In a prior piece, we noted that just over 3% of Americans have saved up at least $1 million for retirement. That handsome seven-figure sum, enough to power retirement in an affordable city, is the milestone that most savers and 401(k) contributors are chasing. Even so, with individual healthcare costs in retirement now expected to reach $172,500 according to Fidelity’s 2025 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, a million dollars demands careful management.
There is no universal magic savings number. The right figure depends entirely on how your expenses compare to the passive income you can generate from pensions, investment portfolios, and part-time work. A lavish lifestyle in Manhattan could require well over $5 million to sustain a decades-long retirement. A modest life in rural Nebraska, on the other hand, could be funded comfortably with a fraction of that amount.
It is always tempting to keep raising the bar once you’ve reached a savings milestone, particularly when legislation gives near-retirees fresh tools to do so. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, savers aged 60 to 63 can now contribute up to $11,250 in super catch-up funds to their 401(k), pushing the total annual deferral limit to $35,750 for the 2026 tax year. For workers in their early 60s who feel behind, this provision offers a meaningful last push before retirement.
This piece looks at the retirement overachievers who have stashed away at least $5 million. As always, a financial advisor can help you find a realistic target and a credible timeline to reach it.
How many Americans have managed to save $5 million?
Data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which draws on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, indicates that only about 0.1% of Americans have over $5 million saved for retirement. To put that in perspective: in a room of 1,000 people, just one would cross that threshold. According to a 2024 AARP survey, 20% of Americans aged 50 and older have no retirement savings at all, which makes the $5 million club all the more rarefied.
Per Fidelity’s Q4 2025 Retirement Analysis, the average 401(k) balance closed the year at $146,400, underscoring just how distant $5 million remains for most workers. Long-term savers fare better: those who have contributed to a Fidelity retirement account for over five years held an average balance of $304,200. Women are also closing the gap in a meaningful way. Women who have participated in their 401(k) for over 15 years held an average account balance of $508,700 at the end of 2025, and nearly four in 10 increased their savings rates during the year. Even so, the $5 million mark remains a rare milestone.
If you are a high-income earner committed to a comfortable life in an expensive city, that $5 million club may be the right target. And if full retirement feels premature, the growing trend of “phased retirement,” where workers shift into part-time consulting or passion projects, can stretch a smaller nest egg further while keeping income flowing.
Keeping emotions in check through market cycles
You do not need to be a seasoned trader to harness the power of compounding, but you do need a long-term perspective and some discipline about portfolio construction. Many investors now view the traditional 60/40 stock-and-bond split as outdated, gravitating instead toward alternative assets or growth-oriented strategies to build the kind of wealth that reaches seven figures.
Market conditions will shift, sometimes violently. The ability to remain skeptical during euphoric bull markets and steady during brutal downturns is one of the most undervalued skills in retirement planning. The biggest risk for anyone targeting $5 million is taking on too much risk in the pursuit of it, which can set a retirement back by years or even a decade. A financial advisor can help calibrate the right level of exposure for your timeline and temperament.
The bottom line
For the majority of Americans, saving $5 million is neither achievable nor necessary. Many savers are redefining retirement itself, embracing flexible work arrangements and phased exits that reduce the total capital required. The $5 million target is less a survival threshold than a fund for total financial freedom, including the freedom to never work again on someone else’s terms.
A financial advisor can tell you whether $5 million is a realistic goal or whether a smaller, well-constructed plan gets you to the same place. The key steps remain the same at any income level: contribute consistently, capture every available employer match, and take full advantage of contribution limit increases like the 2026 super catch-up for workers aged 60 to 63.
Editor’s note: This article was updated to reflect Fidelity’s Q4 2025 Retirement Analysis, which put the overall average 401(k) balance at $146,400 and the 15-year continuous female saver average at $508,700. The piece also incorporates Fidelity’s 2025 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate of $172,500 for an individual retiring at 65 and a 2024 AARP finding that 20% of Americans aged 50 and older have no retirement savings.
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