The number of those with $2 million or more is even smaller, falling somewhere between this 3.2% and the 0.1% who have $5 million or more saved.
Just 16% of retirees say they have more than $1 million saved, including all personal savings and assets, according to the recent CNBC Your Money retirement survey conducted with SurveyMonkey. In fact, among those currently saving for retirement, 57% say the amount they're hoping to save is less than $1 million.
What Is the Average Net Worth at Retirement? According to recent data from the Federal Reserve, the average net worth for those aged 65 to 74 was $1,794,600, which is more than four times the median net worth of $409,900. This significant difference is because the super-wealthy skew the average much higher.
According to Schwab's fixed income annuity calculator, a single life, $1.5 million fixed-income annuity purchased at age 60 could pay around $8,000 per month, or $96,000 per year, for your lifetime.
The 4% rule suggests that a $1.5 million portfolio will provide for at least 30 years approximately $60,000 a year before taxes for you to live on in retirement.
Net worth refers to the total value of assets minus liabilities. Financial experts typically consider someone wealthy if they have a retirement net worth of at least $1 million, excluding the value of their primary residence.
The top 10% of earners have an average net worth of $2.65 million. Even if you're squeaking into the upper class (the 80-90% range), you're looking at about $793,000. Moving down to the middle class, things get a bit more varied. The upper-middle class folks have an average net worth of around $300,800.
Probably 1 in every 20 families have a net worth exceeding $3 Million, but most people's net worth is their homes, cars, boats, and only 10% is in savings, so you would typically have to have a net worth of $30 million, which is 1 in every 1000 families.
Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. It's the total value of all your assets—including your house, cars, investments and cash—minus your liabilities (things like credit card debt, student loans, and what you still owe on your mortgage).
What are the average and median retirement savings? The average retirement savings for all families is $333,940, according to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. The median retirement savings for all families is $87,000.
According to the Federal Reserve's 2022 survey, approximately 18% of U.S. households had at least seven figures net worth. That's roughly 23.7 million millionaire households across the country.
Turns out, the number might surprise you. According to data from the Federal Reserve and the Employee Benefit Research Institute, just 3.2% of retirees have saved over $1 million.
The bottom 10% of all households have $0 or less in wealth, meaning that they owe more than they own. The top 10% have an average wealth of more than $1.6 million.
Using the 4% Rule, we find that Upper-Middle Matt will need a retirement portfolio of approximately $2 million in ten years.
The amount a person receives in Social Security benefits is not directly affected by their current income or wealth. Therefore, even if someone is a millionaire or billionaire, they can still receive Social Security benefits if they have a qualifying work history.
To be part of the top 1% in the U.S., a household's net worth needs to be at least $13.6 million. This measure includes everything you own – homes, investments, savings – minus debts. Wealth tends to be a lot more unevenly distributed than income.
The final multiple — 10 to 12 times your annual income at retirement age. If you plan to retire at 67, for instance, and your income is $150,000 per year, then you should have between $1.5 and $1.8 million set aside for retirement.
The $1,000 per month rule is designed to help you estimate the amount of savings required to generate a steady monthly income during retirement. According to this rule, for every $240,000 you save, you can withdraw $1,000 per month if you stick to a 5% annual withdrawal rate.
If you have $400,000 in the bank you can retire early at age 62, but it will be tight. The good news is that if you can keep working for just five more years, you are on track for a potentially quite comfortable retirement by full retirement age.
Believe it or not, data from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances indicates that only 9% of American households have managed to save $500,000 or more for their retirement. This means less than one in ten families have achieved this financial goal.