George Kamel - How Much You Should Have in Your 401(k) 2026

Episode Date: September 7, 2026

📊 Check out the Investing Calculator!   Are you on track for a dream retirement? Woefully behind? Or at the very least, doing better than your friends who peaked in high school? Today, I’ll walk through the median 401(k) balance in America by age—and what you SHOULD have saved—so you know how you stack up.   Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video How I Built a $1 Million Net Worth by 32! • 💰Check out the Retirement Calculator! • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Go to Boost Mobile to switch today! • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle! • Sign up with Privacy today and receive a $5 credit just for being a George Kamel fan.   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you on track for a dream retirement, woefully behind? Or at the very least, doing better than the guy from high school who still introduces himself as starting quarterback class of 06? Well, in today's video, I'll walk you through the median 401k balance in America by age so you can see how you stack up. And luckily and sadly, the bar is low. And then I'm going to show you how much you should have saved based on your age so that you can live out your dream retirement. So with a secret handle shake to our channel sponsor, Delete Me? Let's jump in with Americans under the age of 25. Now, first things first, you'll notice we're going with the median 401K balance, not the average.

And here's why. The average factors in crazy high and crazy low numbers, which can skew the results. The median is right in the middle if you listed all balances from smallest to largest. So it's far more accurate for the everyday American. And it's honestly no big shocker that the median 401k balance in your early 20s is super low, just $2,234. Make sense. You're early in your career. You might have some debt you're trying to knock out.

You probably don't have a huge salary, which means even if you are debt-free, you have less to invest. And what you have invested hasn't had much time to grow. But one of the best things about your 20s, other than being able to eat a gas station tequito without consequences, is that you've got nothing but time for your money to grow. Even contributing just $100 a month really adds up over time, which I'll prove to you later in this video. So if $2,000 is the median, how much should you have saved in your 401k at this point? In my opinion, $20,000 would be a great place to start. because you're going to end up with way more by the time you get to retirement.

Let me show you using our retirement calculator, which I will link in the description if you want to punch in your own numbers. So we're going to start with $20,000 saved at 25 years old. So current age, 25. We're going to go to 65. That's 40 years of working career. We've got our $20,000 saved. And let's say I don't contribute a dime. Let's see what happens at a 10% average rate of return.

$1,074,000. That's pretty incredible, considering I only put in that 20 grand, and then I just let it ride for 40 years. So, just right there, if you can get $20,000 saved by $25, you're on the path to retire at minimum with a million bucks. Now, if you're not there, don't freak out, but you should take a good, hard look in the financial mirror to see why you don't have enough margin to invest more at this stage.

Now, it might be those pesky debt payments you've got to knock out first. And if you don't have a fully funded emergency fund yet, please do not be investing. I know, that's shocking after what I just showed you. But all it takes is one life event to move you backwards and derail your wealth plan. So that's step number one before you begin any retirement investing, become consumer debt-free, and fully fund that emergency fund with three to six months of expenses. And here's the reason. You want to free up as much of your income as possible, as fast as possible, and you want nothing

stopping you from consistently investing every single month, which is why that emergency fund is so important. It is your never going to dead again insurance plan that keeps you on the path to wealth. The sooner you start and the more you invest, the faster that nest egg will grow. Okay, moving on to Americans age 25 to 34. In this decade, retirement probably isn't front of mind. You're doing a lot of today's stuff. Maybe getting married, starting a family, getting off your parents' insurance plan like the big boy you are, but probably still on the phone plan, you moocher. It's just easier, dude, just like we've always had. I just like Venmo them. Be a grown adult. Get Boos Mobile.

Which is why it makes sense that the median American 401 balance at this age, 25 to 34, is still pretty low. Only $18,732 bucks. Yeah, that's nothing to sneeze at or cough at or any other bodily function. Some retirement is better than nothing, and you still have a lot of time for compound growth to do its thing at this stage. But how much should you have in your 401k by your mid-30s? Well, let's do some math to get a realistic number. Let's say your income from age 25 to 34 is $50,000. a year with no raises during that entire time, which is insanely conservative and also assumes you're probably not great at your job. Nine years. Didn't move an inch. What's going on, man?

What would you say you do here? And let's also assume by 25, you have followed the plan I teach on this channel. You are consumer debt-free. You've got an emergency fund. And you can invest 15% of your income into a retirement account like a 401k or a Roth IRA. For this example, I'm going to use our investment calculator, which I will also drop a link in the description to, slightly different, because this one's going to be more about the number of years we have to grow versus a specific retirement age. So I've got nothing in retirement at this point. I'm going to contribute 15% of that $50,000 salary, which amounts to $625 a month. And I'm going to go from 25 to 34, which is nine years. So nine years to grow, 10% average annual rate of return gives us

$108,000. So a great goal to have before your 35th birthday is to have $100,000 in retirement accounts. And remember, the median was about $18,000. And that's the cost of investing too little or too late, over five times the actual median balance if you get on this stuff and stay consistent. And as you're about to find out, that cost only gets greater the older you get. But on the flip side, the reward can get greater too, which takes us to Americans age 35 to 44. Now at this point, you'd expect to see a pretty big jump in 401K balances. You're about halfway through your working years, your income has likely gone up, but your lifestyle has very likely gone up too.

Most people spend this decade buying their first, maybe even second home, upgrading their cars, laying down a lush carpet of Kentucky 31 Fescue in the lawn. And I'm not mad about that. You work hard for your money. By all means, you should enjoy some of it. But there's a tradeoff here, usually at your retirement's expense, which is probably why the median 401k balance in this decade is only 46,000. $1,919. Now let's compare that to what you could have if you had consistently invested 15%,

which still leaves you enough room to live a modest or wonderful life. We use the same salary as our previous example, $50,000 a year, no raises, which for context is far lower than the median household income of over $80,000 a year. And even if you're single, I still low-balled it. The median wage for a full-time U.S. worker is about $64,000 a year. So I'm being super conservative here. So let's go from 25 to 44 now instead of 34, making 50K a year investing that 15%. So I'm going to go 625 a month, starting from nothing at 25. I'm not going to invest for nine years. It's now 19 years, 25 to 34. 10% average rate of return gives us $422,000. Not bad. So what do I think your 401k balance should be by your mid-40s? If you've got 400k and your 401k, you're doing A-O-K.

But notice this, that's more than eight times the median, just by starting earlier and investing consistently. And that gap only gets wider as we keep going. And you'll see just how wide that gap gets in just a minute. But first, while you're saving for the future, you need to be just as concerned about your spending today, namely where you use your debit card online. Every time you hand over your actual number online, you are trusting that website to keep it safe and keep it secret. And in this case, I don't mind saying I have trust issues, which is why I love today's sponsor, Privacy. They create virtual card numbers you can use with basically any merchant online. So you never have to hand over your actual debit card number. And that means when, not if a

data breach happens or website gets hacked or that trial runs out, your bank account is safe and sound. So check out privacy and get a $5 credit just for signing up at privacy.com slash george or use the link in the description. Now you might not just be missing out on money in retirement. You're probably missing out on money in your savings too. You see most savings accounts today, have a pitiful APY of 0.38%, which is barely ahead of the Rotten Tomato score for Left Behind with Nicholas Cage, which is still sitting at 0%.

May I remind him. However, the high-yield savings accounts at Fairwin's credit union earns over 3%, which is why I love having them as a sponsor. At over 3%, that means your money could be making you way more just by sitting there. And with Fairwin's Smart Bundle, you can get up to 10 of those high-yield savings accounts,

plus a no monthly fee checking account and a Ramsey themed debit card on the house. Go check it out for yourself and add Fairwinds to your banking mix at fairwinds.org slash Ramsey or click the link in the description. All right, moving on to Americans age 45 to 54. Now, at this point, you've only got a decade or two max to get compound growth working in your favor, which is why it is concerning that the median 401K balance in this decade is just $78,730. And when you consider that almost 40% of people in this decade have nothing saved for retirement at all,

it's bad news all around. So how much should you have saved? if you want to do it my way. Well, let's run the math. 25 to 54 years old, if you invested that same $50,000 salary, 15%, that's $6.25 a month, you still somehow haven't gotten a raise in 29 years.

Even if you're a bozo, you're still going to have plenty of money, and I'll prove it to you. 29 years, 6, 25 a month, from 25 to 54, at a 10% rate of return, would give you $1.2 million. Now we're talking.

So by your 55th birthday, If you follow what I teach on this channel, you should have a 401k balance of a million dollars minimum. Now, if your retirement looks a little more like the median at 78,000, all is not lost. I'm not here to shame you. There's a lot of things you can do to catch back up. For starters, cut back on your spending. You might even go as drastic as downsizing your home in order to increase your 401k contributions. You could take advantage of catch-up contributions as well once you hit 50 years old,

which as of this year means you can put an extra $8,000 in your 401K or an extra $11.000. in an IRA. And if you're still holding on to consumer debt by your mid-50s, why? What's going on, man? Come on. You've had 30 years to figure this out. Let's go. Isn't it time to let it go like that foldress can full of random screws that your kids do not want to inherit? They don't want tetanus, bro. They want a legacy. And money. Even if you started with nothing at 50, you could still wind up with a decent nest egg. Not amazing, but decent. All right, I'm going to switch back to the retirement calculator.

for this, and we're going to start with nothing at 50 years old, a sad state of affairs. 50, and we're going to go to 67, because realistically, you're going to have to work longer if you're starting from nothing at 50. Now, let's say you have the median household income of $80,000. That's great. 15% of that, $1,000 a month. So we're going to invest $1,000 a month from age 50 to 67 without fail at a 10% rate of return, giving us over half a million dollars. That's not bad. Now, maybe if you couple that with Social Security, maybe there's some other income coming in, you might have a decent retirement. I don't know your lifestyle, but as for me in my house, that's not enough. So I would buckle down and try to invest even more

or work longer to make up the gap. All right, next up, Americans age 55 to 64. Now, most people I know at this age are looking forward to a little retirement R&R, spending more time with the grandkids, taking those bucketless trips, maybe even a little early. dinner at Cracker Barrow. Little Uncle Herschel's breakfast at 5 p.m.? Not mad about it. In bed by seven? Fall asleep to the price is right?

I'm here for it. Unfortunately, that might not be a reality for everyone, since the median 401 balance at this age is only $107,269. In fact, one in three people say they plan to keep working beyond retirement age just to make ends meet. And listen, when I'm 60, I hope I'm still making YouTube videos or holograms or whatever we're doing by then. Not because I have to, but because I want to.

That's the goal. The work optional. So let's see where you could be following the same example as before. So I'm going to run the math back on my investment calculator. Starting from nothing, age 25 to 64, $50,000 salary, never getting a raise, never getting an employer match, $6.25 a month for 39 years at a 10% rate of return. $3.5 million. dollars. That's pretty incredible. And you'll notice, only 292 grand was what I contributed. So you

don't need to invest three million to have three million. You just got to be consistent over a long period of time. So where should your 401k balance be by your 65th birthday? Anything over three million bucks would be a huge win in my book. And remember, that's just one account. You might have money invested in IRAs, brokerage accounts, savings accounts, who knows where. Plus, a paid off house by then if you do it right. Which means your net worth would be way over three million bucks. My point here is this. Those 401k contributions go a long way when you have 20, 30, even 40 years to work with. And finally, that brings us to Americans age 65 and up, where the median 401k balance finishes at $103,202. I find this utterly distressing, because $100,000 is not nearly

enough to live on for the rest of your life, which, by the way, if you make it to 65, there's a high chance you make it into your 70s and 80s, maybe even your 90s. So 100,000 bucks may not get you very far. Not when you have to pay for higher medical costs or long-term care or basically anything. But maybe you're thinking, George, chill my dude, I'll still have Social Security. To which I'd respond, I yags my guy. You sure about that? Because right now, unless Congress acts, the Social Security Trust Fund will run dry in 2032, which could cut monthly payments by 22%. And I wouldn't bet my golden years on Washington getting its homework done. Even if it is still around, and it probably will be, it's a pretty puny security blanket. Because the average social security,

payment is only about two grand a month. That's basically the poverty line. And that's the worst kind of line there is, except for maybe conga lines, which I would never. Don't put me in your conga line. I don't have that kind of rhythm. Have you seen me? Imagine just, I can't even do the Trump. No more Oreos. So is it that simple? Yes. Your best bet for a stress-free retirement is contributing to an employer-sponsored 401k or IRA like clockwork. So let me paint you a better picture, which could be your picture. Let's say your income did raise to the median household income of $80,000. Well, 15% of that is $1,000 a month. And let's say you got on this early. At the age of 25, you started investing for 39 years to the age of 64. Let's see where you'd end up

then. So current investment is zero. We're 25 years old. We're investing $1,000 a month, 39 years to grow, 10% rate of return. $5.7 million. Now, you might be going, well, George, 10% is That's pretty optimistic. Okay, let's go a little more conservative at 8%. Even at 8%, you get $3.2 million to work with, most of which is growth. You only put in less than half a million bucks to get 3.2 out. That is a magic vending machine. But that magic takes a lot of effort.

It takes sacrifice, consistency, and time. And again, this doesn't account for any raises, any employer matches, or any other investment account you might have. So, even this is conservative. In reality, you're probably looking at a whole lot more money if you do it this way. So don't hear me wrong, retiring a multimillionaire isn't necessarily the end-all be-all goal. The goal is to have money not be an obstacle in the back half of your life. So I've shown you what's possible when you're intentional about saving for retirement over decades. Do not underestimate the power of time, consistency, and compound growth.

No matter how old you are, no matter how much you make, just start. Pay off the debt. Get that emergency fund in place and start saving for retirement ASAP. So, I want to know, how is your 401k doing or your IRA or 4 3B or whatever you have going on? Tell me your retirement number down in the comments as well as your age, and let's see how we're all stacking up here as George Kale and YouTube fans. And if you need a little hope for your financial future, check out this next video where I break down the step-by-step plan that I followed

to become a net worth millionaire in my early 30s. You can check that out by clicking here or use the link in the description. That's it for today. Thanks for watching. Be safe out there.