---
title: 'Recommended Savings by Age: How Do You Compare?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=BLYDCmKQ1PU'
video_id: 'BLYDCmKQ1PU'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 563
---

# Recommended Savings by Age: How Do You Compare?

> Source: [Recommended Savings by Age: How Do You Compare?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=BLYDCmKQ1PU)

## Summary



## Transcript

how much should I be saving and
investing how much money should I have
by this age how much do I need for a
comfortable retirement these are
questions I get asked all the time and
so in this video I wanted to cover the
answer to each I warn you now some of
these numbers might surprise you they
certainly surprised me when I first saw
them but there is a little trick to Fast
Track your progress which I'll share
later on in the video let's start with
the decade of your 20s you might be
fresh out of University with a mountain
of student Deb maybe you've done an
apprenticeship or a training program
instead and you likely have an
entry-level paycheck the average
20-year-old in the UK has less than
£1,000 saved and in the US that number
is less than
$1,800 at this stage it's not exactly
about the dollar amount that you've got
saved up but actually about building the
right financial habits that will pay off
big time for the decades to come so that
said some of the key things to focus on
in your 20s are number one get rid of
any High interest rate debt Consumer
Debt like credit cards can very quickly
spiral out of control growing faster
than your money would make in
Investments so if you have high interest
rate debt the best way to keep more of
what you make in your pocket is to pay
that off make that a priority number two
track your spending knowing where your
money is going is the very first step to
being able to save more of it so the
simple Act of doing this is going to put
you further than most people in this age
group and number three work towards
saving up at least one month of your
living expenses and then once you've got
that covered then do number four and
that is opening up a tax advantage
investment account and invest even the
smallest amount $10 or equivalent even
if you don't have that much in your 20s
it doesn't matter the reason you just
want to get started is firstly to start
building financial habits into your
identity from early on and secondly
because you have time on your side so
even the smallest amount can start
compounding you can get started by using
the trading 212 Link in my description
and get a free share worth up to £100
just by depositing £1 moving into the
30s hopefully by the age of 30 you have
a bit more to your name than you did in
your 20s the guideline according to
Fidelity is to have one year of your
salary saved up so if your salary is
50,000 by age 30 you'd have 50,000 saved
up so that amount includes the money
sitting in your savings account your
retirement account and or your
investment account now I don't want you
to look at this guideline and feel bad
or feel behind because that's not the
point and I myself hadn't reached this
guideline but what I do want to show you
is where these guidelines are coming
from why they exist and how will they
will translate into your retirement
savings so according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics the average annual
salary for people in their 30s in the
United States is around $50,000 and in
the UK it's just under £40,000 so if
someone in the 30s who is making 50,000
per year were to invest that 50,000 and
then contribute an additional 500 per
month from that point on assuming an 8%
average rate of return they would have
approximately 1.77 million saved up by
the time that they reach 65 that's
that's pretty decent that's what the
compounding growth for a 35e period from
age 30 to 65 looks like the three goals
in this decade is number one save a
bigger percentage of your income aim to
save and invest at least 10 to 20% of
your income every year even more if you
can your 20s is more about finding out
what you want to do exploring as many
things as you can focusing on building
your career Capital so the skills and
the credentials and what you need to
then in your 30s find out what has
worked for you and then double down on
that to make more money number two avoid
lifestyle inflation an easy trap in your
30s is to increase your spending in line
with your income maybe this wasn't a
thing in your early 20s because you
didn't have much money to start with to
spend but in your 30s you've really got
to watch out for it and number three
work towards becoming debt free except
for your mortgage this will free up more
of your income to dedicate to
Investments and to retirement savings by
the way if you do want to learn how to
invest then I have a completely free
Master Class where I go into more detail
about how to multiply your money by
knowing the right things to invest in
the biggest mistake beginners make and
how to avoid them and how to set
yourself up financially for a WorryFree
future it's completely free and the link
is in the description and then we move
into the next decade 40s so we've seen
that the guideline is to have saved one
years of your salary by age 30 then the
aim is to save one more from 30 to 35
and then another from 35 to 40 so when I
read that guideline my first instinct
was okay that's a lot of money how many
people will actually be able able to do
that but actually the key Point here is
that the savings Target is not just
about the amount it accounts for the
compounding growth of the money that
you've already saved as well so let's
break that down the goal is to have
saved three years of your salary by 40
let's say your salary is 50,000 the
total Target would be then 3 * 50,000
150,000 however you've already saved one
years of salary by age 30 so this 50,000
will grow or will have grown to around
107,000 so now the remaining amount you
need to save from 30 to 40 is
150,000 minus 107,000 so 43,000 dividing
that 43,000 over the 10 years from 30 to
40 that comes out to only needing to
save about 360 per month not the full
830 per month that you might have
initially calculated so the key point is
that the compounding growth of your
initial savings make a big difference in
how much additional savings you need to
hit the overall Target so the earlier
you invest the easier it is to then meet
the rest of the guidelines the three
areas to focus in your 40s are number
one start maxing out your retirement
contributions aim to invest at least 15%
of your gross income for your retirement
these are probably your best earning
years in most cases so save as much as
you can both in your employer spons and
retirement account as well as your own
investment account number two be
proactive in your tax planning meet with
a tax adviser who will help you maximize
your deductions every year and number
three understand how you're going to
prioritize your expenses if you find
yourself taking care of your parents
consider their needs in the context of
all of your other and your own Financial
priorities as well Home Health Care
assisted living is expensive and those
costs need to be weighed against saving
for your own retirement and for your
children's savings and education as well
so now is a time to factor in everything
and how you'll make it work then as you
approach your 50s the savings goal
becomes a bit more ambitious experts
generally recommend having six times
your annual salary saved up by this age
for example if your salary has been
around 60 ,000 per year the target would
be to have 360,000 saved and invested by
50 I don't know how realistic this is
and looking at the history of the stock
market and the average rate of return it
seems doable but if you're in your 50s
and you're watching this I'd love to
hear from you and I'm sure so would
everyone else let us know in the
comments how realistic this is and what
you would have done differently if you
could go back in time and tell your 20
or 30 or 40 year old s things you want
to look at in this decade of your life
include number one reassess your
Investment Portfolio as you start
approaching retirement you want to begin
thinking about wealth preservation not
just wealth accumulation so it's
recommended to make your Investment
Portfolio less risky consider investing
in more stable Investments like bonds to
balance out some of the risks that you
may have taken for your portfolio in the
early decades number two think about how
you can turn your investments into a
steady stream of income in retirement
this would be a good time to talk to an
adviser who specializes in helping
people turn their retirement assets into
income they'll look at important
Financial factors such as whether you
might outlive your retirements savings
they'll consider inflation best and
worst case scenarios Health expenses
that you need to take into consideration
and a lot more then we move into age 60
and Beyond by age 60 retirement
hopefully is on the horizon you want to
make sure you have now enough saved up
to maintain your lifestyle ideally the
guideline is to have saved up at least
eight times your annual salary some
things to consider at this age number
one review your Investments look at your
risk tolerance to maintain the savings
you built and not uer a big loss right
at the beginning of your retirement find
out more on optimal ways to invest your
retirement savings to make sure you
don't outlive it number two ensure you
have a clear retirement plan this
includes understanding your expected
income sources such as pensions savings
and Investments and adjust your plans as
necessary to meet your goals so you also
want to be thinking about health
expenses how you're going to pass on any
savings Investments assets to your
children and taking into account those
plans as well so those are some very
high level guidelines for you to
consider before I close off I do want to
leave you with a final thought these
numbers are all well and good these
guidelines are all well and good but
they tend to box everyone in into the
same lifestyle which is really far from
the reality and the situations or
circumstances each of us have an article
by go banking rate actually found that
most Americans have less than $1,000 in
savings and almost 50% of those living
in the UK have less than 1,000 this
massively contrasts with the guidelines
and the numbers that I've said earlier
in the video so even if you have more
than that saved up at this point that is
you doing better than most people at the
end of the day these guidelines and
these videos are great to get knowledge
and education fromom and then you want
to tweak it and apply it to your
situation thank you for watching if you
like this video you may also enjoy this
video right here which explains in more
detail how compounding works and how the
first 100,000 is the most important when
it comes to your savings thank you so
much for watching and see you back