Financial Opportunities Uncovered: A Keeler & Nadler Family Wealth Podcast

What's Your Number?  Savings Goals Decade By Decade

• Andy Keeler

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What’s your number? We put real mile markers on a lifelong question and show how to translate worry into workable. Joining host, Andy Keeler, is Keeler and Nadler's  Jake Martin, to map your savings targets by decade.  Plus, the habits that actually stick, and the levers you can pull when life gets messy.

We start with the 20s, where building a positive net worth, automating small contributions, and shaping good credit can matter more than hitting big balances. In your 30s, complexity ramps up—homes, partners, kids—and so does the risk of lifestyle inflation.   In the 40s, the “messy middle,” we target three times salary by 45 and talk candidly about stress, competing obligations, and how compounding begins to widen the gap between consistent savers and everyone else.

Your 50s bring leverage. We outline salary targets, IRS catch‑up contributions, and why asset allocation now moves the needle more than new deposits. Then we shift to the 60s, where withdrawal strategy matters. We talk about the 4% rule and what it implies for how much you can sustainably withdraw, as well as how to coordinate Social Security timing to help the portfolio last longer.  The takeaway is clear: if you don’t save it, you’ll spend it, and the earlier you automate, the easier the journey.  

From this episode, walk away with decade-by-decade benchmarks, practical tactics and a clear plan to adjust if you’re off pace. Subscribe and share this episode with a friend who may need a nudge too!   They'll thank you for it.

The opinions expressed in this program are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.

It is only intended to provide education about finance, tax, retirement and related planning topics. To determine which investments or strategies may be appropriate for you, consult your financial, tax or legal advisor prior to implementing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results.

Any indices referenced for comparison are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional.

Keeler & Nadler Family Wealth is a registered investment adviser. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Keeler & Nadler Family Wealth and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Keeler & Nadler Family Wealth unless a client service agreement is in place.


SPEAKER_02:

What is your number? Let's talk savings as you age. I'm Andy Keeler, and today we have a fantastic guest joining us again, Jake Martin, a seasoned financial advisor with years of experience helping people across all stages of life understand their money and reach their goals. Today we're diving into a question everyone wonders about, but few understand. Savings thresholds by decade. I like to call it the number. The question I like to ask a lot of clients is what is your number? Jake, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks so much for having me, Andy. I'm excited to break this down. I think a lot of people have these questions and don't have a great idea of where they stand relative to their peers and how they're doing with their own goals. So I'd like to give some people some benchmarks here to think about.

SPEAKER_02:

Always good to have benchmarks and kind of know where you stand. So let's start at the top, Jake. When we talk about savings thresholds by decade, what do we actually mean? Why is that important for listeners?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I really like to think about these as mile markers. So don't think of this as a absolute must be at this point. But if you're if you're not, if you find yourself a little behind these mile markers, it just gives you an idea that maybe we need to make some changes to get back along the path toward toward getting to our goals. So again, think of these as mile markers, not absolutes. The real key is that uh is that everyone's journey is different, and the goal here is consistency. Making small, smart financial decisions over decades is what really matters here. When we meet with people, we find that a lot are actually behind where they should be. Um, so understanding where where these mile markers are can help to get back on track.

SPEAKER_02:

Aaron Powell You make a point, a very good point there, that everybody's journey is different. And we'll we'll get into some uh scenarios. I'll share a scenario with you here in a few minutes, um a real specific client case. So let's start with the earliers, your 20s. What should people in their mid-20s or early 20s focus on financially?

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell Usually when you're in your mid-20s, you're just getting started with your career. So I don't like to get too focused on specific savings goals simply because you know a lot of people are still finishing up college, maybe some graduate work. Uh, you know, a lot of people have a lot of debt that they're digging out of. So even just have a positive net worth in your 20s uh means you're on a good track here. I actually have a relative of mine who just finished up med school and has$400,000 of debt. This is not, you know, this is something that people face. And so just even getting to a positive net worth can sometimes be a challenge in your 20s and early 30s. Uh but you know, if you're looking for a benchmark of like, am I on track, yeah, a good uh a good rule of thumb is to have about a third of your salary set aside by your mid-20s. So just for example, if you're if you're making$50,000 right out of college, that would mean having about$15,000 in savings by the time your students are. Yeah. So fairly doable. Again, the the key here is not so much how much you're saving, but what kind of habits are you building that are going to really pay off over the coming decades. So things I like to think about or thinking intentionally about are one, setting up automatic savings in and investments. So even if you're starting really small, you're just doing a little bit into a 401k plan if you've got access to that, or setting aside a little bit into an IRA or a Roth IRA. These are the things that these are the habits that will lead to really good things down the road.

SPEAKER_02:

Aaron Ross Powell We'll talk a little bit about 401ks and saving at least up to the company match. You know, a lot of employers they'll match up to maybe 6%. I'd say that's the average. But if you could start with maybe 3%, let's let's also put things in context. You have a college graduate that worked at Wendy's or McDonald's when they were in high school. They walked home with practically nothing in their pocket. They've now have a college degree, even if they're teaching, they're not earning a ton. They're earning$50,000 a year. If they can carve out 3% to 6% and then address the student loans on sort of on top of that, I think that'd be a great place to start.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're exactly right. Uh you know, other things to be thinking about in your 20s is really starting to build a solid credit history. So not you know, not building up a bunch of credit card debt. That's one of the big things I see a lot of people in their in their early years um getting stuck in this in this cycle of of interest, you know, high interest rate debt. Um and and then also just building up your marketable skills so that that your your career has the earnings potential that that's going to carry you long term.

SPEAKER_02:

Early on in our podcast uh sequence, it was one of our first podcasts, we did a concept called decision architecture. And the the concept there is kind of interesting. If you craved sweet snacks or pizza before bed, which is the absolute worst time you could eat pizza, you brush your teeth. And by brushing your teeth, you no longer, you're like, I already brushed my teeth, I'm gonna pass on the pizza. So it's important for folks getting started early to start forming those habits. Hopefully, my 19-year-old son will start forming some habits real soon. Moving into the 30s, life usually gets more complex. Homes, families, bigger responsibilities. How should people approach savings here?

SPEAKER_01:

By your 30s, typically your income is really starting to ramp up. And so those skills that we were starting to build in the 20s, this is where you really want to start getting serious about starting to build some wealth and savings. A good mile marker by age 35 is to have about one times your salary saved. So if you're a family making$100,000 a year, you should have about$100,000 set aside in 401ks and other savings vehicles. Um now, I just want to note that the average net worth for people in their 30s is right around$50,000 or$60,000. So you can see that the people who aren't consistent about this in their 20s and 30s are already starting to fall behind. And you'll see that kind of diverge as you get farther and farther into life. Um so you know, big things here in your 30s are you know, being consistent and adaptable to what this decade throws at you. One, you know, in we talked about in your 20s, starting to get in the habit of putting at least a few percentage points of your salary away. The 30s, you really want to start to ramp this up. So I usually suggest at a very minimum uh doing enough to get your employer match in your 401k. So this usually means putting at least three to five percent of your income into the 401k. Now, long term, that's not gonna get most people to their retirement goals. So I actually usually suggest shooting for more like 10 to 15% of your income going away into a 401k or some other savings vehicle. Other big thing here is that your 30s, this is oftentimes when people are buying houses, this is when they're starting to have families and kids. Life starts to get more expensive. And it's very easy to allow your lifestyle uh to creep up in how it's how it's getting more expensive. We call this lifestyle inflation. This is the the tendency to try to keep up with the Joneses, right? And so one way to counteract that is to automatically increase your savings every year. So you know if you if you get a typical raise each year, taking a little bit of that and increasing your 401k contribution is a good way to fight that inflation.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, there's a concept called pay yourself first. And um you you mentioned keeping up with the Joneses. At some point, after getting promotions and raises, maybe you haven't had kids yet, perhaps, and both husband and wife are working, you have decent income. At some point, you have to start asking the question, where is my money going? And the notion of paying yourself first essentially says, you know, before you pay your bills, start carving out that automatic savings. And I remember in my 30s, I was saving 30% of my income. Whatever I had left, I didn't want to live by a budget. I w, even though I'm a financial planner, I didn't want to be looking at quicken or excel every month and saying, you know what, it's the 25th of the month. We can't afford to eat out this month because we've already blown our dining budget. I didn't want to live like that. So I said, if I if I can put away 30%, whatever I have left, I can spend any way that I want it. So it's you you mentioned creep. Uh it's it's very important for people to start asking the question if they're not doing those automatic investments. Good Lord, where is all my money going? We're still living paycheck to paycheck, and we ain't in college anymore.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. A higher income does not necessarily mean higher savings or financial freedom because it's very easy to just allow your lifestyle to get spent away. Um this is actually kind of a double-edged sword, Andy, that that as your income goes up, if your spending grows right along with it, the the savings need to be able to maintain that lifestyle down the road gets bigger and bigger. Um, but you know, to your point, if you're able to save 20 or 30 percent of your income, that helps to keep that lifestyle down. Absolutely. It's actually a lot easier to save for that because not only are you putting more money away, but you've got a lower lifestyle that you've got to cover.

SPEAKER_02:

Exactly. Uh, the infamous 40s, often called the messy middle, what should people focus on here? Aaron Powell The 40s are stressful, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Oftentimes your teenager, your kids are growing into teenagers. Oftentimes you've got aging parents that that need additional help. People are oftentimes hitting their peak in their careers and having a lot of career pressure. There's there's a reason that that uh that stress peaks in your 40s. And so you know, keeping all of this in mind, we we don't want to let our savings goals kind of fall by the wayside. A good target for someone in their mid-40s is to have about three times their salary saved by age 45. So again, just doing some simple math here, if you're a family earning$150,000 a year, that would mean that you'd have about$450,000 put aside. Now, again, I just want to point out that the average net worth across the US at age 45 is around$150,000 or$160,000. So you're really starting to see this divergence between the people that are on track versus the people that didn't get serious about this back in their 20s and 30s.

SPEAKER_02:

Our typical client is on track. Um, you know, I when I look at say a$450,000 balance at 45, yeah, that's that's typically our client. But our client isn't necessarily everyone. So now we're at the 50s, peak earning years, kids starting to fly the nest.

SPEAKER_01:

What's the goal here? By your mid-50s, you really want to aim to have uh about five times your salary saved. So you start to see this multiple really, really starting to jump at this point. Um so for a family making$200,000 a year, that's that's about a million dollars that you want to have set aside. Uh again, just the average for people in their 50s is is around$200,000. So a lot of people have really fallen behind. This is where you see the effects of compounding growth really benefit the people who got started early. Other things in your 50s to be thinking about, you know, you may have kids that are moving off into college or graduating from college. And so a lot of times you actually have some expenses that are starting to roll off at this point. Sometimes people are paying off their mortgages. And so, like we talked about with that lifestyle inflation, it's really easy when your cash flow improves to allow your lifestyle to expand. But but your 50s are a great opportunity to really supercharge your savings. Uh, one, you know, the IRS allows you to do some additional catch-up contributions. And so, like in your 401, for example, you can add an extra$7,500 a year to your 401k plan after the age of 50. Your 50s are also a good time to really think about your asset allocation. This is where markets, your investments are going to start to move your net worth more than your savings will. So, you know, this is a good time to start talking to an advisor if you haven't done that because that allocation can really influence what your net worth does over time.

SPEAKER_02:

Finally, the 60s, the retirement decade. What should the financial picture look like here?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, by 65, a good target is to have anywhere from eight to 10 times your salary saved. So, again, just for some simple math, for a family making$250,000 a year, that'd be between$2 million and$2.5 million saved. Uh and again, just for comparison, the average net worth for someone in their 60s is just over a quarter of a million dollars.

SPEAKER_02:

10%.

SPEAKER_01:

You got it. I mean, a lot of people have dramatically undersaved by the time they get into their 60s. So you're gonna have to make some different choices in retirement if if you're in that position. Um, so here intentionality is really important. As you're getting into your 60s, starting to think about how I am gonna switch from relying on my salary and my income to now switching over to relying on my portfolio to allow uh to provide that um living expense. And one one common rule we use in this industry is called the 4% rule, which basically says that you can pull, you know, whatever your portfolio is on the day that you retire, you can pull about 4% of that value year after year after year, uh, and your portfolio should last for at least 30 years. So, just again, for some simple math here, if you've got a million-dollar portfolio, that means you can sustainably pull about$40,000 from that portfolio every year for the rest of your life. If you've got a$2 million portfolio, you can pull about$80,000 a year. So you can kind of back into how much do I need to have saved to really completely offset the the income that I'm gonna give give up when I retire. Now keep in mind a lot of people will have Social Security and or some additional pension income. So don't think that the portfolio has got to supply your entire, uh, your entire lifestyle, uh, but you think about how the portfolio and these other sources of income are gonna are gonna fit together.

SPEAKER_02:

So early on, you said everyone's journey is different. And so I'm gonna share a couple stories with you. Most of our clients most have champagne tastes and caviar dreams. The question is, have they prepared themselves for a retirement lifestyle that would meet that need or not? So the the first client um uh about age 55 is when they came in. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take your age 50 and your age 60 goal, and we're gonna sort of average it down the middle. So at age 55, they should have about seven times their income, seven to eight times. At that time, their household income was around$500,000 a year. So seven times five hundred thousand gives you three point five million dollars. And they had, let's say, about three point five million dollars at the time. However, they wanted to spend around three hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year. So you just used a 4% example, four percent withdrawal rate. They want, well they were going to have to withdraw about 7.7 percent of their portfolio. But what makes them even more unique is they said, you know what, we want to assume inflation is 3.72 percent. And I remember that like it was yesterday, 3.72%. Like where did that even come from? It was very specific. But I think at that time, that was what the 50-year average of inflation was. But then they said, we want to assume our investments earned 3.72 percent. So their real return was effectively zero. Wow. And they wanted to withdraw 7.7 percent of their portfolio. I remember they were spending$80,000 a year just on travel. Wow. When they finally retired, they had about$7 million, not$3.5. And even with the withdrawals that they were taking, their portfolio grew to over$10 million, despite the fact that we were sending them$270,000 a year. They had f about$50,000 in Social Security benefits. Now I have an another couple, again, champagne tastes, caviar dreams. The good news is he had a pension, which provided a pretty decent monthly benefit, guaranteed monthly benefit. She had social security benefits. Um but you know, they always wanted to drive the premium cars and they retired again at uh say 60, 65, with only about$1.5 million in their portfolio. And so, you know, at that point, it's having very difficult conversations. It's it's very easy and it's fun to tell a client you need to spend more. If you want to go on a trip, if you want to go to Italy, go to Italy. If you want to fund your grandkids' college funds, fund their college funds. It's very difficult to tell a client, you know what, you may run out of money in the next five years. You're gonna have to make some very difficult decisions. So on average, most people are well behind the savings goal. And as I said, uh I I've worked with people in their 40s and their 50s, and they're saying, we're living paycheck to paycheck. We just don't have the money. If you don't save it, you'll spend it. And so you need to save it first.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. If you find yourself falling behind in your 30s and 40s, that those are the times to really make those adjustments. Uh, because you know, by the time you get it get to your 60s, there just isn't enough time to do all that catch up in a in a few years. Now, if you do find yourself behind, uh there there's a few other things that we that we often uh work with people on. You know, one one, you could think about retiring a little bit later. Um so if you're willing to work until 70 or beyond, that can solve some of these problems. The other thing that we talk a lot about is Social Security and when to claim Social Security. Um your 60s are typically when you turn Social Security on, you can turn it on as early as age 62, as late as age 70. Uh for any who anyone who isn't familiar with Social Security, that benefit changes dramatically between age 62 and 70. The age 62 benefit is almost half of what the age 70 benefit is. So you know, working a few extra years and allowing that Social Security benefit to really, really grow can help to offset uh some savings that you might be behind on.

SPEAKER_02:

Jake, if you could leave listeners with one key takeaway about staying on track financially through these decades, what would it be?

SPEAKER_01:

I think the biggest thing I would focus on is building habits and systems that make savings automatic. And you know, we talked about this from the beginning. Starting out in your 20s, starting to build that habit of savings and then growing those savings throughout time, that's really what's gonna make this not only easy, but it but then that that money's gonna compound and grow and help you along the way. So uh, you know, building those habits and systems and acting intentionally is what's gonna pay off in the long term.

SPEAKER_02:

Fantastic advice, Jay. Thank you so much for joining us today and helping listeners see that financial freedom isn't about luck. It's about consistent, intentional action adapted over time. Thanks for having me, Andy. It's been a pleasure. That's a wrap for today's episode of Financial Opportunities Uncovered. Remember, your financial journey is a marathon, not a sprint. And the best time to start running intentionally is now.

SPEAKER_00:

The opinions expressed in this program are for general information purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations. It is only intended to provide education about finance, tax, retirement, and related planning topics. To determine which investment strategies are appropriate for you, consult your finance, tax, or legal advisor prior to implementing. Any past performance discussed during this program is no guarantee of future results. Any indices referenced for comparison are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. As always, please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal. Please seek advice from a licensed professional. Keeler and Adler Family Wealth is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Keeler and Adler Family Wealth and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Keeler and Adler Family Wealth unless a client service agreement is in place.