Retirement Savings by Age Calculator

Salary multiples as a yardstick

A popular way to check retirement progress is to compare savings with salary. Fidelity's widely quoted guideline suggests having about 1× your salary saved by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60 and 10× by 67. The milestones assume you save around 15% of income each year from age 25, invest mostly in stocks, and retire at 67. The calculator fills in the years between with a straight line.

At 40 on an $85,000 salary, the guideline is $255,000. Someone with $160,000 saved is at about 1.9×, which is behind but very recoverable with higher contributions over the next 25 years.

If you are behind

Being behind a rule of thumb is common, and the fixes are straightforward. Raise retirement contributions by one or two percentage points a year until you reach 15% or more, make sure you capture any employer match, and use catch-up contributions once you turn 50. If you expect a pension, or plan to live somewhere cheaper in retirement, you may need less than the guideline suggests.

An example at 40

For a 40-year-old earning $85,000, the 3x guideline points to about $255,000 in retirement savings. Someone with $160,000 is a little under 2x, behind the yardstick but far from unusual, and with 25 or more working years left there is plenty of time to close the gap. Raising contributions by a couple of percentage points, capturing the full employer match and directing half of future raises to retirement would make a large difference by 60.

It also helps to remember what the multiples leave out. A pension, rental income or a spouse's savings can mean you need less of your own, while plans to retire early or in an expensive area mean you need more. For a target built from your own spending, the FIRE number calculator is a better guide than any rule of thumb.