fourth quarter of 2032<\/a>, according to Social Security\u2019s chief actuary. At the point of insolvency, Social Security benefits would be cut by about 20%.<\/p>\nBut not everyone agrees with the NIRS numbers.<\/p>\n
Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank, said the $955 number is off base, in part because it assumes that every American adult should be saving for retirement at every point in their life.<\/p>\n
Very-low-paid workers also shouldn\u2019t be saving, Biggs, author of \u201cThe Real Retirement Crisis: Why (Almost) Everything You Know About the U.S. Retirement System Is Wrong,\u201d argued \u2014 since Social Security will replace most of their preretirement earnings, and government programs such as Medicaid or Medicare will cover their health costs in retirement.<\/p>\n
Story continues <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re currently on welfare, do you need to be paying into a 401(k)? Young people also shouldn\u2019t be saving; their incomes are low and they often have debts,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cPublic-sector employees also shouldn\u2019t be saving in retirement accounts, since practically all of them have \u2026 pensions. Additionally, Fed data show that a meaningful number of people save for retirement outside of formal retirement plans \u2014 think of farmers or small businessmen whose assets will generate income in retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biggs also argued that America doesn\u2019t have a retirement crisis at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever NIRS may say, retirement savings have never been higher. And since we indisputably DON\u2019T have a retirement crisis today, there\u2019s very little reason to think we\u2019ll have one in the future,\u201d Biggs said in an emailed comment to MarketWatch.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a range of different retirement-savings numbers out there.<\/p>\n
For example, as of late 2024, people with household incomes of less than $50,000 had saved a median of $2,000 in household retirement accounts, while those with household incomes of $50,000 to $99,000 had saved a median of $33,000, according to research by the nonprofit Transamerica Institute and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.<\/p>\n
At the upper end, those with household incomes of $100,000 to $199,000 had saved a median of $147,000, and those with household incomes of more than $200,000 had saved a median of $565,000, according to Transamerica.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Fidelity Investments said that the average 401(k) balance was $144,400 in the third quarter, up 5% from the second quarter and up 9% from the third quarter of last year. The median 401(k) balance was $33,500.<\/p>\n
Of course, Fidelity\u2019s numbers just include just their customers with 401(k) plans \u2014 not the entirety of America. But no matter which numbers are used, there\u2019s bound to be debate, experts said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not we are saving \u2018enough\u2019 at any level of the earnings distribution is a matter of open debate in the research community,\u201d said Joanna Lahey, a professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University who has studied the relationship between age and labor-market outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who say we are [saving enough] point out that most people seem to be living on 80% of their preretirement spending in retirement. They also argue that rich people are saving enough to leave money to their children, while extremely poor people will be taken care of by Social Security,\u201d Lahey said. \u201cPeople who say we\u2019re not saving enough point out low levels of current savings, the decline in defined-benefit pensions and people not fully adjusting for them, increased \u2018sandwich generation\u2019 pressures of student loans and caring for parents, decreased rates of homeownership, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n
So where does that leave Americans and their retirement?<\/p>\n
Doonan said critics can argue about the methodology used behind the research and debate different sets of numbers, but in the end, \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a disagreement about which way the wind is blowing. \u2026 Just saying a number\u2019s not perfect so we just ignore it doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, it\u2019s important to get the retirement discussion going. \u201cHow do we get more people in [retirement] plans and starting earlier?\u201d Doonan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do we have a retirement crisis? – Getty Images\/iStockphoto There\u2019s a new number making the rounds that says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[13638,140111,72,176,61,60,46861,174,175,1611,1830,73308,1615],"class_list":{"0":"post-293411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-american-workers","9":"tag-andrew-biggs","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-marketwatch","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-retirement","18":"tag-retirement-savings","19":"tag-retirement-security","20":"tag-social-security"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Do](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f919dbe4bbb39cf648e9c7b504c0d7d3.jpeg\")
Do we have a retirement crisis? – Getty Images\/iStockphoto <\/p>\n