Are You On Track For Retirement? How Your Savings Compare To Other Americans Your Age

TABLE OF CONTENTSWhy Knowing The Average Retirement Savings Can Help Average Retirement Savings By Age Factors Which Affect Your Savings Balance Are You On Track To Retire In 2026?How To Catch Up On Retirement Savings Monitoring Your Savings Progress Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Woman at home places coins into a piggy bank while jotting down notes about finances. Use the average retirement savings by age as a reference point to see if you're on track to retire but not a target.Getty Regardless of where you are in your career, life stage or financial plans, comparing your retirement savings with national benchmarks can help you gauge whether you are on track to meet your goals. That context is especially valuable in 2026 as inflation, interest rates and market uncertainty continue to affect how Americans save, invest and plan for retirement.

The average retirement savings balance is calculated by adding all balances together and dividing by the number of households. As such, high-balance households can skew that number upward, often making the average larger than what typical households have actually saved. This is where the median rate comes in handy, since it shows the midpoint where half of households have more and half have less.

Using both the average and median retirement savings figures can give you a more nuanced picture of where you stand. These metrics can inform your decisions when setting contribution rates, reviewing your retirement timeline or gauging whether you need adjustments. It can also help you avoid two common mistakes if you were to look at one metric alone: panicking because you are below average, or assuming you are on track just because you are above the median.