The average American believes they’ll need to save $1.8 million for their post-work years, according to Charles Schwab’s “2024 401(k) Participant Study.”
However, most Americans in their 50s have much less than that stashed away for retirement.
The average 401(k) account balance for people in their 50s is $212,400, as of the first quarter of 2024, according to data shared with CNBC Make It from Fidelity Investments, one of America’s largest 401(k) providers. However, the average tends to skew higher due to a few larger 401(k) account balances.
On the other hand, the median 401(k) balance for people in their 50s is $64,300, per Fidelity’s data.
Some 20% of adults age 50 and over say they have no retirement savings at all, according to a 2024 AARP survey.
Source: CNBC.COM
Where do people get their numbers; $1.8 million? There are so many variables in retirement as to make such numbers useless.
To me the questions are: what is your income now, how much of gross income do you spend today, what significant changes in that spending do you see in retirement and what lifestyle are you looking for in retirement, how much of what you’ll need will come from Social Security?
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
It could be that people have considered all the points you make and determined what income above Social Security and then decided on a 4% or 5% withdrawal and the amount needed to meet that is the big number quoted in the survey. Some may need 500000, some may need 1 million some 3 million. That is presumably the total to create a life stream of income. I don’t see it as useless. Obviously Schwab Brokerage sees it that way or they wouldn’t have done the survey.
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