Retirement planners sometimes speak of a “magic number”: a rough estimate of how much money an American might need to retire in comfort.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, the number keeps rising.<\/p>\n
Americans now need $1.46 million to retire comfortably, according to the 2026 edition of a well-known\u00a0financial planning\u00a0survey from Northwestern Mutual.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The magic number is intended as a \u201cguidepost\u201d for retirement planning, and not as a specific savings\u00a0goal, said\u00a0John Roberts, executive vice president and chief field officer at Northwestern Mutual.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a goal few Americans have reached.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nearly half of non-retirees surveyed said they do not think they will be financially prepared for retirement when the time comes, according to the 2026 Planning & Progress Study.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And roughly half of\u00a0all Americans\u00a0surveyed said\u00a0it is likely they could outlive their savings. Running out of money in retirement is a\u00a0perennial fear\u00a0among\u00a0older Americans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new\u00a0Northwestern Mutual\u00a0findings, released in April, draw from surveys of 4,375 adults in January.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere seems to be a widening gap between what we all expect we\u2019re going to need and what we actually have,\u201d Roberts said, speaking to USA TODAY in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In four previous years, the retirement magic number\u00a0has\u00a0ranged as low as $1.25 million (in 2022). It has not ranged higher than $1.46 million.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Northwestern Mutual survey comes at a moment when Americans are coping with years of cumulative inflation. A retiree in 2026 can expect to pay more than ever, for example,\u00a0for\u00a0long-term care expenses\u00a0such as assisted living and skilled nursing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is $1.46 million a realistic retirement savings goal?<\/p>\n
Not many\u00a0Americans retire with $1.46 million in savings. The typical household in the 65-74 age range has about $200,000 in retirement accounts, according to the 2022 federal\u00a0Survey of Consumer Finances.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Few, if any, retirement planners\u00a0would suggest that\u00a0every\u00a0retiree\u00a0needs $1.46 million to make ends meet. Most Americans retire with nowhere near $1 million in savings. Many retire comfortably\u00a0on Social Security income alone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A more attainable retirement planning goal suggests that you aim to save\u00a010 times your annual income\u00a0by age 67. For the typical American household, that would work out to a little over $800,000 in savings, based on\u00a0a\u00a0median household income\u00a0of\u00a0$83,730 in 2024.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Northwestern Mutual survey, few of us have met that goal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Within\u00a0Generation X, the cohort nearing retirement, only\u00a0about\u00a013% of survey respondents said they had saved 10 times their income or more.\u00a0A majority\u00a0of Gen Xers\u00a0said they have saved\u00a0four times their income or less toward retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, only 49% of Gen Xers said they think they will be financially prepared for retirement.\u00a0Half of Gen Xers plan to continue working\u00a0in\u00a0retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If any group of Americans is on track for retirement, it might\u00a0be Generation Z,\u00a0the cohort\u00a0whose oldest members are\u00a0nearing\u00a030.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Northwestern Mutual survey, nearly three-quarters of Gen Z already have saved more than one year of income toward retirement. The average Gen-Zer started saving for retirement at age 22. The typical Gen Xer, by contrast, started saving at age 32.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good news is, Gen Z [is] … putting away money earlier,\u201d Roberts said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The ‘magic number’ for a comfortable retirement just got bigger<\/p>\n
Reporting by Daniel de Vis\u00e9, USA TODAY \/ USA TODAY<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retirement planners sometimes speak of a “magic number”: a rough estimate of how much money an American might…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,1319,4176,90566,50,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-consumer","tag-finance","tag-nation-world","tag-news","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}