Retirement Savings Goals By Age

By Brent Meyer — SafeMoney.com Founder & Editor Reviewed by Licensed Financial Professionals  |  SafeMoney.com — Trusted Since 2011  |  Updated Regularly Quick Answer: Discover essential retirement savings goals by age to ensure financial security. Learn how to plan effectively today with SafeMoney.com. Saving for retirement is crucial during our working years. It’s a big part of ensuring that you have enough money for retirement . To that end, how much do you need in retirement savings at different ages? This can be a tricky way to see if you are financially on track. If the goal is set too low, there is the risk of being overconfident and undershooting how much you will really need. If it’s set too high, then people may become discouraged and not do anything. The bottom-line is that retirement savings goals at different ages need to be practical and realistic. In this article, we will look at simple target retirement savings goals at five key ages: 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65. That will span exploring how much the average American has saved for retirement at these ages, and how much you might want to have saved at those points. We will also go over some things to consider with your financial planning as you get closer to retirement. A Quick Word on Typical Retirement Savings by Age How much do people have saved up at various ages? To answer this question, we looked at data taken from the Survey of Consumer Finances, which is put out by the Federal Reserve. This data covers the average retirement savings and median retirement savings by age group. Average retirement savings are a glimpse into how much that people have typically saved at various age groups. However, averages can also be skewed by outliers — by the undersavers and the oversavers in each group. Because of that, median retirement savings are also included for each age group. How Much Do Americans Have Saved for Retirement at Different Ages? Here is a quick breakdown of average and median household retirement savings for different age groups. It’s helpful as a starting point to see where people are typically at in different points of their retirement financial progress. Under Age 35 Average retirement savings for household: $30,170 Median retirement savings for household: $13,000 As we can imagine, retirement savings aren’t terribly high at this point. These numbers are relatively low due to the early stage of people’s careers and other financial obli