Am I Behind? What You Should Have Saved by 45, 50, and 55

When was the last time you opened your retirement account and looked at the amount? A real look. A little uncomfortable yet? Don’t worry. You’re in great company. Many people in their late 40s and early 50s are dealing with a mortgage, a couple of children who need money each week, and parents who are just starting to need some help. All while wondering, am I behind?

You can figure that out in about two minutes. Fidelity provides a set of savings goals based upon your salary, so regardless of whether you earn $60K or $200K, they’ll be the same. Consider them a check-in tool, rather than a grading tool. I’ll show you how to find them, and then tell you what to do if your number is lower than theirs.

How much should you have?

Fidelity uses multiples of your salary. By a certain age, all of the money you’ve saved for retirement, including the 401(k) accounts and IRAs, should equal roughly this number of times the amount you earn per year.

Let’s say you earn $90,000. At age 50, the 6x goal would be about $540,000. Whether you felt relieved or worried about where your financial picture stands now, you now have something to shoot for. This is the progression:

• At 40, about 3x your salary.
• At 45, roughly 4x your salary, between the 40 and 50 markers.
• At 50, approximately 6x your salary.
• At 55, roughly 7x your salary, between the 50 and 60 markers.
• At 60, approximately 8x your salary.
• At 67, approximately 10x your salary.

“save 1× your current income by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by 67”

— Fidelity, Retirement savings guidelines (source)

Why are 45 and 55 guesses?

Before you treat these as commandments, here’s the small print. Fidelity used a few assumptions to create these multipliers:

• That you save 15% of your pre-tax income each year (your money plus any employer match).
• That you retire at age 67.
• That your retirement savings grow using a stock and bond mixture that gets more conservative as you get older.
• That your expenses during retirement stay about the same as today.

One note: Fidelity doesn’t publish any official figures for ages 45 and 55. I provided the approximate figures of 4x and 7x for those ages, so consider them a rough estimate. Your actual savings number will depend on when you expect to stop working, how much you anticipate you’ll spend in retirement, whether you receive a pension, and what Social Security pays. These multipliers provide a quick snapshot of where you stand, but they aren’t a long-term plan.

“Benchmarks can be helpful but often oversimplify retirement planning.”

— Steve Charlton, President, Wisdom Financial (source)

Are you behind? There is more room than you may think

If you calculated the number above and found yourself below the target level, don’t panic. You aren’t alone, nor are you locked in. Many women reach age fifty with fewer dollars in retirement savings than the target states, usually because they worked outside the home temporarily, or their funds were directed immediately toward their kids’ college education or the house payment. Life intervened. Older workers benefit from additional tax code flexibility to catch up on lost savings, as well as more generous limits for doing so. In fact, in 2026, this benefit increased even further.

In 2026, you can contribute up to $24,500 to a 401(k), 403(b), or other workplace retirement account. Fifty or older? Add an additional $8,000 to that, making it possible for you to contribute a maximum of $32,500. Also worth noting is another twist you might want to grab onto: if you turn sixty, sixty-one, sixty-two, or sixty-three at any point during the calendar year 2026, your catch-up contribution increases to $11,250, creating a total contribution limit of $35,750.

Contributions to your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) stack on top of the previously noted amounts. For example, in 2026 you can contribute $7,500 to your IRA, plus $1,100 as a catch-up at age 50 or older, for a maximum annual contribution of $8,600. A final word about workplace plans and their associated catch-ups. Starting in 2026, if you earned over $150,000 from that employer last year, your catch-up contribution will have to go into a Roth account, meaning it’ll be funded after taxes.

Lastly, before you direct every single spare dollar into your retirement account, make sure you have a cushion, an emergency fund, for all of the unexpected events that tend to pop up.

“If your car breaks down or a medical issue causes an additional expense, a financially stable household has funds in place over and above their monthly expenses to cover these unexpected expenses.”

— Matthew Cleary, CFP, Sentinel Group (source)

So, are you behind? Probably, according to Fidelity’s measurement standard. But a measurement standard is merely that. Take the quick measure of your current status using the multipliers above, be truthful, and then take advantage of the catch-up room the IRS is providing. It doesn’t matter nearly as much where you begin. It matters significantly more what actions you take over the next fifteen years.

Your own number beats any benchmark

Salary multiples can be a useful guide, but they’re only as good as the averages they’re based on. And one doesn’t have to be average. The real figure is a matter of individual circumstance: it comes down to where you’re put down in the world, how you like to live, and what you can count on from a pension or Social Security. There’s a simple way to come up with a number that’s your own. Take an idea of your annual outlay in retirement, set aside what you’ll get from those other sources, and run the difference by 25 or so. You’ll find that has more value than some generic chart could ever offer.

Do the numbers and you’ll see the benchmark for what it’s: a single data point, not some kind of final say. There are those with modest wants and no mortgage who can get by on less than the figures would have it, and then there are the rest of us. It has nothing to do with living up to a multiple set by someone else; it comes down to having a handle on your own figure and making a beeline for it.

The catch-up years the benchmarks quietly assume

Then there are the neat and tidy multiples. They put you in a position of having put aside money on a regular basis since your twenties, which isn’t how things go for most people. But the tax code has a way of righting the ship at the point in your career when you’re making the kind of money to do something with it. Once you hit 50, you’re free to make a catch-up contribution over and above what’s allowed. Come the years between 60 and 63, that allowance is even more generous. In many ways, your 50s and the first few of your 60s will be the time you can put the most away.

A miss on the 50 benchmark is no cause for despair. With as much room as there’s to 67, and with limits that are quite open, a saver with some resolve can build a very different result in the end. The numbers on the chart are a snapshot of the present, not a forecast of what’s to come.

If you are miles behind, start here

To start, if the chasm between what you have and where you should be is a bit of a burden, put it in perspective. Make sure to take the full employer match on the table; it’s as good a return as you’ll find. Put in place an annual bump to your contribution rate so that happens on its own. And give some thought to holding off on Social Security. Once you’re past full retirement age, every year you wait can put another 8 percent in your pocket for the rest of your life.

Panic is the only truly wasteful response here, because it tends to freeze people in place. Steady, boring action beats it every time. One good move today and one more next month will carry you further than any amount of worrying about how far behind the chart says you are.

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