Retirement Savings by Age: How Do You Compare?
By Laura Shin
You asked us how much people had saved in their retirement accounts by age, and now, thanks to a nationwide survey by LearnVest and Chase Blueprint, we have answers.
We asked survey respondents how much they had saved in traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Roth IRAs, 401(k)s and pensions. (Wondering which account is right for you? Check out this flow chart.) As you would expect, the older people get, the more they have saved. All the figures below apply only to women. (Find out why saving for retirement is more difficult for women.)
Ages 25-32
In this age group, savings was greatly clustered toward the lower ranges: 72% of all respondents 25-32 had $49,999 or less saved for retirement. The median amount saved in this age group was $12,000.
Retirement savings of $5,000 or less was the most common answer, with 26% of women in this age group in this bucket. Other than that, this age group was pretty evenly spread out in terms of savings up to $50,000:
15% had $5,000 to $9,999 saved
another 15% had $10,000 to $24,999 saved
and 16% had $25,000 to $49,999 saved
But still, respectable fractions had even more saved, with 7% having retirement savings in the $50,000 to $99,999 range, and 8% in the $100,000 to $249,999 range. The remaining 12% did not know how much they had saved or preferred not to say.
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Ages 33-44
This age group tended to have savings in the middle ranges, with 62% of respondents in this age group having savings of between $10,000 and $249,999. The median amount saved was $61,000.
The largest percentage of respondents in this age group (17%) had $50,000 to $99,999 saved, and the second-highest retirement savings range was $10,000 to $24,999, with 15% of this age group coming in there.
Respondents of this age range were unlikely to have low savings -- just 6% had less than $5,000 saved, and only 7% had $5,000 to $9,999 saved.
And a decent chunk -- 15% -- had between a quarter million and half a million saved, with 1% even having more than a million saved.
However, 17% did not know how much they had or preferred not to say.
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Ages 45-54
Among 45- to 54-year-olds, the majority (56%) had savings of between $25,000 to $499,999. The median saved in this age range was $101,000.
A full fifth of respondents in this age group had $100,000 to $249,999 saved for retirement, making this the top answer for people of these ages.
But, unfortunately, a slightly smaller percentage had more than half a million saved than in the 33 to 44 age group: 6% in this age group have over half a million while 8% in the lower age group have that much.
Also, 15% still have savings of $24,999 or less, which indicates they need to focus heavily on saving until they retire.
Almost a quarter (23%) said they did not know or preferred to not reveal how much they have in retirement.
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Want to dissect the results for yourself? Check out our chart.
Amount Saved | Ages 25-32 | Ages 33-44 | Ages 45-54 |
Less than $5,000 | 26% | 6% | 6% |
$5,000 to $9,999 | 15% | 7% | 5% |
$10,000 to $24,999 | 15% | 15% | 4% |
$25,000 to $49,999 | 16% | 9% | 10% |
$50,000 to $99,999 | 7% | 17% | 13% |
$100,000 to $249,999 | 8% | 13% | 20% |
$250,000 to $499,999 | 1% | 8% | 13% |
$500,000 to $999,999 | 0% | 7% | 3% |
More than $1,000,000 | 0% | 1% | 3% |
Don't know/Prefer not to say | 12% | 17% | 23% |
Average | $37,000 | $157,000 | $219,000 |
Median | $12,000 | $61,000 | $101,000 |
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