The Average Retirement Savings By AGE! (2025 Edition)

Join the community built to help you master your money, stay accountable, and reach financial freedom. 👉 Join Master Money Academy today! In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, Andrew breaks down the average retirement savings by age in 2025 using Fidelity's data from millions of 401(k) accounts—revealing how much people actually have saved in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s compared to what they should have, showing that most Americans are falling short of retirement readiness, walking through the unique financial challenges each decade faces from student loans and low income to lifestyle creep and peak expenses, plus giving you actionable strategies to overcome these obstacles so you can catch up or stay on track and build enough wealth to retire comfortably. How Andrew Can Help You: Listen to The Business Show here. Don't let another year pass by without making significant strides toward your dreams. "Master Your Money Goals" is your pathway to a future where your aspirations are not just wishes but realities. Enroll now and make this year count! Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week Here! Learn to invest by joining Index Fund Pro! This is Andrew’s course teaching you how to invest! Watch The Master Money Youtube Channel! , Ask Andrew a question on Instagram or TikTok Learn how to get out of Debt by joining our Free Course Leave Feedback or Episode Requests here. Car buying Calculator here Thanks to Our Amazing Sponsors for supporting The Personal Finance Podcast DELL: Get a new Dell AI PC starting at $749.99, at Dell.com/ai-pc Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/personalfinance Acorns: Start investing automatically with Acorns and get a $5 bonus at Acorns.com/PFP Chime: Start your credit journey with Chime. Sign-up takes only two minutes and doesn’t affect your credit score. Get started at chime.com/ Thanks to Policy Genius for Sponsoring the show! Go to policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Shopify: Shopify makes it so easy to sell. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/pfp Links Mentioned in This Episode: The 1-3-6 Method For Building & Managing Your Emergency Fund  Wealth Builders Matrix How to Find The Right CPA Automate Your Money Checklist Connect With Andrew on Social Media: Instagram TikTok Twitter Master Money Website Master Money Youtube Channel Free Guides: The Stairway to Wealth: The Order of Operations for your Money How to Negotiate Your Salary The 75 Day Money Challenge Get out Of Debt Fast Take the Money Personality Quiz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 0:00Andrew Giancola?

  When I started the Personal Finance Podcast, I had no idea how big it could become. I just knew I had something I wanted to share, so I started putting it online. And looking back, I definitely wish I would have started a decade earlier. One of the horror parts about building something online, though, is making it look professional. A website used to mean hiring a developer, figuring out design, and potentially spending thousands of dollars. In fact, on my website, I spent tens of thousands of dollars. That's what impressed me when playing around with Hostinger's AI Website Builder. I told it what kind of website I wanted, and I built the first version in minutes. No coding, no designer or developer needed. And Hostinger doesn't stop at launch.

• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

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• 1:29Andrew Giancola?

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• 2:14Andrew Giancola?

  Head to wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair: Every Style, Every Home.

• 2:28Andrew Giancola?

  On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, the average retirement savings by age in 2025.

• 2:52Andrew Giancola?

  What's up everybody and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of MasterMoney.co. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to be diving into the average retirement savings by age in 2025. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money Newsletter by going to MasterMoney.co/newsletter. And don't forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on. And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five star rating and review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast player. Now, today, we're going to be diving into the average retirement savings by age.

• 3:36Andrew Giancola?

  And we're going to dive into Fidelity's data where they looked at millions of different 401k and different retirement plans, and looked at how much people had in those accounts by age. Now, today, what I'm going to go through is I am going to go through the different age levels and how much they have saved. But then in addition, right after, I'm going to talk through some of the challenges that you have by each decade, meaning that what are some challenges that people have in their twenties versus people in their thirties versus people in their forties? And how do you overcome some of those challenges to ensure that you can save enough for retirement too? So I absolutely love doing these episodes because they are super, super helpful for a lot of people. And so when we're talking about this, Fidelity has this chart of a 401k balance by age.

• 4:21Andrew Giancola?

  And this chart is going to help you kind of visualize and see, hey, most people do not have enough saved for retirement. And so we want to make sure that we make those changes. And so we're going to overcome those challenges as we go through this. So without further ado, let's get into it. All right. So if you're in your twenties, what is the average retirement savings by age? Well, according to Fidelity's data, the average 401k balances for people in their twenties, if you're between age 20 to 24, is $7,300. And if you are age 25 to 29, it is $24,000. Now, this is something where we are seeing, you know, the average person who is in their twenties, they are starting off with a lower income

• 5:06Andrew Giancola?

  or entry level salary. And so because of this, because you have lower income or an entry level salary, it is a lot harder to figure out what the gap is going to be. Now, what is the gap? That is the difference between your income and your expenses. And so many people who are in their twenties, they are just entering the workforce. I know my first job when I left college was a very low paying job. I had an entry level job. I was making $30,000 every single year. And I realized very quickly, it is very difficult to have enough cash on hand to also save for retirement. And so this constraints, how much you can save or divert towards retirement. Also, a lot of people who are in their twenties, they have a high debt burden, specifically when it comes to student loans. So I know how frustrating student loans can be. And every single year, it seems like the rules are changing with your student loans.

• 5:50Andrew Giancola?

  And it becomes very difficult to plan on how you can pay those down. And so this is constraining a lot of people when it comes to their budgets, trying to figure out how to save enough and get more dollars in those retirement accounts. Also, is they don't have financial habits yet. So when I first graduated college, I've told this story a million times, but I didn't have those financial habits in place yet. And you have to kind of learn as you go. And so because I did not learn to budget, I did not learn to save and figure out where all of my money was going by the end of the month, I never truly knew how much was left over. And so that is a huge thing that I think a lot of people in their twenties have to go through. Also, is just uncertainty. So early career is often a time of transitions. So you're either changing jobs and job hopping

• 6:35Andrew Giancola?

  because there are better opportunities to make more money and/or you just don't like the initial place that you started to work, or you're trying out new industries and seeing if you like those industries. And because of this uncertainty, You can have setbacks when it comes to your finances. And also, there could be lifestyle pressures. So maybe some of your friends are making more money right off the bat, and they're going out on these vacations and doing these things. And you want to do the same exact things. And so you have some of that lifestyle pressure, that lifestyle inflation coming into place. So we want to make sure that we are thinking through all of these challenges that you're going through. Now, how do you improve your retirement savings in your twenties? Because people in their twenties, they obviously just have tons of different challenges that are coming up. In addition to the big one we did not talk about, which is the cost of living. It is very expensive right now to live.

• 7:19Andrew Giancola?

  And when wages are so low, the cost of living is high. It is difficult to get by with some of that stuff. And so we need to figure out how we can improve our retirement savings in our twenties. Now, here's one thing I want you to note, twenty year olds. Because you're in your twenties, you need to note that overall, this is the decade where even small amounts of money are going to make a huge impact to your retirement over time. So even if you have fifty, hundred, hundred fifty, two hundred dollars, it has a major impact on your bottom line. So we have this thing called the Wealth Builders Matrix. And if you've never seen the Wealth Builders Matrix, it tells you, based on how much money you save, what every single dollar is worth, based on your age. So in the Wealth Builders Matrix,

• 8:04Andrew Giancola?

  it's going to show you the value of every single dollar you invest. So you'll see that even small amounts of money, over time, can grow to very large amounts of money. Someone in their mid twenties, every dollar they invest is going to be worth seventy dollars by the time they retire at age sixty five. And so this is where it is really, really important to note that small amounts of money can grow to very large amounts of money. So I don't care how much extra you have. You need to take a small portion of that extra and start putting it towards retirement accounts. You will not regret it. I have never heard anybody in their twenties say, "Man, I really wish I did not save that extra money towards my retirement account." No, every single time, people are happy they did it. Now, you can do this a number of different ways. You can do this with your employer match. That is a great way to get some automatic savings

• 8:48Andrew Giancola?

  because it's going to double up or help you boost those retirement savings. So if you don't know what your employer match is, that is where your employer offers you a match. If you put a Certain amount in your 401k. So let's say, for example, you put 3% in your 401k, then they will also put 3% up to whatever the employer match is. So check with your HR department, see if they have that employer match. And then in addition, looking into your Roth IRA or your 401k can be an awesome option. Number two is to automate these contributions. So once you start sending money to your retirement accounts, I want you to automate those contributions to make it seamless, to make it easy and reduce friction and reduce the willingness on your willpower. What you do not want to do is have to rely on your willpower to send money every single time. Instead, I want you to send it automatically. So you don't even have to think about it. You don't

• 9:33Andrew Giancola?

  have to lift a finger. You don't have to budget it out. It just happens automatically. It is by far the best way to do this. Now, we have something called the automation checklist. If you've never automated your money before, we have an automation checklist that takes you step by step and teaches you exactly how to automate your money. So we'll link up that down below in the show notes so that you can check out the automation checklist. Number three is to make sure you capture that employer match. So we just talked about this is to capture that employer match because it is free money. It is a 100% rate of return. So at the bare minimum, no matter what you do, if you're paying off high interest debt, you're trying to save in your emergency fund, all these other things, you first always want to make sure that you get that employer's match because it is going to be free money and you want to take advantage of that. Also, any

• 10:17Andrew Giancola?

  high interest debt that you have on hand, we want to make sure that we reduce that high interest debt. So I'm talking any debt above a 6% interest rate. If you have high interest debt, I need you to knock that down. So if you have credit card debt, that's probably a 20 to 30% interest rate. That, my friends, is a huge problem. We need to get rid of that as fast as we possibly can. And so, once we get rid of that credit card debt, you're going to have extra cash left over that you're going to be able to put towards your emergency fund and towards your retirement accounts. That's going to be very, very important. Keeping expenses in check is another thing. So a lot of your friends maybe going out and having some fun, maybe they're going on vacations. But what you don't know is when you're in your twenties, a lot of people are making poor financial decisions. And a lot of times, either they're living paycheck to paycheck and they're spending

• 11:00Andrew Giancola?

  every single dollar they make and/or they are going into debt with some of these financial decisions. You would be surprised. Eyes at how many people who are around you that are actually going deeper and deeper into debt every single month. How do I know? Because they come and have conversations with me saying, I need to get out of this situation. And so really, the big, big thing we need to note is that you do not make financial decisions based on the actions of other people around you. I want you to change your mindset and instead focus on the things that you can control. What can you focus on that you can control? You can control your savings, right? You can control how much you earn and the skills that you have. You can control how you spend your money and how you intentionally think about spending your money. All of those are really important ways for you to think about your finances over time.

• 11:44Andrew Giancola?

  And then educating yourself, one of the things that we do in Master Money Academy that I absolutely love is we have the High Performance Book Club in there. We are all working on our financial education at the same time together as one community. And so this is something where we are reading through a book every single month. Most people are working through the wealth builder's journey and trying to transform their finances. We have Index Fund Pro and all these different things inside of Master Money Academy that help you through this process. And so it is so cool to see people who are all on the same page, including myself. We're going through these books and reading through them together. And we all have one common goal, which is financial independence. And that is why I love Master Money Academy and some of the ways that we are educating ourselves. And you should be doing that, too.

• 12:24Andrew Giancola?

  Spend time every single week, at least an hour every single week, educating ourselves on different things that you need to grow on. So maybe that is learning about finance and personal finance because you're just getting started. Maybe that is learning how to invest. Maybe it is understanding how to automate your money. Or maybe you are trying to increase some of the skills that you have on hand so that you can grow financially. All of these are wonderful, wonderful things that you need to be doing. But spending an hour every single week focusing on your education is all you need. That is all you need to be able to make a huge impact on your financial life. An hour every week is 365 hours per year. You know how much you can grow in 365 hours per year? An hour per week is 52 hours per year.

• 13:08Andrew Giancola?

  You know how much you can grow with 52 hours per year of education? Imagine if you did an hour a day, that's 365 hours per year of education. That is going to change your financial. Financial life for sure. And then learning how to set goals. So we teach you to set goals in 12 week increments, meaning that the big thing that we want you to do is we want you to achieve those goals quarterly. What a lot of people do is they do these stretch goals throughout the year and just a couple of months down the line, they never achieve those goals. Well, we teach you to tighten that up and we want you to be able to achieve those goals very, very specifically over the course of 12 weeks. Now in Master Money Academy, one thing we are doing over the course of the new year is we're going to be going through goal setting strategy sessions with all of our members. And so we're going to be talking through how to set goals, how to make sure you accomplish those

• 13:53Andrew Giancola?

  goals throughout the next year in 2026. And it's a really powerful way for most people to learn, this is how you set goals. We have very specific ways that we set them. And so learning how to do that with yourself is also very important. So we're coming up to the end of the year. You guys need to start thinking about your financial goals for next year so that you can accomplish them and start to list some of those out and start to prioritize some of those financial goals. And having those milestones and goals is really important. A great one is to max out some of those retirement accounts because we're looking at the average retirement savings by age here. And so we want to make sure that we are maxing those accounts as much as we possibly can. So those are some of the things for folks in their twenties. I highly encourage you to check out because this is going to change your life financially. If you can start to overcome some

• 14:37Andrew Giancola?

  of these hurdles and learning how to overcome one hurdle at a time is how you get there. This is a long-term process. We're playing the long game here so that we can achieve financial independence and actually accomplish our goals. So that's what I want for each and every single one of you. So making sure we do that is perfect. Now let's jump into the thirties. So once you hit your thirties, now it's time to get the ball rolling when it comes to your finances and making sure that you actually take advantage of the time that you still have left available so that you can actually retire comfortably. Our entire goal in our thirties is let's strap up, let's make sure we get as much money as possible into retirement accounts so that that money can grow over time and compound interest takes over. And so in your thirties, there's a number of things that I want you to

• 15:22Andrew Giancola?

  do. But first, let's look at the average balances according to fidelity of People in their 30s, so people aged 30 to 34, the average 401k balance is $49,000. And people aged 35 to 39, the average 401k balance is $85,000. So if you are just getting started, that is completely fine. But those benchmarks and those averages are very low in comparison to where you should be. You should have much more in your retirement account than some of those numbers. Now, again, if you're just getting your finances together, you just paid off a ton of debt. You've been working through your 20s, trying to figure out what the heck you're even doing with your finances. Nothing wrong with that. But if you have been, you know, getting your finances together for a certain period of time,

• 16:04Andrew Giancola?

  and you have a low balance, it's time to crank that up even more. Now, Fidelity has these benchmarks, and they talk through these different benchmarks stating how much you should have saved up by age. So according to them, by age 35, you should have two times your annual salary saved for retirement. And by age 40, you should have three times your annual salary saved for retirement. And so these are some of the benchmarks that you can look to target. One thing that we talk about a lot is making sure you're on path or in progress to figuring out what is my retirement age? Or when do I want to retire? And how do I get 25x my annual expenses in order to be able to retire? That's the 25x rule that we talk about all the time. And so that is really, really important. Now, what are some common challenges for people in their 30s?

• 16:47Andrew Giancola?

  Because I want to talk through these challenges, and then we're going to go through ways to get over these hurdles for folks in their 30s. Because when you're in your 30s, what happens? This is the messy middle. This is the timeframe where life gets chaotic, it gets hectic. Why? Well, number one, a lot of folks are getting married, or maybe you already were married in your 20s. And so because of that, you're going to have a lot of different life changes. What do we do with our finances? Do we combine our finances? Do we keep them separate? That is a huge hurdle to overcome in and of itself. Secondly, is a lot of people start to have kids if you didn't start to have kids in your 20s? And so kids are really going to make your life hectic, chaotic. It's awesome, but it's also chaotic. And so you want to make sure that you are planning financially when you have kids.

• 17:32Andrew Giancola?

  All of this stuff is going to come into play where this in your personal life is going to Make everything a little bit more hectic, but guess what? Secondly, is your career is probably starting to take off a little bit and you're making a little more money. And you've got to figure out what to do with those dollars. And you're trying to balance a number of different things. Maybe you're trying to buy a house, maybe you're trying to buy a new car. You're trying to balance your vacation goals. You're trying to balance your retirement goals. You want to save for retirement. All of these different things, trying to juggle them is not easy unless you have a financial plan in place. And in Master Money Academy, that's why we give you that financial roadmap. We give you the exact roadmap that you need in order to make sure that you achieve those financial goals. So let's go through some of these challenges that you're thinking through because this messy lifestyle

• 18:13Andrew Giancola?

  is something that you can absolutely make clean, neat and organized where you don't need to have stress around your money. The last thing you need to focus on is everyday financial decisions. Instead, if you have an automatic system in place, you can achieve so much more. Second thing is major life expenses start to stack up. Maybe you bought a house, maybe you have a car payment, you have kids, you have daycare costs. Daycare costs are a massive cost for most people in their budget and not enough people talk about it. If you have young kids and you have to send them to daycare because both the husband and the wife work, well, guess what? Now we have an issue where this is one of our biggest expenses in our budget. And so because of this, these major life expenses can add up.

• 18:54Andrew Giancola?

  But in addition, you still have maybe student loans that have carried over and all these different things. Then we have a debt and savings tug of war, meaning that we are trying to figure out, how do I pay down debt? But how do I also save enough for retirement? How do I do all of these things? And so really having that financial roadmap in place is very important. Then we think through, well, time, we don't have as much time as we used to. In your twenties, maybe you were single or maybe you just got married and you had a lot more time than you do right now. Where time becomes less abundant in your thirties because it gets messy. And then lastly, if you don't have a plan in place, you're going to be dead in the water. You need to make sure that you have that financial plan in place, step by step, what you need to be doing next. That is the most important thing overall, because once you have a written financial plan,

• 19:38Andrew Giancola?

  then you'll be able to achieve anything you want to just by following those steps. Now, how do we boost our retirement savings in our thirties? Cause we see these averages here by Fidelity, those are not the averages that we want to be seeing. And so how do we boost these retirement savings to make sure that you are hitting your retirement goals, hitting that retirement number so that you can achieve financial freedom at some point in time? Well, number one is we want to prioritize raising our contribution rate. So every single time you get a raise, for example, we can start and look in increasing that contribution rate every single year. Now, I highly recommend for everybody out there to at least increase how much they are contributing to their retirement accounts by at least the inflation rate. If you're not maxing them out already, at least increase it by the inflation rate.

• 20:21Andrew Giancola?

  That means you increase the buying power that is going into these retirement accounts. But also, that means that you are going to keep up with the purchasing power over time. So in your twenties, if you started with 5%, for example, you had a really low retirement savings, we need to try to increase that over time. So our minimum that we want you to be saving is 20% of your income or more. If you want to be a true wealth voter, it is 20% of your income or more needs to be going towards wealth building activities. What are wealth building activities? That's going towards your emergency fund and your investment savings. So secondly, is to continue to maximize employer match and get at least up to that match at the bare minimum. So we talked about your employer match in your twenties, but making sure you continue to do that over that timeframe.

• 21:04Andrew Giancola?

  Number three is maximizing other retirement accounts. So once you start to make more money and in your thirties, your goal should be to increase your income as much as possible because these are some of the peak earning years that you are going to have, your thirties, your forties, and even your early fifties are going to be some of those peak earning years. We need to make sure we are taking advantage of those and throwing chunks of money over to retirement so that compound interest can take over. Compound interest can work so much harder than you can, and so growing the gap is very, very important, and we need to make sure we are looking at that. Number four is watching out for lifestyle creep. So if you don't know what lifestyle creep is, that is when you get a raise and you spend all of that raise, meaning you increase the amount that you're spending every single month by that given raise.

• 21:46Andrew Giancola?

  Well, that is a huge problem, and a lot of people start to see lifestyle creep take over in their thirties because of these lifestyle changes. So maybe you bought the bigger house and so your mortgage is much Much higher because you got a raise and then you get another raise and you buy the fancy car. And then you get another raise and you go on all the fancy vacations every single year and it seems to never end. Let me give you a rule that's going to help you out with this. Instead, I want you to spend some of it on yourself. You worked hard, you deserve to spend a portion of that raise on yourself. But you also need to make sure that you are saving a portion of that raise for your financial future. And so what we're going to do is the 50 50 rule. Save 50% and spend 50%. So 50% goes towards whatever you want to blow it on.

• 22:30Andrew Giancola?

  If you want to go blow it on a vacation, if you want to blow it on a new handbag. If you want to blow it on some brand new golf clubs to hit it right into the water, you can do that. But if you don't want to spend it on that, you can save all of it as well. But then take the other 50% and make sure you're investing those dollars. That's what we want you to be doing when you get these raises. Next is I want you to figure out and optimize your tax strategy. Now taxes are a huge portion of what a lot of people do not optimize in their twenties. And I want you to really focus on this in your thirties because it can change your financial life if you do this. Find a CPA. Now we have a free checklist that will show you how to go out and find a CPA. We'll link it up down in the show notes below so that you guys can check that out.

• 23:11Andrew Giancola?

  But make sure you learn how to find a CPA who is also a taxed strategist. This is going to help you tremendously when it comes to building wealth. Next is to build an emergency fund. If you don't have an emergency fund in place, six months is our minimum. And we follow the 136 method here. And the 136 method means you save one month of expenses. Then you pay off high interest debt, then you save three month of expenses. Then you can start investing and you start to split off the rest between emergency fund and investments till you get to six months. Six months is the minimum. We want you to have six months in your emergency fund, always, always, always. Why? This is for job loss because if you do lose your job, then you have six months of expenses in place that can help cover those expenses over that timeframe.

• 23:55Andrew Giancola?

  News flash, it is a lot harder to get a job right now than it used to be. And so because of that, you need six months of expenses. And if you want to have a little more, more power to you. I think that's a good idea to be honest. So overall, having that safety. That in place is really, really important. I highly encourage you to listen to the 136 Method episode. That's one of our most popular episodes that we have ever done, but that is our system teaching you how to save up with your emergency fund. And so these are some of the things that you need to be doing in your 30s. It gets messy. It gets crazy. I know you are time constrained, but these are very important steps that we need to be taking in our 30s in order to ensure that we build wealth. Let's jump into the next one.

• 24:34Andrew Giancola?

  If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know it's not just me anymore. It takes a great team behind the scenes to make everything happen. And if I had to hire someone tomorrow, I'd want someone who could jump right in and make an impact. That's why I'd use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits, Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you reach qualified candidates faster. Your job gets boosted in search results, so you're spending less time searching and more time interviewing the right people. Plus, you only pay for results, which I absolutely love. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored posts. That's a huge advantage when you're trying to grow your business.

• 25:16Andrew Giancola?

  Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is the job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It's kind of amazing how much can change in just a single year. Every summer, the kids are a little bigger, a little more independent, and life looks

• 26:01Andrew Giancola?

  a little different than it did the year before. And it reminds me that while we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it. That's one of the reasons I like PolicyGenius. See, PolicyGenius isn't an insurance company. They're an online marketplace that lets you Compare life insurance quotes from some of America's top insurers, side by side for free. And their licensed team helps you compare coverage, prices and terms, answers your questions and even handles the paperwork. So you can get the right policy without the hassle. For me, having life insurance isn't about expecting something to happen. It's about knowing my family is protected. So I can actually enjoy these moments together instead of worrying about what comes next.

• 26:43Andrew Giancola?

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• 27:27Andrew Giancola?

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• 28:11Andrew Giancola?

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• 28:56Andrew Giancola?

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• 29:39Andrew Giancola?

  So let's look at the average retirement savings for folks who are now in their 40s. So according to Fidelity, who Fidelity, again, has millions and millions of 401Ks within some of their data sets. Age 40 to 44 is $115,000 is what the average 401K balance is. Age 45 to 49 is $185,000. So again, this is going to be way too low for most people. If you want to retire comfortably, if you want to have the retirement you've always dreamed of, if your 401K balance between age 45 to 49 is only $185, then we need to try to increase those contributions. Now, some of the benchmark goals that I want to talk through here are by age 40, Fidelity states that you need to aim to have at least three times your annual salary saved.

• 30:22Andrew Giancola?

  And by age 50, aim to have at least six times your annual salary saved. So why does it jump so much between age 40 and age 50? Well, compound interest should be kicking in now and it should be doing some of the work to help you through that process. And so this is the catch. Up decade for a lot of people. When you are trying to make sure that you maximize your retirement contributions, your 40s is now the time to giddy up, my friends, because this is the timeframe where you are really going to have to make significant progress. You have enough time available where you can still maximize some of those contributions and you can reap the benefits of compound interest. But you don't have enough time to wait. You cannot wait anymore when you're in your 40s. Now is the time to get the ball rolling. Now, what are some of the common challenges for people in their 40s?

• 31:07Andrew Giancola?

  Well, first, you're going to have some of your peak expense years in your 40s. Your kids are getting older. Maybe they're starting to play sports. They're starting to do extracurricular activities. In addition, you may have demanding mortgage payments. You may have to be saving up for college. You've got aging parents that are coming into your life and you're trying to figure out, okay, what do I do with them? How do we figure out their care? In addition, lifestyle costs are peaking from all directions. Your 40s and even your early 50s, this is where your lifestyles costs are really peaking. Secondly, is retirement starts to feel urgent in your 40s, where a lot of people feel the pressure for retirement because they're realizing, oh, my goodness, I am just a couple of decades away from being in my 60s. I gotta make sure I get the ball rolling now.

• 31:49Andrew Giancola?

  And people often feel guilty for how far behind they are. At least in their own eyes, they feel like they're far behind. Well, this is the timeframe where I'm going to show you how to strap up and I'm going to show you how to get the ball rolling here. Also, they may have career plateaus or maybe even pivoting their career. If you're in your 40s and you've realized, ah, man, I don't want to keep doing this, what I've been doing over the course of the last couple of decades. I can't do this for two more decades. I'm going to make a pivot. Well, a lot of people in their 40s start to do things like that. And so making sure that we think through and we figure out, how is this going to impact our retirement? How is this going to impact our savings? All of those are really important. They also may be balancing a lot of different priorities. Like we said, you could have aging parents. You could have young kids. You could have older kids. You could have a higher mortgage payment.

• 32:33Andrew Giancola?

  You could have all these different costs that have been rising. And a lot of people in their 30s, again, this is why lifestyle inflation is dangerous because your costs could be rising over the course of your 30s. And then all of a sudden you get a monkey wrench in where you also have to take care of an aging parent or you have To make sure that you are covering the costs for your kids. And this is where it gets really, really tight. And so we want to make sure that we are covering all that stuff. And health insurance considerations. So health insurance costs have been creeping up. And we have to make sure we have enough in retirement for those. In fact, over the course of the last couple of decades, the inflation rate for healthcare has been 7% per year. And so you may feel behind just because some of the costs in retirement are rising. And so you need to increase those contributions based on that timeframe.

• 33:16Andrew Giancola?

  So how do we boost our retirement savings in our 40s? What are some of the things that we can be doing in our 40s to make sure that we take advantage of this? Well, first, we need to aim to max out our retirement accounts. If we can, try to increase your income enough to max out those retirement accounts and get them fully funded. If possible, try to contribute to the IRS minimum. In 2026, guess what? Those IRS minimums are going up again. The 401k is going to get a $1,000 increase. The Roth IRA is going to get a $500 increase. And every year those increases happen, we need to make sure we are increasing our contributions. Using raises strategically is the second thing you need to do. So every time you get a raise, I don't care if it's 3%, I don't care if it's 10%, I don't care if you got a promotion and you're making 50% more.

• 34:00Andrew Giancola?

  You need to make sure that you are very careful with those raises and use them strategically. Do not blow the whole thing on a brand new car. Do not have a midlife crisis and go get a Corvette. Instead, let's decide to think about how we are going to spend some of those raises. Third, is thinking through and considering that catch-up mindset early. The earlier you can start investing more, the better off you are going to be. So if you're in your early 40s and you're listening right now and you're like, man, this is the light bulb moment. It is time right now to get my financial act together. I need to make sure that I am saving enough. Now is the time because time is slowly ticking away. It is never too late to start saving for retirement. So don't get me wrong here, but time is starting to tick away slowly. We need to get the ball rolling.

• 34:44Andrew Giancola?

  Let's light a fire and let's keep it moving. Also, if you are maxing out those retirement accounts, let's consider also utilizing some other accounts. Maybe you want to look at real estate. Maybe you want to look at a taxable brokerage account. Both of those are fantastic. Especially for those who want to retire early, a taxable brokerage account is a great option. And so making sure that we are looking at some of those other accounts is going to be important. And then refining your investment allocation. So let's look at our asset allocation and say to ourselves, as we get into our late 40s and early 50s, when do we want to retire? If you're on pace to retire on time, then look at your asset allocation and make sure it still fits the criteria that you're looking for as you begin to approach retirement age. Now also, a lot of you out there are thinking to yourself, well, I need to make sure I'm saving for my kids' college. Guess what?

• 35:29Andrew Giancola?

  That is great if you want to save for your kids' college, but you need to be on track with your own retirement goals before you even send a dime over to that 529 plan. Why? Because there are no loans in retirement. And if you become a financial burden to your children later on in life, that is going to be a way bigger financial burden than any student loan ever would be. And so you need to take care of your own retirement first. Then you always can help your kids later on down the line. But financially, your retirement always needs to come first. Always, always, always. It's the oxygen mask method. When a plane is going down, what do we do? First, we put on our own mask, then we help others. The same goes with your retirement planning. When you are saving for retirement, you need to take care of yourself first.

• 36:13Andrew Giancola?

  Then you can start putting money in your kids' 529 plan. I see way too many people out there right now who save in their kids' 529 plan before their own retirement. Do not do that. Let me say this again. Do not ever save for your kids' college before you save for your own retirement. That is not the way to do this. And you're going to become a financial burden to your own children later on down the line. It's going to be way more expensive for them than it would be for them to just take out student loans. Okay? So I need you to understand this very early and focus in your 40s. You need to make sure that you are covering that first. And then lastly is run your numbers. By your 40s, you need to know your retirement number and you need to make sure you're on top of it every single year.

• 36:53Andrew Giancola?

  Meaning that you need to rerun the number every year and you need to ensure that you are on track. How do you figure out your retirement number? Well, what's the quick and dirty math? We teach you how to do this in a very detailed way in Master Money Academy. But what's the quick and dirty back to the nap? In math, you can look at how much you spend every single year, multiply that number by 25. Okay, so if you spend $80,000 per year, multiply that by 25, you're going to have $2 million. That means you need $2 million invested and you're financially free. If you could do that in five years, then you're retired. If you can do that in 15 years, then you're retired in 15 years. But you need to figure out what that number is so that you can every single year make sure that you are on track to hit it. So those are just some of the things that you can do in your 40s to stay on track for retirement

• 37:34Andrew Giancola?

  and really get to the point in time where you are going to be able to retire comfortably. That's what we want. We want you to retire, have your dream life, do exactly what you want, and money is the tool to help you do that. So if you're in your 50s, you don't have any time left. You have to make sure that you are planning for retirement now. Now is the time, because you're in the last decade before your retirement years are coming up, to ensure that you are on pace to retire comfortably. And so Fidelity has this data of the average 401k balance by age in your 50s. And so if you look at age 50 to 54, the average 401k balance is $208,000, according to Fidelity. And between age 50 to 59, the average 401k balance is $270,000.

• 38:17Andrew Giancola?

  My friends, that is not enough on hand, and that is way too low. So Fidelity has these benchmarks, and they tell you how much you should have on hand. And by age 50, they say you need to aim for six times your annual salary at least saved in order to be on track for retirement. And by age 60, they say eight times your annual salary saved in order to be on track for retirement. Now, this is the power decade for retirement savings, because we can take advantage of a number of different things, including catch-up contributions. So a lot of retirement accounts out there are going to give us a competitive advantage, because they're going to allow you to catch up with your contributions to ensure that you can actually stay on pace for retirement. And so really, really important to focus and hone in on this decade, because this is where the rubber meets the road.

• 39:02Andrew Giancola?

  This is where you need to make sure you are leveling up big time. So what are some of the challenges that people go through in their 50s? One is retirement feels close and real. The last 10 years before retirement, you really need to have your plan in place. The last five years, that plan needs to be locked in. I'm talking five years out, you need to know exactly what you need to be doing. If you're five years out from retirement, you're watching this or listening to this right now, and you're saying to yourself, I don't know what my plan is. You need to figure it out ASAP. I'm telling you, there is urgency in this. The last five years are imperative because you need to have your portfolio set up. You need to have all of your cash on hand and how you're going to manage cash. You need to decide how much debt you're going to have, if any. We recommend not having any debt. And then going from there, there's a lot of other things you need to plan out,

• 39:45Andrew Giancola?

  including healthcare, social security, all that different stuff. So it's very close. It is very real. Number two is healthcare costs begin to rise in your 50s. You're spending more money on healthcare. And so that is a cost you're going to have to deal with when you get into your 50s. Three is you have some of these sandwich generation pressures, meaning that many people support both aging parents and college age kids when they're in their 50s. This is where you are spending a lot of money on both. And so we need to make sure that we plan and prioritize for both those different things. Four is you feel job burnout or you even feel job insecurities in your 50s. So I have seen a lot of 50 year olds that I've talked to in the past who are insecure about their job. They feel like younger people are coming in who are faster and quicker

• 40:31Andrew Giancola?

  at some of the things that they are doing right now with technology. And so if that is you, some people feel that career pressure, that mounting challenge that could be coming up. And then lastly is inflation. So fixed costs like mortgages or tuition or lifestyle upgrades may limit the ability to aggressively save. And so we want to make sure that we are thinking through, well, how do we get some of those extra dollars into retirement accounts and go through this? So how can we boost our retirement savings in our 50s? One is we can max out contributions plus catch up contributions. So in 2025, you can put $23,500 into your 401k. Well, you also have a catch up contribution of $7,500. It's going to get you to $30,500.

• 41:12Andrew Giancola?

  Now, this is going up $1,000 next year in 2026, which is absolutely fantastic. Number two, you also have that with a Roth IRA. So your Roth IRA contributions are $7,000 this year, but you could also have an additional catch up contribution that you can utilize in your 50s. Next. Is to aggressively eliminate remaining debt. So if you do have debt on hand, whether it is high interest debt, or even something like a mortgage or a car payment, getting rid of all of your debt before retirement is very important, in my opinion. Meaning that you need to take care of all that debt and you need to enter retirement debt free. I don't think you have to be debt free your entire life, but once you start to approach retirement age, you need to enter retirement debt free. Now is the optimized thing. If you're behind on your retirement savings, I would much rather you put those dollars in investments if it's low interest debt.

• 41:57Andrew Giancola?

  But if you're not behind on retirement savings, getting rid of the mortgage, getting rid of the car payments, that's going to be the way to go. Three is diversifying income streams. So if you can diversify some of those income streams and start consider taxable brokerage accounts, HSAs, or side income to provide some extra income coming in, that's going to be really, really helpful. Next is the asset allocation. So I want to spend some time talking about this because your asset allocation is really, really important once you reach your 50s. So there are two phases to portfolios. There is the accumulation phase. So when you're young in your twenties, your thirties, your forties, you're trying to accumulate and get the highest rate of return you possibly can. But once you hit your 50s, you have to start making some choices. Because if you're five years out from retirement, do we need to add more bonds into the portfolio to start leveling out this portfolio?

• 42:42Andrew Giancola?

  Because when you hit retirement, you are now in the preservation phase. So you went from the accumulation phase. Now the preservation phase is here. And we want to figure out just how to preserve this portfolio and ensure that we can live on this for our entire lifespan. And so to do that, we need to make sure we think through our asset allocation. Do we need to add more bonds? Do we need to add more safe haven assets? How much cash do we have on hand? Thinking through that is really important. And so going from accumulation to preservation is what I want you to really think through and map out. Plan step by step, year by year. Do I want to add 5% in bonds every year? Do I want to add 10% in bonds every year? How do I want to think about this? And what is my risk tolerance and asset allocation? Now, there are retirees out there who do not add bonds.

• 43:26Andrew Giancola?

  There are retirees who sit there with an entire stock portfolio. There's nothing wrong with that, but it has to fit your risk tolerance and you have to have enough on hand to make sure that it will cover the cost in a down Market. Next is we need to run a detailed plan. You need to ensure that you understand how much you anticipate to have in social security. So if you go to ssa.gov, you can find out and answer their questionnaire and they can tell you how much is anticipated for social security. You need to think about your pension benefits, if that is applicable, and how much you are going to be getting in a pension, is that pension guaranteed? We need to understand what the retirement savings gap is. So if you don't know what the retirement savings gap is, it is the difference between your guaranteed income, meaning your social security benefits, your pension income, any

• 44:09Andrew Giancola?

  other income that you may have coming in, and then figuring out how to make up the difference. So the difference between, you know, your monthly expenses and that guaranteed income that's coming in is going to be what you need to have in your portfolio to be able to draw down. So you can draw down 4% of your portfolio every single year. So let's say, for example, that your social security, maybe a pension is going to come in, they're going to cover about $30,000 to $40,000 per year, but you need to live on $80,000 per year. Well, if that's the case, we need to have a million dollars invested to make up the difference. So the additional $40,000 means that you can draw it on 4% of your portfolio every year. So 4% of 1 million is $40,000. And so we need to have that plan set up and in place so that we can go from there. Then, when major expenses end, so let's say you pay off your mortgage, or let's say

• 44:53Andrew Giancola?

  you pay off that car loan, or tuition ends, or all these different options could happen. Well, if that happens, then take that extra expense and put it towards your savings. Right? Start to save that cash, put it aside, or start to invest that money for retirement so that you have that extra cushion so that when you reach retirement age, boom, we are there and we are ready to go. And then protecting your downside. So making sure that you're looking at your insurance options, making sure that you're looking at your emergency fund, and you're not tapping into retirement accounts when there's a crisis, but you have all that stuff on hand is very, very important. Again, that's why we have the Wealth Brothers Journey and Master Money Academy, is because step by step, we teach you exactly what you need to be doing in the exact order, and we talk through insurances, we talk through this stuff to protect your downside.

• 45:37Andrew Giancola?

  It's very, very important to protect the financial house. Well, listen, thank you guys so much for being here on the Personal Finance Podcast. I truly appreciate each and every single one of you joining us today. I hope this episode was valuable for you. Our goal is to bring you as much value as we possibly can. And so if you have any questions, please reach out to us and I can't wait to see you on the next episode.

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