How much money do you need to retire at 60

To step off the corporate treadmill in your 50s or early 60s and maintain anything close to your standard of living, you need a seriously big retirement kitty.

How serious? You'll likely need assets worth 10 to 16 times your salary by the time you leave your job. A 45-year-old making $120,000 who hopes to retire at age 60, say, should already have nearly $700,000 set aside. (See the Retire Early calculator.)

You can get by with less if you'll have other sources of income. If that same 45-year-old has a typical old-fashioned check-a-month pension, for example, he might need only $432,000 in savings to be on track. If you expect to hold down a scaled-back job for your first decade of retirement, you can also get by with less.

Still, your target is a big number, and to reach it you'll have to save diligently, invest aggressively, and keep taxes and expenses from eroding your returns.

retirement savings  |  may 31, 2022

It’s important to make steady progress toward saving for retirement, no matter what your age.

How much money do you need to retire at 60

Key Insights

  • Savings benchmarks based on age and salary can serve as a helpful way to track progress against saving for retirement.

  • Saving 15% of income per year (including any employer contributions) is an appropriate savings level for many people.

  • Having one to one-and-a-half times your income saved for retirement by age 35 is an attainable target for someone who starts saving at age 25.

How much money do you need to retire at 60

Thought Leadership Director

If you want to track your progress toward a goal, chances are there is an app that can do that for you. For example, you can track your steps, your packages, your diet, and even your family’s whereabouts.

But when it comes to saving for your retirement, how much time do you spend tracking your progress? And at what point in your life should you start paying attention?

Retirement planning can be intimidating at any age—even more so early in your career. When retirement seems so far in the future, it’s hard to plan for it with so many competing priorities in the present. For example, in addition to your regular bills, you may have student loans to repay. Or you may be trying to save money to purchase a home or save for your kids’ college education.

Still, it’s important to make steady progress toward saving, no matter what your age. Moreover, taking stock of where you stand can help you plan with more intention based on your situation.

I’m 35. What Should I Have Saved?

There is a lot of research showing that people tend to rely on approximations or rules of thumb when it comes to financial decisions.

With this in mind, many financial firms publish savings benchmarks that show the ideal levels of savings at different ages relative to an individual’s income. A savings benchmark isn’t a replacement for comprehensive planning, but it is a quick way to gauge whether you’re on track. It’s much better than the alternative some people use—blindly guessing! More importantly, it can act as a catalyst to take action and start saving more.

However, for the benchmark to be useful, it needs to be realistic. Setting the target too low can lead to a false sense of confidence; setting it too high can discourage people from doing anything. Articles on retirement savings goals have generated spirited discussion about the reasonableness of the targets.

As a result, my colleagues and I have reevaluated how to calculate achievable benchmarks. We started with the goal in mind: determining the amount of assets needed by age 65. While that number depends on a lot of factors, income is the biggest one. Since higher earners will get a smaller portion of their income in retirement from Social Security, they generally need more assets in relation to their income. We estimated that most people looking to retire around age 65 should aim for assets totaling between seven and 13½ times their preretirement gross income.

From there, we identified savings benchmarks at other ages based on a reasonable trajectory of earnings and savings rates. We didn’t presume that everyone starts saving our recommended 15% of their income immediately upon receiving their first paycheck. Rather, our hypothetical investor starts saving 6% at age 25 and ramps up savings by one percentage point each year until reaching an appropriate level. We found that 15% of income per year (including any employer contributions) is an appropriate savings level for many people, but we recommend that higher earners aim beyond 15%.

So, to answer the question, we believe having one to one-and-a-half times your income saved for retirement by age 35 is a reasonable target. It’s an attainable goal for someone who starts saving at age 25.

For example, a 35-year-old earning $60,000 would be on track if she’s saved about $60,000 to $90,000.

Savings Benchmarks by Age—As a Multiple of Income

How much money do you need to retire at 60

Investor's Age and Savings Benchmarks

Investor's AgeSavings Benchmarks
30Half of salary saved today
351x to 1.5x salary saved today
401.5x to 2.5x salary saved today
452.5x to 4x salary saved today
503x to 5.5x salary saved today
554.5x to 8x salary saved today
606x to 11x salary saved today
657x to 13.5x salary saved today

Key Assumptions: Household income grows at 5% until age 45 and 3% (the assumed inflation rate) thereafter. Investment returns before retirement are 7% before taxes, and savings grow tax-deferred. The person retires at age 65 and begins withdrawing 4% of assets (a rate intended to support steady inflation-adjusted spending over a 30-year retirement). Savings benchmark ranges are based on individuals or couples with current household income between $75,000 and $250,000.   

The Benchmarks for Those Closer to Retirement

The range gets wider as you get older, so we also provide more detailed estimates for people approaching retirement. This helps someone find a realistic target based on income and marital status, which affect Social Security benefits.

A Closer Look at Savings Benchmarks Later in Your Career

Savings Benchmarks Later in Your Career

  Married, Dual IncomeMarried, Sole EarnerSingle
Current Household IncomeAge 55Age 60Age 65Age 55Age 60 Age 65Age 55Age 60Age 65
$75,0005x 7x 8.5x 4.5x 6x 7x 6.5x 8.5x 10.5x
$100,0006x 8x 9.5x 5x 6.5x 8x 6.5x 8.5x 11x
$150,0006.5x 8.5x 10.5x 6x 8x 9.5x 7x 9.5x 11.5x
$200,0006.5x 9x 11x 6.5x 9x 11x 7.5x 10.5x 13x
$250,0007x 9x 11.5x 7.5x 10x 12x 8x 11x 13.5x

Assumptions: See “Savings Benchmarks by Age—As a Multiple of Income” above. “Dual income” means that one spouse generates 75% of the income that the other spouse earns.

How to Stay on Track

The point of benchmarks isn’t to make you feel superior or inadequate. It’s to prompt action, coupled with a guidepost to inform those actions, even if that means staying the course. If you’re not on track, don’t despair. Focus less on the shortfall and more on the incremental steps you can take to rectify the situation:

  • Make sure you are taking advantage of the full company match in your workplace retirement plan.

  • If you can increase your savings rate right away, that’s ideal. If not, gradually save more over time.

  • If you have a company retirement plan that enables automatic increases, sign up.

  • If you are struggling to save, many employers offer financial wellness programs or other tools that can help with budgeting and basic finances.

Use these savings benchmarks to get more comfortable with planning for retirement. Then go beyond the rule of thumb to fully understand your potential retirement expenses and income sources. Beyond your savings, think about what you are saving for and how you envision spending your time after years of hard work. After all, that’s the reason why you are saving in the first place.

Past performance cannot guarantee future results. All investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal. All charts and tables are shown for illustrative purposes only.

View investment professional background on FINRA's BrokerCheck.

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Next Steps

  • Learn more about reaching your retirement goals.

Learn More About How to Save for Retirement

Can I retire at 60 with 800k?

Can I retire at 60 with $800k? Yes, you can retire at 60 with eight hundred thousand dollars. At age 60, an annuity will provide a guaranteed level income of $42,000 annually starting immediately, for the rest of the insured's lifetime. The income will stay the same and never decrease.

How much do I need in my 401k to retire at 60?

For example, if you're earning $50,000, you should have $50,000 banked for retirement. By age 40, you should have three times your annual salary already saved. By age 50, you should have six times your salary in an account. By age 60, you should have eight times your salary working for you.

How much does a married couple need to retire at 60?

Retirement Savings Benchmarks for Married Couples Financial experts say that a couple aged 60 with a dual income of $75,000 per year should have seven times their household income in their retirement account. This multiplies to a total of $525,000 saved.

Is a million dollars enough to retire at 60?

So, can you retire at 60 with $1 million, and what would that look like? It's certainly possible to retire comfortably in this scenario. That said, it's wise to review your spending needs, taxes, health care, and other factors as you prepare for your retirement years.