How Much Should You Have in Your 401(k) by Age?

There are two honest ways to answer “how much should I have in my 401(k).” The first is a target: what a solid savings plan would have you sitting on by a given age. The second is a benchmark: what real people in your age group have actually managed to save. Both are useful, and they tell very different stories. We will walk through each, then show you how to close the gap if there is one.

The most widely used guideline comes from Fidelity, and it is built around multiples of your salary. The idea is simple: measure your savings against what you earn, because that is what you will need to replace in retirement.

To use it, multiply the target by your own salary, not the $60,000 example. These milestones assume you save about 15% of your income each year starting at 25 (including any employer match), keep more than half your money in stocks over time, retire at 67, and want to maintain your current lifestyle. Miss a milestone and you are not doomed, you just have a number to aim at.

The fastest way to see your own figure is the 401(k) Retirement Calculator. Enter your age, salary, current balance, and contribution rate, and it projects where you land by retirement.

Targets are one thing. Reality is another. Vanguard's How America Saves 2025 report, based on millions of real retirement accounts, shows what people at each age actually hold. Notice the gap between the average and the median.

The median is the more honest number. Averages get pulled upward by a small group of very large accounts, which is why the average balance runs roughly two to three times the median at almost every age. If you want to know how you stack up against a typical saver, compare yourself to the median column.

Line the two tables up and the gap is striking. Fidelity says a 40 year old earning $60,000 should have about $180,000, but the median saver aged 35 to 44 has $39,958. That does not mean the guideline is wrong or that most people are failing. It reflects a few real things: many people start late, change jobs and cash out, or spend years earning less than they do now. A 401(k) is also only part of the picture, some savings sit in IRAs, pensions, brokerage accounts, or home equity that these numbers do not capture.

So use the target as a direction, not a verdict. Being behind the guideline is the norm, not the exception. What matters is the trajectory you set from here.

Three things move a retirement balance more than anything else, and you control all three.

Capture the full employer match first. If your employer matches, say, 4% and you only contribute 2%, you are leaving free money on the table every single paycheck. The match is an instant, guaranteed return you will not find anywhere else.

Raise your contribution rate, even slightly. Going from 6% to 10% of a $60,000 salary is an extra $2,400 a year invested, and over decades that compounds into six figures. Bumping your rate by one point each year, often automatic in many plans, is nearly painless.

Start now, because waiting is the silent killer. The single most expensive retirement mistake is delay. See exactly what a few years costs in our guide on the real cost of waiting to invest, then run your own timeline with the Compound Interest Calculator.