Americans Have Less Than Half of Recommended Retirement Savings

Staff Report

Friday, June 24th, 2022

Americans are falling behind on retirement savings, according to a new report from Anytime Estimate, an online real estate education and calculator platform.

Baby boomers have saved a median amount of just $112,000 — only 39% of the $286,000 Fidelity says they should have in the bank by age 60. This is a big contrast to millennials, who started saving earlier than boomers and have about $70,000 in retirement savings, putting them on track to reach the $107,000 Fidelity says they need by age 40.


The report found that only 63% of American adults are currently saving for retirement, with one in three (37%) of those who aren't currently saving reporting $0 in savings.

About half of Americans (55%) report they don't believe they make enough money to adequately save for retirement. One in ten said they do not think they will ever be able to retire, although Gen Zers were 206% more likely than baby boomers to believe they could retire before age 60.

Adding insult to injury, more than half of Americans spent some of their retirement savings during the pandemic, and one in six spent $15,000 or more from their retirement savings.

The report also found that 47% of Americans expect Social Security to be a source of retirement income, yet 55% think the program will run out of funds by the time they retire. 59% of boomers plan to rely on Social Security — 28% more than millennials.

A whopping 79% of Americans worry they'll have to lower their standard of living in retirement, and 56% believe they'll outlive their retirement savings.