How much does the typical American have saved up for retirement? It’s a simple question — but there’s not a simple answer. The mathematical average of everyone’s retirement account values may seem like a fair way to come up with a figure. How — and how widely — all of the underlying numbers used in the calculation of this average are dispersed, however, leads to a misleading result. Namely, it’s much, much more than the majority of Americans actually have tucked away. Never even mind that older Americans should (and broadly speaking, do) have more saved than younger people. They’ve had more time to accumulate and grow their nest eggs, after all.
That’s why when Vanguard published its “How America Saves 2025” report in June, it offered two different benchmark figures for a range of ages. One is the mathematical average, or mean, while the other is the median, or midpoint amount.
But which (if either) should you personally worry about the most?