Fidelity's widely used benchmark says you should have about 1x your annual salary saved for retirement by age 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, and 10x by 67. Most people are nowhere close. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances puts the median retirement savings for households under 35 at just $18,880, and the median for households aged 45 to 54 at $115,000, both well short of the goalpost for their age group. That gap isn't a reason to panic. It's a reason to look at what these benchmarks actually assume, because for a lot of people they don't quite fit, and closing a real shortfall takes a specific plan, not a vague sense that you're "behind."
What Are the Actual Retirement Savings Benchmarks by Age?
Fidelity's benchmarks are expressed as a multiple of your current salary, not a flat dollar figure, since a target that doesn't scale with income isn't useful to anyone. Here's the full table:
- Age 25: 0.5x salary
- Age 30: 1x salary
- Age 35: 2x salary
- Age 40: 3x salary
- Age 45: 4x salary
- Age 50: 6x salary
- Age 55: 7x salary
- Age 60: 8x salary
- Age 67 (retirement): 10x salary
So someone earning $70,000 at 40 would be "on track" with $210,000 saved. These figures cover retirement accounts only, 401(k)s, IRAs, and pension value, not home equity or a taxable brokerage account. They also come with real assumptions baked in: a 15% total savings rate (including any employer match) sustained across your career, retirement at 67, Social Security claimed at 67, a portfolio earning roughly 5.5% a year on average after fees, and a goal of replacing about 80% of your pre-retirement income once you stop working. Change any one of those inputs and the "right" multiple for you changes too.
How Does the Median American Actually Compare to the Benchmark?
Most households are behind the benchmark, sometimes by a lot. Here's the actual median and average retirement savings by age band, per Federal Reserve data compiled by NerdWallet:
- Under 35: $18,880 median, $49,130 average
- 35 to 44: $45,000 median, $141,520 average
- 45 to 54: $115,000 median, $313,220 average
- 55 to 64: $185,000 median, $537,560 average
- 65 to 74: $200,000 median, $609,230 average
Notice how far the average sits above the median in every age band, roughly 2.6 to 3.1 times higher. That gap exists because a relatively small number of high-net-worth households pull the average way up, while the median, the number right in the middle of the pack, reflects what a typical household actually has. If you've ever seen a "the average American has $X saved" headline and felt like it didn't match reality, the median is almost always the more honest number to compare yourself against.
Why Don't These Benchmarks Fit Everyone?
They don't fit everyone because the underlying assumptions don't hold for everyone. A few real cases where the standard multiple is the wrong target:
- High earners generally need a bigger multiple, not a smaller one. Social Security replaces a larger share of a low earner's pre-retirement income than a high earner's, so someone earning $250,000 needs their savings to cover more of the 80% replacement target on their own than someone earning $60,000 does.
- A pension changes the math entirely. If a meaningful chunk of your retirement income is already guaranteed by a pension, you need less in personal savings to hit the same income replacement, and applying the standard multiple on top of a pension you're already counting on can lead you to oversave at the expense of other goals.
- Retiring earlier or later shifts every number on the table. The benchmarks assume a 67 retirement age. Someone targeting 55 needs to hit a much higher multiple much earlier, since there are fewer working years left to save and more retirement years the money has to cover. Someone planning to work until 70 has more runway and can reasonably be behind the 60 or 65 benchmark without being off track.
- A paid-off house or a much lower cost-of-living retirement changes the target. The 80% income replacement assumption is a general rule, not a law. Someone who'll own their home outright and relocate somewhere cheaper in retirement may need meaningfully less than someone still carrying a mortgage into their 70s.
The benchmarks are a useful sanity check, not a pass-or-fail test. Being under the multiple for your age is worth noticing. It isn't, by itself, evidence that you've made a mistake.
What If You're Behind the Benchmark?
Run the actual numbers instead of guessing at how bad the gap is. Take a 40-year-old earning $70,000, right at the median $45,000 saved for their age group, against a benchmark target of $210,000 (3x salary). That's a $165,000 shortfall. Here's what closing it by 50 would actually take, assuming a 7% average annual return, roughly in line with this site's other coverage of long-run stock market returns.
The existing $45,000, left alone and compounding for 10 years at 7%, grows to about $88,500 on its own. The age-50 benchmark of 6x salary is $420,000, so new contributions over that decade need to cover the remaining $331,500. Running the compounding math on that gap means contributing roughly $1,915 a month, about $23,000 a year, for all 10 years to hit the age-50 target exactly.
On a $70,000 salary, that's close to a third of gross pay, which isn't realistic for most households carrying rent, a mortgage, or kids. That math isn't meant to be discouraging, it's meant to be honest: closing a decade of underfunding in a single decade is genuinely hard, which is exactly why starting earlier matters more than any specific catch-up plan later. A more realistic approach is smaller and ongoing rather than one big correction:
- Raise your savings rate by 1% a year. Most 401(k) plans let you automate this. A 1% annual bump is small enough to barely notice in a paycheck but adds up to a materially higher savings rate within five or six years.
- Capture the full employer match first, every time. An unmatched employer contribution is money you're turning down for free, and it's the highest-return dollar in most people's entire savings plan.
- Use catch-up contributions once you're eligible. In 2026, savers 50 and older can contribute up to $32,500 total to a 401(k) ($24,500 plus an $8,000 catch-up), and those 60 to 63 can use a larger $11,250 super catch-up in place of the standard one where their plan allows it. For IRAs, the 2026 limit is $7,500, or $8,600 for savers 50 and up.
- Treat an HSA as a second retirement account if you're not tapping it for medical costs. Money in a health savings account grows tax-free and, after 65, can be withdrawn for any purpose without penalty (just ordinary income tax on non-medical withdrawals), which makes it a legitimate extra bucket toward the same goal.
What This Means for You
- Use the benchmark as a checkpoint, not a verdict. Compare your actual multiple to the table, but weigh it against your real retirement age, income level, and whether a pension or paid-off home changes what you actually need.
- Compare yourself to the median, not the average. The average in every age band is inflated by a small number of very high-net-worth households, and it's a misleading target for a typical saver.
- A small, permanent increase in savings rate beats a dramatic short-term catch-up. The math above shows why: closing a large gap fast requires contributions most budgets can't sustain, while a 1% annual increase compounds into a real difference without the same strain.
- Get the match, then the tax-advantaged room, in that order. Employer match first, then max out catch-up eligible accounts as they become available, before putting extra savings into a taxable account.
If you're deciding where new retirement dollars should actually go, our breakdown of Roth IRA vs. Traditional IRA covers how to choose between the two based on your current and expected future tax situation. And if the account itself is the part holding you back, our guide to low-maintenance index fund investing covers what to actually do once the money is in there.
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Spicy Investing