See How Your Savings Compares to Those in Your Age Group
If you’ve ever wanted to compare your savings to the average savings of those in your age group, you aren’t alone. It’s normal to look at what you’ve been saving for your life and wonder if you’re keeping up with those around you. That’s an understandable curiosity. Well, financial experts have done the research to find out the average savings of different age groups in America, so we can answer your question.
Compare Your Savings to the Average Savings by Age Group
I’ve been trying to save money in a savings account ever since I was a little kid. Whenever I got birthday money as a kid, my mom used to have me save half of it in my savings account, and then I was allowed to spend the other half. It was a good deal. So, I’ve practiced saving my entire life, but it is obviously much more difficult when you’re “adulting” and have bills to pay and mouths to feed. That said, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve in 2019, American households, on average, have $41,600 in savings. That’s the average savings, but when you look at the median balance for American households, it’s $5,300, according to the research. The median balance, of course, is the middle value in a set of data. As Investopidia explains in a longer definition, “The median is the middle number in a sorted list of numbers and can be more descriptive of that data set than the average.” That means half of Americans are above $5,300 in savings and half are below.
Now, let’s get into age groups. According to the experts at USNews.com, older Americans generally have more savings than younger ones. That totally makes sense, because older Americans have years to accumulate savings. They’re using median numbers to explain savings. According to their report, the median savings for someone under 35 is $5,400, age 35 to 44 is $7,500, age 45 to 54 is $8,700, age 55 to 64 is $8,000, age 65 to 74 is $13,400 and 75 or older is $10,000. Looking at education, the median savings for someone with no high school diploma is $900, with a high school diploma is $3,030, with some college is $5,200 and with a college degree is $23,370. A separate study in Forbes magazine notes that according to their survey, “roughly 28% of Americans across all four generations currently have less than $1,000 in personal savings, including emergency funds, non-workplace retirement accounts and investments.” They also noted that in their research, “Our survey found that the majority of Gen Zers (54%) and Millennials (52%) have less than $5,000 saved, compared to 42% of Gen X respondents and 29% of Baby Boomers.” Compare what you have in your 401K to those in your age group below.
Do You Have More or Less in Your 401K Than Most People Your Age?
The average and median 401(k) balance by age
So, there you have it, the average and median 401K balance by age. The stats are from Vanguard’s “How America Saves 2023” report, which offers data on the average and median 401K account balances by age. Find the full report here.
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