55 years old average 401k balance $211k

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Quote from turkeyneck:

The average account balance for savers who are now 55 years old or older and have been participating in their plan continuously for 10 years was $211,300 at the end of the third quarter, up from $96,000 a decade ago, according to Fidelity.

All kinds of selection problems with that "conclusion".

 

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Quote from Arjun1:

The point is that people that stuck with dollar cost averaging into this market doubled their money in during the worst decade in history for stocks.

That conclusion cannot be drawn from the report - not even remotely.

The only statement you can make with certainty, is that the tiny sliver of people covered by the data lost less in the markets than they put into the markets.

I trust everyone understands "active plan" means "keeps making contributions"....

 

[Occam]

Quote from unigeezer:

In 2011, the average *single* American would need a minimum of 5 million liquid cash, to retire "comfortably at age 65. And that's only if he had no existing debt. This is assuming he would live to 85 years of age. This would equate to a mere $250k per year to live on. How one person with zero debt live on such a paltry amount? With the price of gas, food and utilities, he would barely be able to survive! He would really need to have closer to $10,000,000 in cash at retirement age to have even a fighting chance to survive.

Quote from dumb_mother:

well this is just a foolish statement from the get-go...

I am pretty sure unigeezer is joking

 

[maxpi]

Start working when you are young, put money into bonds in a 401k very regularly, when Indexes are below their 200 week moving averages sell the bonds and buy good companies that pay dividends.. you will sell your bonds maybe five to seven times in your working life.. probably you will not get exhausted from daytrading in your golden years and you will retire with a sizeable nest egg...