How much in retirement @ age 30?

[guppy]

I hear the rule of thumb is to have 1 years salary in retirement by age 30 (some sources say 35 but I'm trying to be conservative). Since I'm closing in on the big 3-0 in a few months, I took a look and my husband and I are at approximately 60% of a years salary.

I was wondering how everybody elses finances looked at 30 and if they met that milestone. Currently we're contributing 8% to retirement (since ages 22/23) but I'd like to bump that number up over the next few years and hopefully make up for not doing more sooner.

[edg126]

I had barely a quarter of my salary at age 30, but am on target now to reach 1x at 35.

From 24 - 28 I put 6% of my salary, with maybe a 4% match? I didn't pay attention to it, but just put some money in it

From 28 - 30 I didn't put in anything, I was laid off my job, and the new job didn't vest their match until after 5 years, and i knew I wouldn't be there long (plus i was paying down debt and saving for a house down payment)

I'm 32 now, and save 15% + 4.5% company match. That, with the stock market rise has me now at 63% of my salary. Calculations show that I'll eventually get ahead of those stats if i keep it at the 19.5%, but even though I love my job, I hate working, and so I'm going to keep increasing it. I plan on having my max contribution to my 401K and IRA by next year.

I also haven't 'given myself a raise' since 2009. Each raise goes right into an increase in my 401K, HSA, or ESPP. It hasn't had any effect on our quality of life.

[disneysteve]

I was wondering how everybody elses finances looked at 30 and if they met that milestone.

I'm quite sure we weren't even close. I finished residency when I was almost 29 so I didn't have my first real job until then. No way did I have 65K saved when I was 30 (my salary at the time).

[autoxer]

I did have about 1x salary when I turned 30, but I have since taken a more aggressive path. I'm turning 35 this year and have about 2.5x salary saved. My savings rate has probably hovered around 15 - 20%, but recently I've got it up to 39% and I'm now targeting a much earlier than average retirement age.

Pay yourself first!

[rennigade]

Im 31 and have 3.5x my salary in retirement. This is only retirement accounts, my 401k and Roth...not any other investments.

Although its all relative...if theres a 30 year old who makes $450k/year...having 1x their salary in retirement would be a lot more impressive than what I have.

[bjl584]

Off the top of my head I don't remember what I had saved by age 30.

I'm 35 now, and I have around 4.5 times my annual salary saved/invested.

[humandraydel]

At age 32 I have 2.1x my salary so I'm sure I had 1x my salary at age 30. But actually, a lot of the "formulas" say to have 1x salary by age 35.

[dczech09]

I always tell people that you should be saving 10% to 15% of your income for retirement (10% minimum, 15% is the goal). You should be aggressively saving for retirement BY age 30 for sure.

A good goal would be about 0.60X your annual salary by age 30.

With that goal being said, some people may not be aggressively saving until they are 30, and some people are saving way before then.

For myself, I will easily have 1 year salary by age 30 (unless of course I am making like six figures at that time). Currently, I am 26 and have about 50% of my salary in retirement savings.

The whole "percentage of income" goal is kind of ambiguous because your salary changes. Ideally, your income will gradually increase as life goes by.

[kork13]

It very much depends on your situation, but in general, 1x annual salary in retirement at age 30 is not a bad stepping stone at all.

For another data point, I'm almost 28 right now, and currently have about 1.5x my annual income. However, I'm currently single & have been saving aggressively for years now. My fiancee has very little in retirement right now, so after our wedding this summer, I'll go from having 1.5x gross income to "only" having about 1x gross income in retirement. whoops!

Bottom line: it depends, and it's all on a sliding scale. Most important is just to set your own goals based on your individual situation, and carefully work toward those goals.

[Goldy]

My wife and I have been fortunate to keep our jobs through the GFC and have a nice 12% 401k match so we are currently at 2.5x salary at the ages of 30 and 29. I also started my Roth when I was 17 so that certainly helped.

[Randomsaver]

I don't think I can go beyond 7% on 401K; I'd rather save it outside and invest. My colleague always say you can't enjoy much of your money when you're old and can't take them to heaven.

[MonkeyMama]

At 30, about 70% income saved. 1 x income by age 33, and 2 x income by age 36.

I think the rule of thumb is rather worthless. It is a curve; not a straight line. The stock market has been crazy volatile and our income has been up down and all around, so I don't know how useful or relevant my own numbers are. (We've been hitting numbers faster in recent years, BUT the market has been on a bull run AND my income has been stagnant. Outside factors still seem to be far more important than my actual savings rate, and that is with more than 2 x my income saved).

Anyway, since it's a curve, I don't know how necessary it is to save x dollars by age 30. Your savings will grow astronomically with time, due to the power of compounding. What is important is to save consistently, and to start young. We have been saving 10%+, every single year, since age 23. I am more than happy with the results. Our market returns exceed our contributions, at this point. Which is a really nice crossover point - feel like the HARD work is long behind us.

[feh]

I don't know what we had in retirement at age 30. I don't think this is a particularly useful rule of thumb.

Instead, save at least 15% of your gross.

[ua_guy]

There just [LEFT]isn't a good litmus test. It really depends on your salary, your expenses, your plans for retirement. 1x your salary is an entirely different situation between someone who makes $50k/year and someone who makes $100k/year at age 30. Personally, I'm in a unique situation where I was behind on retirement savings, caught up, but am now at .75x salary at age 31, however I also increased my salary over 20% in the last two years alone. So, one would say I'm behind again by that measure, but really my income outpaced my retirment savings, so I'm going to try to breathe easy and be confident that what I'm doing (saving 15-19% of gross) is going to get me to where I need to be.

[bennkar]

Everyone's situation is different, I'm lucky if I had any savings at 30 (not that I wasn't trying). At 35 I barely had $5,000 to my name. But you can make up for lost time if you need to. Now at 51 I have almost 5x salary (which is more than double my 35 y.o. salary) and a paid off house. Starting early is great, but if you can't, just remember you can make up for lost time if you need to.