Retirement savings by age: 2026 benchmarks
A widely used rule of thumb from Fidelity is to have about 1x your salary saved by age 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by age 67. So a 40-year-old earning $70,000 would be "on pace" at roughly $210,000. These are guideposts that assume you save around 15% of income a year and retire near 67 — not hard targets, and not the same as knowing whether your money will actually last.
The full benchmark table
Fidelity publishes a salary multiple for each checkpoint age. The multiple is how many times your current annual salary you should aim to have saved across all retirement accounts.
| Age | Target saved (x salary) |
|---|---|
| 30 | 1x |
| 35 | 2x |
| 40 | 3x |
| 45 | 4x |
| 50 | 6x |
| 55 | 7x |
| 60 | 8x |
| 67 | 10x |
Source: Fidelity Investments retirement savings guidelines. Multiples apply to money in retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, pension value), not home equity.
What the benchmarks quietly assume
The salary multiples are not universal laws; they are the output of a specific set of assumptions. Fidelity's framework assumes you start saving in your twenties, put away about 15% of income each year (including any employer match), stay invested for growth, retire at age 67, and want to maintain roughly 80% of your pre-retirement income — with Social Security covering part of the gap. Change any of those, and your personal number changes with them.
What if you're behind?
Being below the benchmark is the common case, not the exception. Federal Reserve data shows the median household is under the Fidelity target at every age band. That is not a reason to give up; it is a reason to be precise. The levers that matter most are a higher savings rate, a later retirement date (even one or two years), and keeping enough growth in the portfolio to compound. Small, early changes move the finish line more than dramatic late ones.
How to catch up by decade
- In your 30s: time is the asset. Getting the full employer match and raising your savings rate a few points now compounds for 30-plus years.
- In your 40s: aim for the 3x-to-4x band and automate increases so every raise lifts your savings rate, not just your spending.
- In your 50s: catch-up contribution limits let you add more to a 401(k) and IRA; this is also when sequence-of-returns risk starts to matter.
- In your 60s: the decision shifts from "how much" to "how long it lasts" — the point where a probability of success becomes more useful than a savings multiple.
From a benchmark to your real odds
A salary multiple tells you whether you are roughly on pace. It does not tell you whether your money will last, because it ignores your spending, your other income, and the order in which markets move. Running your actual numbers through thousands of market scenarios turns "am I on track?" into a probability you can act on — and shows which lever raises your odds the most.