Have less than $25K in savings? Get in line
Nearly half of all workers saving for retirement have savings that fall short of the $25,000 mark, according to the 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Matthew Greenwald & Associates. Predictably, the youngest workers (ages 25-34) dominate this group – 68 percent of them have less than $25,000 earmarked for their later years. But so do half of workers age 35 to 44 and a third of workers age 45 to 55 and over.
What is a very rough estimate of what you need? Well obviously factors like a pension, social security payments, age at retirement, home ownership, health insurance, marital status… make a huge difference in the total amount needed. But something in the neighborhood of 10-25 times your desired retirement income is in the ballpark of what most experts recommend. So if you want $50,000 in income you need $500,000 – $1,250,000. Obviously that is difficult to save over a short period of time. The key to retirement saving is consistent, long term commitment to saving.
Related: Saving for Retirement – Start Young with 401k and Roth IRA – Retirement Delayed: Working Longer
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