Here’s the Average 30-Something’s Retirement Savings Balance. How Does Yours Compare?

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Have you saved as much as the typical person in their 30s? Read on to find out. 

By the time you reach your 30s, you should ideally be saving some amount of money for retirement. It may not be a lot, though, and that’s understandable.

After all, in your 30s, you may be grappling with mortgage loan payments and expensive childcare costs. And you may be at a point in your career where you’re doing well enough, but your earnings haven’t come close to peaking.

You may be curious as to what the typical 30-something has in their IRA or 401(k) plan. According to Northwestern Mutual’s latest Planning & Progress Study, the average 30-something saver has a balance of $67,400.

That’s actually a pretty impressive amount of money. And if your balance is comparable, you should consider yourself in good shape.

But don’t panic if your balance is nowhere close. There’s still plenty of time to build up your savings so you can retire comfortably.

A good starting point

A savings balance of $67,400 means that you’re on track to retire with a lot of money. In fact, you might end up with a very large nest egg even if you don’t contribute another dime to your savings between now and retirement age. (To be clear, that’s not recommended, but it might give you some comfort to know that.)

The stock market has delivered an average annual 10% return before inflation over the past 50 years, as measured by the S&P 500 index’s performance. So let’s say you invest your nest egg in stocks and snag that same return. If you’re 37, and you’re not retiring until age 67, you have 30 years to grow your current balance into more money. And at 10% a year, you’re talking about retiring with close to $1.2 million.

Of course, if you’ve managed to sock away $67,400 for retirement thus far, it hopefully means you can continue to fund your nest egg on a regular basis. And if you add $400 a month to your savings for the next 30 years, you’ll end up with a balance of almost $2 million.

Don’t panic if your current balance is lower

Just because the average person in their 30s has $67,400 saved for retirement doesn’t mean your balance is that much. And that’s okay.

Even if you only have a small amount of savings, you have time on your side. And if you make an effort to consistently fund your savings between now and retirement, you might still end up with a large amount of money.

In fact, let’s say you’re 37 with just $3,000 saved for your senior years. If you were to put $400 a month into your IRA or 401(k) starting now, then by age 67, you’ll be sitting on about $842,000, assuming the same 10% average yearly return we used earlier. That’s not too shabby.

You might even have no money in your IRA or 401(k) plan as of now. But if you do your part to ramp up, you can easily make up for lost time. So rather than stress that you haven’t managed to save as much money as the typical person your age, do your part to focus on setting yourself up for a more financially secure future.

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