Retirement savings by age
Eight ages against five income levels, solved from the same engine that runs the rest of the site rather than quoted from somebody else's rule of thumb.
Why the usual benchmark is wrong at your income
- At 40, someone earning $50,000 needs 0.8 times salary. Someone earning $200,000 needs 3.6 times.
- Social Security is a fixed dollar amount, so it covers most of a modest retirement and very little of a large one. A single multiple cannot be right at both ends.
- Every figure assumes you keep saving 15% from here to 65. That is what makes this different from a Coast FIRE number, which assumes you stop.
- Each age page lets you change the savings rate and the Social Security estimate, and both move the answer a lot.
| By age | $50K | $75K | $100K | $150K | $200K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | nothing yet | nothing yet | nothing yet | $6K 0.0x | $38K 0.2x |
| 30 | nothing yet | $8K 0.1x | $49K 0.5x | $132K 0.9x | $215K 1.1x |
| 35 | nothing yet | $72K 1.0x | $146K 1.5x | $293K 2.0x | $440K 2.2x |
| 40 | $40K 0.8x | $154K 2.1x | $269K 2.7x | $498K 3.3x | $727K 3.6x |
| 45 | $92K 1.8x | $259K 3.5x | $426K 4.3x | $760K 5.1x | $1.09M 5.5x |
| 50 | $159K 3.2x | $393K 5.2x | $627K 6.3x | $1.09M 7.3x | $1.56M 7.8x |
| 55 | $245K 4.9x | $564K 7.5x | $883K 8.8x | $1.52M 10.1x | $2.16M 10.8x |
| 60 | $354K 7.1x | $782K 10.4x | $1.21M 12.1x | $2.06M 13.8x | $2.92M 14.6x |
Retiring at 65 at a 5% real return, saving 15% of income from that age onward, with $24,000 a year of Social Security counted. Retirement spending is assumed to equal income less what you were saving. "Nothing yet" means contributions and compounding alone reach the target from that age, so no existing balance is required.
Using this honestly
A benchmark is a starting point
It assumes a flat real income, a constant savings rate and a smooth return. Your life will match none of the three. Treat a gap as a prompt to run the actual projection rather than as a verdict.
Spending decides more than the multiple
These figures assume you retire on your current income less savings. If your mortgage ends before you retire, the real target is lower and every row here overstates it. Work from a real budget when you can.
Behind at 40 is recoverable
There are still 25 years of compounding left. Raising the savings rate, trimming planned retirement spending or working two more years each move the answer substantially, and the age pages show by how much.
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Related: Coast FIRE by age, Savings rate, Spending levels, Retirement number.