How much should I have saved for retirement at my age?
There is no universal figure for your age: the right balance is the one that, with what you keep adding, grows to your own target by the age you choose.
On track at 40 with
$316,090
Grows to $1,500,000 by 60 with $20,000 added each year.
| At 30 | $39,617 |
| At 35 | $161,075 |
| At 40 | $316,090 |
| At 45 | $513,932 |
| At 50 | $766,435 |
| At 55 | $1,088,700 |
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · figures read on irs.gov and healthcare.gov · not personal financial advice
The amount you need saved for retirement at a given age depends on three choices: the spending you want, the age you want to stop and what you will keep adding each year. For $60,000 of yearly spending, the target at a 4 % withdrawal rate is $1,500,000. With $20,000 added each year and a 5 % return after inflation, a 40-year-old aiming at 60 is on track with $316,090 today; aiming at 55, the figure rises to $513,932. At 50 with the same plan for 60, it is $766,435. These amounts already count the future contributions: a balance below them means saving more or stopping later, a balance above them means the target arrives earlier. Rules of thumb that multiply your salary skip all three choices and say nothing about when you can actually reach the money, a question that matters before 59½.
A trajectory instead of a multiple of salary
Published benchmarks often express savings as a multiple of income at each birthday. They rest on assumptions you never see: retiring at 67, replacing a fixed share of pay, a given return. Change any of them and the benchmark is meaningless for you. This page works the other way round. It starts from your target, $1,500,000 for $60,000 a year in the example, and walks back to today: how much must already be invested at each age so that the balance, plus the yearly contributions, reaches the target on time.
The formula is short. The contributions still to come are grown to the retirement age; whatever part of the target they do not cover must come from the current balance, discounted by the return over the years left. Everything is in today's dollars.
At 45, aiming to stop at 55
On track at 45 with
$574,348
| At 30 | $16,780 |
| At 35 | $159,557 |
| At 40 | $341,780 |
| At 45 | $574,348 |
On-track balances, age by age
| Your age | Retire at 55 | Retire at 60 | Retire at 65 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | $39,617 | $0 | $0 |
| 30 | $161,075 | $39,617 | $0 |
| 35 | $316,090 | $161,075 | $39,617 |
| 40 | $513,932 | $316,090 | $161,075 |
| 45 | $766,435 | $513,932 | $316,090 |
| 50 | $1,088,700 | $766,435 | $513,932 |
| 55 | n/a | $1,088,700 | $766,435 |
Read across a row to see what an earlier exit costs. At 40, aiming at 55 instead of 60 asks for $197,842 more today, because there are five fewer years of contributions and five fewer years of growth. Read down a column to see the trajectory itself: the figure climbs quickly in the last decade, when most of the target must already be in place. Where a cell shows $0, the yearly additions alone reach the target in time, so a young saver with nothing invested is already on the path at this contribution level.
How much should be in a 401(k) at 45?
The question is common, and the honest answer is that the account type matters less than the total until you want to stop before 59½. Take a 45-year-old planning $50,000 a year from 55, a target of $1,250,000. The table shows how the on-track figure depends on what is still to come.
| Added each year from 45 | On track at 45 for retiring at 55 | On track at 45 for retiring at 60 |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | $767,392 | $601,271 |
| $10,000 | $690,174 | $497,475 |
| $20,000 | $612,957 | $393,678 |
| $30,000 | $535,740 | $289,882 |
| $40,000 | $458,522 | $186,085 |
Where that balance sits then decides whether 55 works. Leaving an employer in or after the year you turn 55 lets that employer's 401(k) pay without the 10 % additional tax (IRS exceptions table). An IRA or a 401(k) from an earlier job does not open until 59½. Covering 4.5 years at $50,000 means about $225,000 that must come from the last 401(k), a brokerage account or Roth contributions. A 401(k) balance at 45 is therefore good news only if it will be in the plan you leave at 55, or if enough sits elsewhere.
What if you stop contributing?
The first row of the second table, with nothing added, is the coast figure: a balance that reaches the target on growth alone. A 35-year-old aiming at 60 with $60,000 a year needs $442,954 invested today to coast there with nothing added. That number is useful to anyone thinking of switching to lower-paid work or part-time hours; the Coast FIRE calculator finds the age at which you reach it.
From what age can you stop adding?
Coast FIRE number today
$540,177
| FIRE number at retirement | $1,300,000 |
| Needed today to coast | $540,177 |
| Age you can stop saving | 48 |
| Retiring before 59½: plan the access | see the bridge |
Below the line: three ways back
Say the 45-year-old aiming at 55 with $50,000 a year holds $450,000 rather than the $612,957 the table asks for with $20,000 of yearly additions, a gap of $162,957. Keeping the same savings, the target arrives after 13.6 years, at about 59 instead of 55. Keeping 55, the yearly addition has to rise to about $41,104, which may or may not fit under the 2026 limits of $24,500 for a 401(k) plus $8,000 of catch-up from 50 and $7,500 for an IRA. The third route is the budget: a lower spending figure shrinks the target and every number on this page with it. Most real plans mix the three, and the calculator above lets you try each one on your own figures.
Why the return field changes everything
All the figures above use a 5 % return after inflation. At 3 %, the 40-year-old aiming at 60 needs $532,964 today instead of $316,090; at 7 %, only $175,748. That spread is wider than most of the gaps between ages in the first table. Testing a low return gives an on-track figure that leaves a margin if markets disappoint; testing a high one shows how much the plan depends on them.
The withdrawal rate works the same way. A 3.5 % rate raises the target to $1,714,286, and every on-track figure rises with it. Social Security is left out, so the target covers the whole budget. For the target itself with tax and health insurance, use the FIRE number calculator; for the share of pay to save, the savings rate page.