[Shipping up to Boston]

Originally Posted by huge-pigeons

If you ask Americans, the average answer is an astounding $1.46 million.

That’s per a recent Northwestern Mutual survey of 4,500 U.S. adults, which found retirement cost expectations have spiked since 2020. This year’s average estimate is 53% higher than it was four years ago, when people said they’d need $951,000 to retire.

When it comes to their actual savings, though, Americans are far from achieving their expected retirement needs: Survey respondents reported their average retirement savings is just $88,400 in 2024.

That’s a $10,000 decrease from the average retirement savings recorded by Northwestern Mutual in 2021, when the metric hit its five-year peak of $98,800.

IMO, having $100,000 in your savings when you retire is pretty sad. I know many people the made good money throughout their careers but always seemed to spend more than they made. I think $1.5M is a little low too to retire on especially if you are fully invested. That $1.5M could become $800,000 if another 2008 happens and you might not have to years for your money to come back, all the while taking distributions out of it.

Shhhh....your kids may be reading this!