How Does Your Retirement Account Stack Up?

[Tim]

The annual Fidelity survey seems to have come out. Two points, you can look at the averages or you can actually define your peers by age and where you live or national.

https://www.thestreet.com/retirement...o&cm_ven=YAHOO

https://communications.fidelity.com/...ings-stack-up/

I was going to create a poll but that seemed pointless. Feel free to brag!

[CordMcNally]

It'd be nice if they had physician specific information.

[MaxPower]

According to these survey results, my age exceeds the possible choices.

[Tim]

It'd be nice if they had physician specific information.

All the more reason to not so humbly brag!

[Tim]

According to these survey results, my age exceeds the possible choices.

Now you know why a poll was impossible. Just rationalize and choose the 20-29. You are way ahead! All 10 people over 80 wanted privacy protected. Imagine that.

[MaxPower]

Now you know why a poll was impossible. Just rationalize and choose the 20-29. You are way ahead! All 10 people over 80 wanted privacy protected. Imagine that.

I realize now that what I said could be misinterpreted. I’m actually in the age 40-49 cohort, but my “401k savings” exceeds the numbers listed for all age groups, even the oldest one. Heck, even my Roth IRA number exceeds most of these 401k balances.

While surveys like these make me feel good about where I’m at, when I log into my fidelity account it also lists a number that I “should have” in my 401k that is 4x my (estimated, I assume, since I’ve never told them) annual salary and is a low 7-digit number. Not like I’ve made my current salary my whole working life.

[MPMD]

interesting but not all that useful.

more reflective of the poor state of retirement savings in the gen pop.

also have to figure that lots of low middle earners who are good savers might not be saving in 401k. if you're making 50k/year and making out a RothIRA you are doing great.

[burritos]

Maybe we should be comparing our lot to 3rd world nationers, then we can feel like Jeff B. But the funny things is numerically we are closer to 3rd world nationers than Jeff B, and it's not even close.

[Tim]

interesting but not all that useful.

more reflective of the poor state of retirement savings in the gen pop.

also have to figure that lots of low middle earners who are good savers might not be saving in 401k. if you're making 50k/year and making out a RothIRA you are doing great.

A ton of inaccurate conclusions are possible. To assume 401K is the only savings for retirement ignores many accounts that come into play here. 403b, 457,IRA's taxable etc.
Unfortunately, these impact the top earners only. Would not be very optimistic that these would change the picture a ton, except for a small minority.

[JBME]

just another argument for why something like personal finance needs to be taught at all high schools. Certainly not everyone is going to listen but I think we will do appreciably better if we do that

[CordMcNally]

I realize now that what I said could be misinterpreted. I’m actually in the age 40-49 cohort

I thought you were going to tell us you were an octogenarian so I was going to congratulate you on being so tech savvy and how proud your great grandchildren must be.

[Tim]

I thought you were going to tell us you were an octogenarian so I was going to congratulate you on being so tech savvy and how proud your great grandchildren must be.

Doogie Howser, M.D. the teen doc. I was giving the benefit of the doubt.

[xraygoggles]

All the more reason to not so humbly brag!

Stealth Wealth is the philosophy I've always lived by, whether I was a broke med student or a not-so-broke physician-investor.