How do your savings compare to your age group?
Every savings benchmark you have read was written to give you something to aim at. One year's salary by 30, three times salary by 40, and underneath it the quiet suggestion that everyone else is keeping up. Almost nobody is. Put your own balance in and you will see the real midpoint for your age group, and how far above it the published targets sit. This calculator on Find The Norm uses Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 data (n=4,600 families) to rank your savings against US households in your age group.
Querying population data…
Reading on saving and investing
Books on saving and investing from writers who show their working.
Ad: we may earn a commission if you click this link.
Where is your balance heading?
Run what you hold now against the age-matched targets.
How much should I have saved by 30?
The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 puts median liquid savings for households under 35 at about $5,400, which is the honest answer to the question, while the mean for the same households sits at around $20,540 because a handful of very large balances drag the average upward. Fidelity's rule of thumb asks for a year's salary by 30. Most 30-year-olds are nowhere near it. Both numbers can be true at once, because one describes an ambition and the other describes a population. Liquid savings are only part of what a household owns, and our net worth by age calculator takes in the rest.
What is the average savings balance by age?
Median liquid savings run $5,400 for households under 35, $7,500 at 35 to 44, $8,700 at 45 to 54, $8,000 at 55 to 64, $13,400 at 65 to 74, and $10,000 once a household passes 75, on Federal Reserve SCF 2022 figures. That last step down is a lifetime of saving being spent. Every one of those numbers covers cash and transaction accounts alone. A 401(k) or an IRA sits outside them, so the older cohorts hold a good deal more than the line for their age suggests. Our retirement runway calculator takes a balance and a withdrawal rate and works out how many years it lasts.
Why is median savings so much lower than the benchmarks?
Because the benchmarks were written to describe a comfortable retirement rather than a typical household, and because the savings distribution is lopsided enough that the mean stops describing anybody real once a few enormous balances are folded into it. Debt does the rest of the work. Student loans, a mortgage and consumer credit compete for the same dollars every month, and one car repair or three months out of work resets a balance that took two years to build. American median savings sit low because of how the money flows through a household here, not because this generation is worse with money than the last one. What you can save starts with what you earn, so the salary age curve calculator is the one to run if your income feels stuck, and the population-level wealth figures live on the net worth statistics page.
Frequently asked questions
No. The benchmark here is liquid savings, so enter checking, savings and money market balances only, and leave the 401(k) and IRA out or your percentile will read far higher than it should. For the retirement comparison, the Federal Reserve SCF reports those balances separately, and among households that hold them the medians are $18,880 under 35, $45,000 at 35 to 44, $115,000 at 45 to 54, $185,000 at 55 to 64 and $200,000 at 65 to 74.
Money you could have in your hand within a few days with no penalty for taking it. Current accounts, savings accounts, high-yield savings and money market accounts all count, and the Fed's figure takes in prepaid cards too but files certificates of deposit separately. Home equity, a stock portfolio and anything inside a 401(k) or IRA does not. If you keep an emergency fund somewhere separate and think of it as untouchable, count it anyway, because the Fed does.
It is a target, and it was never a description of what people manage. The Fidelity ladder runs 1x salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60 and 10x by 67, counting retirement savings with employer contributions included. Federal Reserve SCF data puts median total savings for 35 to 44 year olds well below the 3x mark for most earners. Aim at the ladder. Judge yourself against the median.
It catches an odd moment. Transfer payments, stimulus checks and a year of nobody spending anything pushed savings rates to record highs in 2020 and 2021, then inflation ate into them through 2022 and 2023. The 2022 SCF therefore reads a little high for some cohorts against the long-run trend, and the 2025 picture, after two years of high inflation, will probably show lower median liquid savings across several age groups.
Half of Americans under 35 hold less than $5,400 in liquid savings, on Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022) figures. Fidelity's 1x salary by 30 comes to about $59,400 on the 2025 median full-time pay for 25 to 34 year olds. The gap isn't evidence of failure. Fidelity assumes steady saving from a first job, an employer match and no student debt or career break. The net worth by age calculator adds home equity and retirement balances.
Median liquid savings for Americans aged 35 to 44 is $7,500 on Fed SCF (2022) figures, and median total financial assets for the group come to about $32,100 once retirement accounts and investments are counted. Fidelity's 3x at 40 would be roughly $259,400 on the group's median household income of about $86,500, around eight times the actual median. Combined liquid and retirement balances above about $25,300 put you past the midpoint for that age.
Savings lean hard to the right, with a few households holding enormous balances and most holding modest ones. Among Americans aged 55 to 64, median liquid savings is $8,000 while the mean is $72,500, about nine times higher. Wealth concentration is doing that, with the top 10% of households holding about 79% of all financial assets. Headlines about average savings almost always quote the mean, which is why the number never matches anyone you know.
No. Bankrate's 2026 report found 24% of US adults with no emergency savings and a further 30% with less than three months of expenses, so 54% of Americans fall short of the advice to keep 3 to 6 months in reach. In the UK, the FCA found 10% of adults had no cash savings in 2024. Having nothing set aside leaves you exposed, and it's also ordinary, driven by wage stagnation, housing costs, healthcare bills and student debt.
They don't line up neatly. The ONS Wealth and Assets Survey measures net financial wealth, which counts investments and subtracts non-mortgage debt, while the Fed figure here is bank balances alone. ONS put the median British household's net financial wealth at £10,400 for April 2020 to March 2022, with pensions and property left out. Against that, the US median for households under 35 is $5,400 in transaction accounts, so treat any direct comparison with care.
24%, on Bankrate's 2026 Emergency Savings Report, with another 30% holding less than three months of expenses. Rates run highest among younger and lower-income households. The Fed's SCF median of $5,400 for under-35 households is weeks of buffer rather than months. Age-group figures are compiled on the net worth statistics page. Source: Bankrate Emergency Savings Report, 2026; Federal Reserve SCF 2022.
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Survey of Consumer Finances 2022. federalreserve.gov.
- Federal Reserve Bulletin. Changes in US Family Finances from 2019 to 2022.
- Office for National Statistics. Wealth and Assets Survey, Wave 7 (calculator) and April 2020 to March 2022 (net financial wealth). ons.gov.uk.
- Bankrate. Emergency Savings Report 2026. bankrate.com.
- Financial Conduct Authority. Financial Lives 2024 survey, key findings.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics. Current Population Survey, median usual weekly earnings of full-time workers by age, 2025 annual averages.
- Fidelity Investments. How Much Do I Need to Retire? Retirement savings guidelines. fidelity.com.