. Compounding helps your money grow without you having to personally invest most or all of the dollars that end up in your retirement account.

If you don't have these amounts saved at these ages, you can still catch up -- but it will be harder since you'll have to save more as you'll have less time for returns to be reinvested and grow your principal for you.

How far behind are typical Americans?

Northwestern Mutual's Planning and Progress Survey for 2025 showed what percentage of people of different generations had saved for retirement. This is only among those who actually have retirement savings. Based on that number, let's see how many are behind:

• 22% of Millennials have less than their yearly income saved, and just 45% have three times their income or more. Since millennials are between the ages of 29 and 44, at least one in five is well below where they should be, and many older millennials are far off track from their investment goals.
• Among Gen Xers who are between the ages of 45 and 60, just 26% have six times or more of their income saved. This means close to three-quarters may be behind on saving the recommended six times their annual salary.
• Among Boomers in the 60 to 67 age range, only 28% have at least 10 times their final salary saved.

Of course, these are just averages, and some people within each generation will have a lot more saved. It's also worth noting that this only includes people who actually have retirement savings, and since somewhere between 25% and 35% of all adults have nothing saved, the reality of how far behind people are may be even worse than these numbers make it seem.

What if you aren't on track for retirement?

If you have less than the recommended amount saved for your later years, the good news is that you still have time to change course. You should set a savings goal based on your timeline for retirement and should automate the process of investing to make sure you hit that target.

It may require you to cut other spending, and you may have to work up to hitting your goal over time, but it's important that you take action to invest, as you can't survive on Social Security alone. The sooner you get started, the easier it will be to catch up, so begin working on building your nest egg today.

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