$148,153 vs. $38,176: Which Number Matters Most From Recent Retirement Savings Report?
Key Takeaways
Neither of these two numbers is necessarily the yardstick you'll want to measure your own progress against.
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investment
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July 27, 2025
04:36 AM
The Motley Fool
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How much does the typical American have d up for retirement
Additionally, It's a simple question -- but there's not a simple answer (which is quite significant)
The mathematical average of everyone's retirement account values may seem a fair way to come up with a figure, in this volatile climate
How -- and how widely -- all of the underlying numbers used in the calculation of this average are dispersed, however, leads to a misleading result, in today's market environment
Furthermore, Namely, it's much, much more than the majority of Americans actually have tucked away
Never even mind that older Americans should (and broadly speaking, do) have more d than younger people
This analysis suggests that y've had more time to accumulate and grow their nest eggs, after all (an important development)
That's why when Vanguard published its "How America s 2025" report in June, it offered two different benchmark figures for a range of ages
One is the mathematical average, or mean, while the other is the median, or midpoint amount
But which (if either) should you personally worry the most
Nevertheless, The difference between the two numbers Vanguard operates a wide family of mutual funds, and also serves as the administrator for a huge number of corporate retirement plans, given current economic conditions
It's not the only company of its kind: Fidelity and Schwab do the same things, for instance, in today's financial world
But, Vanguard's review of the 4. 8 million retirement plan accounts that it administers does vide a pretty good representation of how all of America s, and its findings will ly be in line with the retirement accounts collectively held by other custodians
Furthermore, So just how much do Americans have d up for their retirements
Moreover, As of the end of last year, the average workplace retirement account's value stood at $148,153, but the median was a much more modest $38,176
As a refresher, an average is the sum total of all the numbers in a data set that's then divided by the number of distinct data inputs used to come up with the sum (noteworthy indeed)
That usually makes it a meaningful big-picture snapshot
This's different than a median
The data indicates that median is simply the value of the number found at the very middle or midpoint of a size-sequenced/ranked series of numbers (quite telling), considering recent developments
In other words, in the case of the set made up of Vanguard's workplace retirement accounts, half of them had more money in them than the mean of $38,176, while the other half had less
This raises the question: How is the average so much bigger than the median number
The answer is that a relatively small number of these retirement accounts have unusually large amounts of money in them, which skews the average upward
Although Vanguard doesn't offer a great deal of detail on this dynamic, it does note that only 16% of its retirement plan accounts are worth more than $250,000, while 28% are worth less than $10,000
Which figures should matter to you
The bigger question remains, though: Which of the two numbers means the most to you, given current economic conditions
On the other hand, The answer is neither, in today's financial world
Nevertheless, Comparing yourself as an investor to other investors is a tricky
Meanwhile, There's always more to the story
This leads to the conclusion that re may be a significant inheritance on someone else's radar (or yours), for example
Some of these investors may have more than one retirement account, and not all of those may be in Vanguard's care
Nevertheless, Some people have been lucky enough to work for unusually generous employers that contribute more to their workers' 401(k) accounts than the employees do themselves, in today's market environment
Comparing their situations to yours isn't fair or meaningful
Conversely, Then there are the age differences among all the workers that Vanguard's 2025 savings study is considering
While the overall average may be $148,153, for the 25-to-34-year-olds in this pool, the mean is a mere $42,650
Additionally, For the 65-and-up crowd, the average is just under $300,000, in light of current trends
Additionally, Meanwhile, the median numbers for these two groups at opposite ends of the adult age spectrum are $16,255 and $95,425, respectively
Image source: Getty Images
Furthermore, So how do you know how you're doing for you
Well, that's just it -- you don't
Nevertheless, Your personal yardstick could be anywhere in between these figures, although realistically speaking, almost everyone arguably will need significantly more than any of these amounts to secure a comfortable retirement (remarkable data)
Furthermore, Insurer Northwestern Mutual reports that Americans believe they will need an average of $1. 26 million in their nest eggs when they reach retirement to comfortably though their golden years
Given what we know Social Security, and the amount of annual income a person could reasonably withdraw from a stash of this size over 30 years or so without completely depleting it, that number is arguably in the right ballpark (this bears monitoring), given current economic conditions
Additionally, Most people, of course, never get anywhere close to this amount
However, You can still enjoy your retirement with less (fascinating analysis)
Nevertheless, In contrast, Focus on the cess at least as much as you focus on the numbers The irony
Additionally, While most people are worrying the collective-but-misleading numbers, they're not focused enough on the important things they can control
The cess of saving itself (something worth watching)
However, Any goal is better than no goal at all, in today's financial world
Additionally, People with goals tend to achieve better results than people without them
And once you've set a goal for a specific target date -- say, retiring when you turn 67 -- you can then work your way backwards from it and figure out how much you need to between now and then, and determine how much your retirement portfolio needs to grow in the meantime
In contrast, Taking deliberate and decisive actions in the meantime, even without a specific goal in mind, will also help you achieve a worthy result
Additionally, For example, if you habitually and reliably invest 15% of your annual salary into a market-tracking index fund for at least 30 years, you will ly be able to maintain your standard of living after you retire, in today's market environment
Yes, that may require some serious scrimping and saving, and you can't know for sure how big your nest egg will be at the end of that time frame
You can at least control the cess, though, even if you can't precisely control the outcome
So, focus on the cess and trust that the stock market's future over the long haul will look something its history
All the same, though, you might want to aim to do better than any of Vanguard's median and average retirement savings figures for your particular age bracket, considering recent developments
None of those numbers put you on track to fund the of retirement you're ly dreaming of.
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