Do you suffer from IRA balance envy? Or is your IRA nest egg something to brag about? The answer likely depends on how your Individual Retirement Account, or IRA, stacks up versus other savers in your age group. And while there’s no perfect apples-to-apples comparison, as everyone’s financial situation is different, eyeballing average IRA account balances can give you an idea if you’re ahead in the savings game, keeping up, or falling behind.
With traditional pensions on the verge of extinction, the responsibility of saving money to fund retirement increasingly falls on workers. And when you go beyond employer-sponsored retirement plans like a 401(k), an IRA is a key — often complementary — retirement savings tool that can help workers amass more money in their golden years. Assets in IRAs totaled $14.5 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2024, roughly one-third of total retirement assets of $40 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.
The average IRA balance for all ages at the end of the second quarter of 2024 was $129,200, up 14% from a year ago, according to Fidelity Investments’ analysis of 15.8 million IRA accounts. Those plump 12-month gains were driven by a 23% rise in the S&P 500 500 stock index.
If your account balance is lower than the average, don’t despair. And if you’re ahead of the pack, don’t get complacent. Instead, use the average balance information as a starting point to figure out if you’re on track to meet your personal savings goals. And, if not, what tweaks are needed to course correct.
“It’s an opportunity to rethink and reassess your retirement plan,” said Rita Assaf, VP of retirement products at Fidelity Investments. “IRAs can function as a ‘booster’ for your retirement savings.”
Average IRA Balance by Age
Let’s drill down to average IRA balances by age and generation to get a more precise picture as to how much other workers in your age band have set aside. These totals, Assaf notes, include contributions, appreciation, and rollovers.
Here are the average IRA balances by age for the first and second quarters of 2024, according to Fidelity Investments.
What jumps out is how IRA account balances for older folks, or those who’ve been saving for decades, balloons with the help of compounding, regular contributions, and the tendency of the stock market to rise in value over time. The takeaway (especially for younger savers)? It’s not impossible to accumulate a sizable nest egg.
The fact is, what looks like a puny account balance today can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Compounding, or earning returns on both your original investment and prior gains, is a powerful force in building retirement savings. In fact, IRA balances at the end of June were 40% higher than they were 10 years ago, Fidelity data show. “It’s never really too late to save,” said Assaf. “There are always things you can do to help your situation.” And when it comes to saving for your golden years, Fidelity recommends saving 15% of your income (including any company match).
If savers have a workplace retirement savings plan, they should consider investing in an IRA only after saving enough in their 401(k) to get the full company matching contribution. “If you need another place to save money, an IRA is a great tool to use to continue to get tax-deferred growth,” said Rob Leiphart, VP of financial planning at RB Capital Management. Both traditional and Roth IRAs allow your contributions and gains to grow tax-free. However, traditional IRAs are funded with pre-tax dollars, which give you an upfront tax deduction, but require you to pay taxes on withdrawals at your regular income rate. In contrast, Roth IRAs are funded with post-taxed dollars but come with tax-free withdrawals in retirement.
What you should have saved, by age
Let’s see how IRA balances by age, or savings during each decade of life, stacked up at the end of the second quarter of 2024. To help savers get a better guesstimate of whether their savings are on track for a secure retirement, we’ve also included Fidelity’s guidelines as to how much of one’s salary should be saved by the start of each decade in a saver’s life. For example, Fidelity recommends that someone turning 40 should aim to have at least three times their salary saved by then. So, if you earn $75,000 at age 40, you should have at least $225,000 set aside by then, according to Fidelity guidelines.
Again, notice the power of compounding when building wealth. In each 10-year period starting with savers in their 20s, IRA account holders essentially doubled their money each decade. The key takeaway: the modest average IRA balance of $56,500 in the 40s’ age bracket mushrooms into a quarter-million-dollar nest egg two decades later.
The secret of “super savers,” personal finance experts say, is contributing regularly to a retirement account like an IRA, maxing out contributions up to IRS limits if possible, investing for growth via stocks in peak earning years, and implementing a buy-and-hold strategy to get the full benefits of compounding.
Pros and cons of IRAs
The biggest perk of IRAs is the tax benefits they offer. IRAs, which are held in brokerage accounts, also offer a wider range of investment choices than a 401(k), which has a limited menu of options. “So, if you want to buy individual stocks, or if you want to do something that you can’t do within the confines of a 401(k) because it’s not one of those 20 or 25 investment options, then the IRA serves as a great diversification tool,” said Leiphart.
Roth IRAs also give you more flexibility in getting at your money without paying an IRS penalty. “You can take out your contributions at any time” since you’ve already paid taxes on the money used to fund your Roth IRA, adds Assaf. IRAs are also a great landing spot for assets from old 401(k)s. Rolling over old retirement accounts and balances into a single IRA is a good way to consolidate your accounts and avoid the mistake of taking a distribution from an old retirement account before age 59 ½ and paying a 10% IRS penalty.
On the negative side, the amount you can contribute to an IRA each year is much lower than the amount you can sock away in a 401(k). In 2024, for example, the IRS limit on IRA contributions is $7,000 (or $8,000 for those 50 or older). These numbers stay the same for 2025. In contrast, participants in workplace 401(k) plans can contribute up to $23,000 and $30,500 for 50-and-older savers in 2024. These limits go up in 2025 to $23,500 and $31,000 respectively. Savers aged 60, 61, 62 and 63 will be able to make a super catch-up contribution of $11, 250 in 2025.
An IRA can help you catch up in your retirement savings
Just because you’re saving in a 401(k), doesn’t mean you can’t save even more in an IRA, says Assaf.
One way to boost your retirement savings via an IRA is to automate the process by setting up automatic contributions that coincide with each pay period, just like your 401(k) at work, says Leiphart. “I have clients that get paid on the 15th and at the end of the month, so I set up ongoing contributions into their IRA from their checking accounts that align with those dates,” said Leiphart. And if you’re tight on cash now, you can plan on saving a little more in future years, say 1% more each year, when you get your annual raise, adds Leiphart.
