Key Takeaways
\nOlder workers were the most likely to max out their 401(k)s, according to a recent report.Those who feel behind on saving can improve their outlook by increasing contributions, delaying Social Security, or working longer.<\/p>\n
If you’re approaching retirement but aren’t on track to have enough money saved, now might be a good time to try upping your 401(k) contributions.\n<\/p>\n
Of all age groups, those aged 55 to 64 were the most likely to have maxed out their 401(k)s, according to Vanguard data on about a million retirement plan participants.\n<\/p>\n
Nearly one in five (19%) were maxing out their 401(k)s, according to Vanguard’s “How America Saves” 2025 report. The group least likely to max out their 401(k) plan was workers younger than 25, with only 3% of this cohort contributing up to the limit.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It’s not much of a surprise that this cohort of older workers is more likely to max out their retirement accounts than younger ones, who still have decades to save and typically have lower incomes.\n<\/p>\n
“Coupled with rising costs, inadequate savings and the looming depletion of the Social Security trust fund, these factors underscore a retirement crisis in the U.S., requiring many households to boost their savings to achieve stable and sufficient income in retirement,” wrote Torsten Slok, Chief Economist at Apollo, about these workers.\n<\/p>\n
Older workers, in particular, are vulnerable to having inadequate savings for retirement.\n<\/p>\n
According to other research from Vanguard, older generations have lower levels of retirement readiness<\/a> compared to younger ones. Retirement readiness is measured by one’s ability to support a similar lifestyle in retirement.\n<\/p>\n And this isn’t due to an inability to save. Changes to the retirement system in the U.S.\u2014such as increased access to\u00a0defined contribution plans,<\/a>\u00a0like 401(k)s, and modifications to retirement plan features\u2014have positioned younger workers to be better prepared for retirement than their older counterparts.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n However, not all hope is lost for older workers. Contributing more to tax-advantaged retirement accounts<\/a>, delaying Social Security, tapping into home equity<\/a>, working a few extra years<\/a>, and spending less in retirement could help them enter retirement more financially prepared.\n<\/p>\n Workers can contribute $24,500 to their 401(k)s in 2026. Those ages 50 and older can contribute an additional $8,000 in catch-up contributions, up from $7,500 in 2025. Those ages 60 to 63 can contribute even more\u2014up to $11,250 in catch-up contributions\u2014for a total of $35,750.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways Older workers were the most likely to max out their 401(k)s, according to a recent report.Those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,147,530],"class_list":["post-438789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}