I will try to fragment the poll based upon age as older people should have more saved.
Not that much but I have a defined benefit plan. I’m also allowed to buy up to 5 years of service credit to beef up my pension so that’s where some of my 401k money went to.
With my current balance, contribution rate, and expected rate of return, I should have no problem retiring comfortably - when I’m 135 years old. 
I’m 31, and I put under $50k. I just got a “real” job 3 years ago, so I’m slow out of the gate. However, my company is employee owned, so we get a decent amount of stock every year (more than the 10% max I get to put into my 401k). At current rates, that’s worth a fair bit more than my 401k, so if you count that, it would put me over the $50k category and into the next one. Assuming a million to retire on, there’s only $950,000 to go!
You may want to be cautious about making that assumption. If you follow the “withdraw 4% per year” rule in retirement, then a million-dollar nest egg will only allow you to withdraw $40,000 per year. And if you’re currently 31, then that’s 34 years from now. Assuming 2.5% annual inflation, $40K per year then will have the buying power of just $17,276 right now.
You may want to perform a more detailed analysis of how much money you’ll really need each year in retirement how big a nest egg you’ll need in order to provide that, and then how much you’ll need to save annually between now and then in order to achieve your savings goal.
I’m not quite sure how to answer…
I’m 60, in the UK and already retired.
I have two index-linked work pensions (covering my 35 year career) and get the UK State Pension when I’m 65.
I have a private savings plan that pays me interest.
I have a large holding in Premium Bonds.
Compound interest is your best friend, so save early.
At age 45, I read an article that pointed out that 10 years of saving a set amount weekly between the ages of 25 to 35 (and stopping) resulted in almost as much money at 65 than 30 years of saving the same weekly amount from ages 35 to 65. :smack:
(Of course the interest rate affects this - at 6% they are roughly equal, at 8% early savings early wins big)
Wow, who are the 20-somethings that’ve managed to get up to 6 figures already? That’s very impressive.
If we were to include the current value of all vested stock and options I am eligible to cash in right now, it would be a lot higher, but I’m pretty happy with my current balance of retirement accounts as it is. I’m 46.
I’m one of them. Opened an IRA at 21 during my first college job, contributed to a 401K at the second job, and have been maxing out my 401K at my current job for as long as I’ve been eligible. Hoping I can retire a little early if all goes well.
I’m in my early 50s, and the last time I checked, mine was a little more than $425,000 (although half of it is stock-based, so another “correction” could send it crashing and burning); I plan to work another 10 years, and put about $100,000 more into it by then.
Note, however, that if I do work another 10 years, and the government doesn’t decide to raid the civil service pension funds or radically change the rules , I’ll have about a $45,000/year pension on top of that - plus, I currently have about $300,000 or so in mutual funds.
Congratulations. Keep doing that and it might be very early.
Start a Roth as soon as you can, invest in low cost index funds and route raises and bonuses to savings first and you could retire young.
Living below your means is the best revenge on “the Joneses”…
I think the choices could have used a little more fragmenting. There’s a huge difference between a 30-year old with $450,000 and a 50-year old with $100,000. One is doing GREAT while the other better pick up the pace.
I’m 37 with about $185,000 btw. I think I’m doing OK, but could be better. It annoys me that my 401k website shows my Retirement stoplight at a Warning:Yellow (You may not have enough!) status.
I’m not sure how to value mine. It was worth $950,000 when I retired 14 years ago and converted it to a lifetime annuity at a very favorable rate.
In my 20s I worked in a biotech startup when all they could really afford to pay us was a meager amount in cash and company equity. Got lucky and we later got bought out for a good sum.
Retirement is nicely covered.
My husband is a saver to a fault. At this rate, we’ll be able to live high on the hog, I’m talking traveling anywhere we want, when we’re 95.
Yippee!
Your poll leaves us 50 year olds with two possible choices. 
I’ve saved pretty well and have always followed the conventional wisdom of maxing out my 401k and putting everything in no load index funds. A few months ago, I moved a bunch of it into less risky options. Last week I did one of those retirement calculator things and between my retirement accounts, other savings and home equity, I should be able to have a reasonably comfortable retirement at 62.
I’ve been putting 10% of my paycheck into our 401(a) for eighteen years, and my company matches it.
I have never checked the balance, so I have no idea what it is.
I hope you don’t work for Enron! Seriously, checking annually is not a bad idea.
I keep telling my wife “When I retire we’re goig to be fine. The 15-20 years until then may kills us!”