Retirement Net Worth: How Your Savings Compare to the Average Retiree
Written by
Andrew Lisa
Edited by
Levi Leidy
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How much will you need to retire, how much does the average person have saved and how does your nest egg stack up?
The 2025 Northwestern Mutual Planning and Progress study found that Americans think they’ll need $1.26 million to retire comfortably, but most aren’t on track to save enough and more than half expect to outlive their savings.
No one number is right for everyone, and the same dollar amount can buy two very different retirements depending on variables like your health, location, lifestyle and retirement age. However, it can be useful to examine what average people actually have saved, rather than what they expect to need, to see how your savings measure up.
Assessing Retirement Savings Is an Inexact Science
Fidelity qualifies its data reports by noting the challenges of estimating average retirement savings. That’s because many people contribute at least some of their savings to vehicles and investments that aren’t exclusively designed for retirement planning, such as the 401(k)s and IRAs.
They include:
- Non-retirement CDs
- Taxable brokerage accounts
- Savings accounts
- Health savings accounts
- Real estate
With that in mind, the average values of 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement-specific accounts offer valuable insight into how your savings compare to the typical American.
Average Nest Eggs by Age and Generation
Your place in your financial journey plays the biggest role in the size of your savings. Recent data from two industry giants shows how average retirement savings vary by age.
The financial services company Empower, which has $1.8 trillion in assets under administration, reports the following decade-based data on retirement savings in the U.S.
Note that the median is substantially lower than the average throughout. Since a small percentage of ultra-high-net-worth savers can artificially inflate the average, the median — or middle number — can provide a more realistic benchmark.
| Decade | Average retirement savings | Median retirement savings |
| 20s | $115,162 | $36,812 |
| 30s | $249,774 | $91,128 |
| 40s | $545,424 | $213,645 |
| 50s | $970,570 | $441,611 |
| 60s | $1,148,441 | $539,068 |
| 70s | $994,140 | $432,043 |
| 80s | $787,424 | $326,960 |
The following generation-based data is from Fidelity, which manages $16.4 trillion in assets under administration. Note that the combined averages of IRAs and 401(k)s roughly align with the median savings cited by Empower at each generation’s corresponding decade(s) over age 30.
| Generation (age range) | Average 401(k) balance | Average IRA balance |
| Gen Z (13-28) | $13,500 | $6,672 |
| Millennials (29-44) | $67,300 | $25,109 |
| Gen X (45-60) | $192,300 | $103,952 |
| Baby boomers (61-79) | $249,300 | $257,002 |
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