I’m almost 40 and according to the wisdom found everywhere on the internet, I don’t have enough saved for retirement. Which worries me because I’ve been saving for as long as I’ve had a proper job with access to a retirement vehicle. But also because the internet wisdom doesn’t make sense or sound feasible.
According to what I’ve read, you’re supposed to have:
- 1x your income when you’re 30
- 3x your income when you’re 40
- 6x at 50
- 8x at 60
- 10x when you retire
I’m almost 40 and I have just barely over 1x saved. So it feels like I’m 10 years behind. However, my income has grown substantially over the course of my 30s, more than doubling. So accounting for growth in income, I do have almost 3x my salary in my late 20s. But similarly, the above advice could be interpreted as needing 6x the income you had when you were 30 by they time you’re 40. And by that metric, I’m doing even worse!
Yeah, boomer math was my #1 theory for why this isn’t working. This sounds like post WWII advice in a post 9/11, post financial-crisis, post-pandemic world.
You omitted post-college affordability and post housing affordability.
The housing issue is actually so bad it’s making things simpler; people will just save for retirement instead as housing isn’t even in the same galaxy as most people’s wages.
“Higher ed” will probably go the same direction and just be reserved for a few elites. Since degrees don’t guarantee you much over experience the equation of self/vocational education will become the model (my nightmare is public education disappears and you have to go to your corporate “college” program.
The people I know who’ve given up on housing affordability unfortunately are not shifting in to retirement. They’re so hopeless they blow their money on hobbies because they don’t foresee any possible path to homeownership or retirement and value a few bucks here and there on discretionary spending more.
Totally agree with the nihilistic take, that is happening for folks too.