{"id":308840,"date":"2026-02-20T23:41:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/308840\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:41:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:41:23","slug":"heres-how-much-the-average-retiree-has-in-savings-and-where-they-keep-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/308840\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s How Much the Average Retiree Has in Savings \u2014 And Where They Keep It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite what traditional financial advice might dictate, the average retiree isn\u2019t sitting on a million-dollar nest egg. A recent report from the\u00a0Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies<\/a>\u00a0found that only 17% of current retirees have total household savings of $1 million or more, excluding home equity.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how much the average retiree<\/a> actually has saved, plus where they\u2019re keeping their money<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report found that the estimated median total household savings for retirees, excluding home equity, is $126,000. One in 10 retirees (12%) have no savings, 25% have saved $1 to less than $100,000, 18% have $100,000 to less than $500,000, 12% have $500,000 to less than $1 million, and 17% have $1 million or more.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite these figures, many retirees are doing just fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we see in the survey data is retirees are faring well in retirement,\u201d said Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of the Transamerica Institute. \u201cThey\u2019ve adjusted their expenses and their cash flow so they\u2019re able to make it work \u2014 for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find Out: The Realistic Minimum Retirement Savings Needed, According to Experts<\/a><\/p>\n

Read Next: 5 Clever Ways Retirees Are Earning Up To $1K per Month From Home<\/a><\/p>\n

While retirees are able to get by on a day-to-day basis, Collinson did note that their household savings might not hold up if they face a financial shock<\/a>. Two common and costly ones are major home repairs or a health incident that requires long-term care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like assisted living and in-home care have become increasingly expensive \u2014 and $126,000 would not go that far,\u201d Collinson said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important that retirees have sufficient access to liquid cash. The report found that the median emergency fund balance among retirees is $13,000, which may not be enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore is better,\u201d Collinson said. \u201cThat $13,000 might not even cover a roof repair. It is really important for retirees to have cash on hand to be able to cover those types of things. We hope that if we have an emergency, it isn\u2019t as much as that, but it can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having liquidity is especially important for retirees.<\/p>\n

\u201cRetirees are more susceptible to fluctuations of the financial markets,\u201d Collinson said. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to take a withdrawal from a down market because it further depletes your savings. So retirees [should have an] adequate amount of emergency savings<\/a> available in liquid assets, like cash or money market funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

When retirees were asked where they keep their savings and investments, they most often cited a bank account (78%), primary residence (54%), IRA (41%), brokerage account (38%), life insurance policy (37%), 401(k), 403(b) or similar plan (27%), and annuities (22%). Only 9% have real estate other than their primary residence and 5% have a health savings account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite what traditional financial advice might dictate, the average retiree isn\u2019t sitting on a million-dollar nest egg. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,145005,145006,176,99963,61,60,174,175,1830],"class_list":["post-308840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-catherine-collinson","tag-collinson","tag-finance","tag-household-savings","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement-savings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308840","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=308840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}