How Much Money Should I Have Saved by 30?

Many people dream about retirement as a time to relax and have fun. However, to have the retirement of your dreams, you’ll need savings. Just how much savings all depends on the age you retire, which is why it is important to start early. This is the typical savings you should have saved by 30.

Ask a financial advisor how to set up the right savings benchmarks to achieve the type of retirement you want.

How Much Money Should I Have Saved by 30? – Rule of Thumb

Financial experts generally advise people to have at least 1x their salary saved for retirement by 30 ¹ . That means if your annual salary is $40,000, you should have at least $40,000 saved for retirement by the time you turn 30.

Simple, right? Now it’s important to note that this rule doesn’t apply to everyone. The amount of savings that you should have depends on your individual situation. Having 1x your salary saved by 30 is great, but there isn’t one savings amount that every person should reach by 30.

However, most of us don’t have that much. In fact, many people live paycheck to paycheck, with many Americans having no retirement savings at all. 

So, what should you do if you’re a little behind in your savings? The good news is that you still have time. If you’re 30 and plan to retire at 65, you have 35 years to build your retirement savings.

The key is to start saving now, even if you don’t have much.

Figure Out How Much You Need

Experts say you should have about 1x your salary saved, but that’s a general rule. To determine what savings you personally should have, create a plan for your retirement.

It can be difficult to plan so far ahead because you never know where life will take you. If you think about it, though, there are probably some things that you know you want to do in retirement. Maybe you want to travel the world. Maybe you want to spend your retirement relaxing or volunteering. It’s also possible that you want to live in New York City and watch Broadway performances every week.

No matter what you want to do, sit down and think about it. Once you know the lifestyle you want to have, you can determine what kind of savings you’ll need. Think about how much money you might spend each month or year of your retirement. Yes, this is a little tough to do. It requires some thought and maybe some research.

Once you have an idea of how much you need to save for retirement, you can work your way backward. Let’s say you want to retire with $1 million when you retire in 30 years. In that case, you will likely want to have about half a million saved within the next 15 years.

If you work backward in this way, you can create savings benchmarks for next year or for 20 years down the road. You’ll know how much you personally need by the time you’re 30, 40 and 50. Even if your goals are high, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to reach them. 

How to Stick to Your Goals

If you don’t meet your goal one year, it’s okay. Just keep going and try to make up the difference one day when you have a little extra money.

Once you’ve created your goals, stick to them. Don’t let others’ lifestyles influence your spending.

Patrice Washington, America’s Money Maven, finds this to be a particular problem. “My best savings tip for 20-somethings is to always remember that comparison is the thief of joy,” she tells SmartAsset in an exclusive interview. “Don’t base how much or how little you will save today because of trying to keep up with other people online or in real life. Set a goal, and keep your eyes on the prize.”

Where to Save for Retirement

There are many ways to save for retirement.

Your employer might offer a 401(k) plan, or maybe you have a Roth IRA where you’ve slowly been saving your after-tax dollars. It is often best to have your retirement savings in multiple places.

Just make sure that you can keep track of where all your money is. If you changed jobs a few times and you have money just sitting in the 401(k)s of former employers, you may want to think about consolidating with an IRA rollover.

There is no hard-and-fast rule for where exactly you should keep your money. If you work for a for-profit employer, the company probably has a 401(k) plan. If your employer also offers a match on your 401(k), you should contribute at least enough to cover the full match. Otherwise, you are passing up free money.

As money-saving expert Andrea Woroch explained to SmartAsset, covering the employer match on a 401(k) is one of the best things that you can do in your 20s. “Take advantage of any company match, and keep in mind, even a little bit helps!” she advises. “The money you put away at a young age will grow exponentially, thanks to compound interest, to help meet retirement goals faster and with less money contributed over time.”

After considering your employer-based retirement plan, you may consider your own. It’s a good idea to save money in a combination of pre-tax accounts, like 401(k)s or traditional IRAs, and after-tax accounts, like Roth IRAs.

Working with a Robo-Advisor

One option to consider is a robo-advisor. Robo-advisors create and automatically manage an investment portfolio based on your current savings and your future goals. Investing is simplified, serving as one of the best ways to grow your money. Robo-advisors will also handle the nitty-gritty work so that you can focus on saving money.

Be forewarned that there is a management fee for using a robo-advisor. However, the fee is much lower than that of a traditional financial advisor.

How an Advisor Can Help You Create a Retirement Plan By Age 30

Building a retirement plan by 30 is one of the most beneficial retirement decisions a person can make. A financial advisor can help you build one that is specific to your situation rather than based on generalized rules of thumb.

At this stage, the plan does not need to be complicated, but it does need to be grounded in the right account structure and a savings rate calibrated to your actual goals. It is also critical to make realistic projections. Getting these fundamentals in place early is what separates strong retirement outcomes from those that require painful catch-up efforts later.

A financial advisor will start by helping you define what retirement actually looks like for you, including when you want to stop working, what lifestyle you expect to maintain and what income sources you anticipate beyond your own savings. Those inputs drive everything else in the plan, from how much you need to save each month to how aggressively your portfolio should be invested. Without that clarity, a retirement plan is little more than a savings account with no defined destination.

Selecting the right account types is one of the most consequential early decisions in a retirement plan. A financial advisor can help you evaluate whether a traditional or Roth 401(k) makes more sense given your current income and expected future tax rate, and whether an IRA should supplement your workplace plan. Getting that structure right at 30 avoids the more complex and costly account reorganization that often becomes necessary when these decisions are deferred.

A retirement plan at 30 also needs to account for the financial priorities that compete with long-term savings during this stage of life. Student loans, a home purchase, an emergency fund and family expenses all place legitimate claims on the same income. A financial advisor can help you build a plan that addresses those near-term obligations without sacrificing the retirement contributions that are most valuable when made early.

Investment Allocation

Investment allocation inside a retirement plan should reflect both your timeline and your actual risk tolerance, two factors that do not always point in the same direction. A financial advisor can build an allocation strategy designed to capture long-term growth while remaining one you can maintain during market downturns without abandoning the plan. An aggressive portfolio that gets abandoned during a correction produces worse outcomes than a moderate one held consistently for decades.

A retirement plan built at 30 will need to evolve as income grows, circumstances change and financial goals shift. A financial advisor provides ongoing guidance through those transitions, adjusting contribution rates, reallocating investments and recalibrating projections as your life develops.

The value of that continuity compounds over time in the same way that early savings do, making the advisor relationship itself one of the more durable investments you can make at this stage.

Bottom Line

Many financial experts recommend having at least 1x your salary saved by the age of 30. This is a useful rule of thumb, but it’s just a guide. The amount that you should have depends on your personal savings and your retirement goals. Creating a retirement plan for yourself will help you figure out just how much you should save, and by what age, in order to have your dream retirement. Remember that even if you don’t have a lot to put toward retirement right now, a little bit is better than nothing at all.

If you’re struggling to get started or stay on track with retirement savings, consider turning to a financial advisor for help. A matching tool like SmartAsset’s can help you find a person to work with who meets your needs. First, you’ll answer a series of questions about your situation and goals. Then the program will narrow down your options from thousands of advisors to three fiduciaries who suit your needs. You can then read their profiles to learn more about them, interview them on the phone or in person and choose who to work with in the future. This allows you to find a good fit while the program does much of the hard work for you.

Tips to Help You Build Savings

• Many people have a difficult time saving money because they live above their means. This is especially true when people graduate from college and get their first job. In an interview with SmartAsset, savings expert Andrea Woroch shared some advice for recent grads. “Stick to your college budget even if you scored a good job! With a steady paycheck coming in, [college grads] feel rich and may end up blowing their budget by purchasing new TVs, cars and going out to expensive dinners. When you’re in your 20s, don’t get tempted to inflate your lifestyle.” If you didn’t have a college budget, you can start a solid budget now with the help of SmartAsset’s budget calculator.
• Are you sticking to a budget but still don’t have quite as much money as you’d like? Consider some of these money-saving tips to help you find the savings you’re missing out on.
• A Roth IRA and traditional IRA both offer benefits for savers. Unsure which is better for you? Here’s an article to help you choose between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA.

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