How much should I have saved by age?

Fidelity publishes its savings factors in its guide to retirement savings (updated September 2026). They express the target as a multiple of your current salary, which lets the same rule work at any income level.

The multiple applies to the salary you earn at that age, not the one you started on. A 50-year-old earning $100,000 has a 6x target of $600,000, even if they earned $60,000 at 30.

Fidelity also adjusts the final target for when you stop working and how you plan to live: retiring at 65 raises it to 12x, retiring at 70 lowers it to 8x, and a below-average or above-average retirement lifestyle moves the 67 target to 8x or 12x.

Every savings-by-age table rests on a handful of assumptions. Fidelity states its own plainly, and they are worth reading as a checklist against your situation:

• Savings rate and start age. 15% of income a year, counting any employer match, starting at 25. Someone who started at 22 has a head start; someone who started at 32 has ground to make up.
• How much income savings must replace. Fidelity's model asks savings to replace about 45% of pre-retirement income, on top of Social Security. It assumes no pension.
• Retirement age and horizon. Retiring at 67 and planning for money to last to 93.
• Investment mix. More than 50% in stocks on average over a lifetime, following the glide path of a typical target date fund.
• Pay growth and markets. 1.5% a year of real wage growth, and simulations built to hold up in poor markets at a 90% confidence level.

The 10x figure at 67 ties back to the 45% replacement goal. If a balance of 10 times final pay has to fund 45% of that pay each year, the implied first-year draw is about 4.5% of the balance. That sits close to the withdrawal rates covered in our guide to how much you need to retire, which starts from spending rather than salary.

To see how 15% a year turns into these checkpoints, take someone who starts at 25 on a $60,000 salary. Assume pay grows 1.5% a year after inflation (Fidelity's assumption), savings earn 5% a year after inflation, and contributions go in once a year. All figures are in today's dollars.

In year one they put away $9,000 (15% of $60,000). By 30 the balance is about $51,200 and salary is about $64,600, so the multiple is 0.8x. The next decade does the heavy lifting, because growth on the existing balance starts to rival new contributions:

Through 50 this simple model lands close to Fidelity's milestones of 1x, 3x and 6x. After 50 it runs ahead of them (9.8x at 60 against 8x). The gap is the point of the comparison: a flat 5% real return ignores the shift toward bonds as retirement nears, and Fidelity's targets are set to survive weak markets rather than average ones. The published milestones are deliberately the cautious version of this curve.

The other lesson is compounding. Of the roughly $1.5 million in the example at 67, contributions account for about $520,000 in today's dollars, so most of the end balance is investment growth on money saved early. Our explainer on compound interest covers the mechanics.

The benchmarks describe a path, and most households are not on it. The Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, published October 2026, shows retirement account balances by age of the household head (figures in 2025 dollars):

Read the median for households aged 45 to 54 against that group's median income and it comes to roughly 1.2x, against a 6x milestone at 50. The comparison is rough: it pairs family income with family balances, and it leaves out pensions and taxable investments. But the size of the gap is not an artefact. Close to half of households hold no retirement account at all, and the mean sits far above the median because large balances pull it up.

Two things follow. A benchmark below the multiples is the normal condition, not a personal failing. And the median is not a target either, since a typical balance that cannot fund a retirement is still short. For the full breakdowns, see our pages on average savings by age, average 401(k) balance by age and net worth by age.

The multiples measure money meant to fund retirement, wherever it is held. That usually means:

• Workplace plans: 401(k), 403(b), 457(b) and the Thrift Savings Plan, including the employer match once it has vested.
• Individual retirement accounts, traditional and Roth.
• A health savings account invested for the long run, if you plan to leave it untouched until retirement.
• Taxable brokerage investments you have set aside for later life.

Cash held for near-term needs, a house deposit, a college fund for a child and the value of your home generally sit outside the count. A couple can compare combined savings with combined salary, as long as both sides of the ratio use the same household.

The multiples are a default, built for a default person. These are the adjustments that matter most:

• A pension. A defined benefit pension replaces income your savings would otherwise fund, so the target drops. The 2025 SCF found that around one in four families with a head aged 64 or younger hold one.
• Retirement age. Each year worked adds a year of contributions, a year of growth, and removes a year of withdrawals. Fidelity's target falls from 12x at 65 to 10x at 67 and 8x at 70.
• Spending in retirement. A household that expects to spend less than it does today, with a paid-off home for instance, needs a lower multiple. One planning extensive travel needs more.
• Income level. Social Security replaces a larger share of income for lower earners, so they generally need a smaller multiple, and higher earners a larger one.
• Where the money sits. A dollar in a traditional 401(k) is taxed when withdrawn; a dollar in a Roth is not. Two balances of the same size can fund different amounts of spending.

Take a 40-year-old earning $80,000 with $80,000 saved, so 1x against a 3x milestone. Using the same assumptions as the worked example (5% real return, 1.5% real pay growth), their salary at 67 would be about $119,600 and a 10x target about $1.2 million.

• Saving 15% of pay from now reaches about $1.07 million at 67, or 8.9x.
• Reaching 10x at 67 takes a savings rate of about 17.5%.
• Working to 70, where Fidelity's target is 8x, brings the required rate down to about 10.4%.

The point is not the precise percentages, which depend on the assumed return. It is that the levers compound: a few points of savings rate and a few years of work together close a gap that looks out of reach in either alone.

The tax code adds room from 50. For 2026 the IRS sets the 401(k) employee limit at $24,500, with an $8,000 catch-up from age 50 and a larger $11,250 catch-up at ages 60 to 63. The IRA limit is $7,500, or $8,600 from 50. Our guides on 401(k) contribution limits and employer match rules cover the details.

Walnut is an AI investing app that works on top of the brokerage account you already have. It can help you see where you stand against a milestone, using only what it actually does:

1. Connect your brokerage

Link your account and Walnut reads your real holdings and balances. A read-only connection is enough to see everything below. If you are opening a new account, Public and Robinhood both connect.

2. Set a retirement goal

Enter a target amount, a time horizon and a monthly contribution. Walnut projects the balance forward at a stated assumed return and shows whether that path reaches the target, ahead of it or behind it. Plugging in 10x your expected final salary turns the Fidelity milestone into a goal you can watch.

3. Compare your portfolio with the S&P 500

The dashboard shows how your holdings have done against the S&P 500, which helps separate a savings-rate problem from a returns problem.

4. Automate the contribution

Build a basket with target weights and set a recurring investment into it. Walnut does not move money from your bank: it invests cash that is already in your brokerage account on the schedule you choose, and tells you if a contribution could not go through.

5. Ask the assistant

The built-in assistant can read your portfolio and goal and answer questions like how far you are from 6x at 50, or what the projection looks like if you work to 70.

• Counting the wrong money. The multiples cover retirement savings. Adding home equity or an emergency fund makes you look further along than you are.
• Using today's salary for a future target. The 10x at 67 is 10 times the salary you will be earning then, which for most people is higher than now.
• Treating a miss as a verdict. Being at 2x at 40 is a gap to close, not a failed plan. The catch-up math above shows how much a few levers move.
• Treating a hit as permission to stop. The milestones assume you keep saving 15%. Someone at 6x at 50 who stops contributing will not reach 10x at 67 on the same assumptions.
• Ignoring the assumptions. No pension, retire at 67, same lifestyle. If any of those is not you, the benchmark needs adjusting before it means anything. For an earlier exit, see how much you need to retire at 50.

Savings milestones and their assumptions: Fidelity, How much do I need to retire? (September 2026). Household retirement balances, ownership rates and incomes by age: Federal Reserve Board, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances (October 2026), Table 1 and Table 6, with summary tables at the SCF home page. 2026 contribution limits: IRS. The worked example and catch-up scenarios are our own arithmetic under the assumptions stated. Walnut is informational and is not an investment adviser. This guide is educational and not personalized financial advice.