PeakWorth™

Net Worth

$385KTop 42%

PeakWorth

$4.2M+$182K

FI Age

50y 1m-11mo

2 min

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Benchmarks Decision

How Much Should You Have Saved by Age? (And Why The Standard Rules Are Wrong)

Standard guidance: 1× income at 30, 3× at 40, 6× at 50. Reality: those targets get you to age-67 retirement, not financial independence.

By , Founder of PeakWorth

See what savings level YOU actually need for YOUR FI AgeWhat is PeakWorth™?

Key facts

Fidelity target at 30

1× income

At 40

3× income

At 50

6× income

At 67 (full retirement)

10× income

The Fidelity savings rule of thumb

Fidelity's widely-cited guidance: aim to have 1× your annual income saved by 30, 3× by 40, 6× by 50, 8× by 60, and 10× by 67. These targets are designed to support a traditional retirement at full Social Security age (67), replacing about 45% of income from your portfolio plus 30% from Social Security.

These multiples are current as of 2026 — Fidelity has held the same rule-of-thumb ladder for years, but always sanity-check against your own target retirement age rather than the headline number.

What this misses

These benchmarks assume: you'll work to 67, Social Security will be intact, your spending will drop in retirement, and inflation behaves nicely. If you want to retire earlier, spend more, or be safer — you need 1.5–2× these numbers.

PeakWorth™'s projection uses YOUR target retirement age, YOUR expected expenses, and a probabilistic model — not a one-size-fits-all multiple.

How PeakWorth converts a savings multiple into a dated FI Age

The 1×/3×/6× multiples are a one-size-fits-all proxy for 'on track for retirement at 67.' They can't tell you the year YOU reach independence, because that depends on your spending, taxes, and existing balances — not just a multiple of income. PeakWorth runs your real numbers through a year-by-year deterministic simulation to age 95 instead of grading you against a ratio.

It reports your FI Age — the year your portfolio reaches ~25× the expenses it must cover after Social Security — roughly 20× your total annual expenses — so 'do I have enough saved for my age?' becomes 'what year can I stop, and how does saving more move it earlier?' For most households the multiple needed for early FI is 1.5–2× the Fidelity target, and PeakWorth shows your exact figure rather than the national rule of thumb.

Personalized to YOU

See exactly how this changes YOUR PeakWorth™ and FI Age

Generic articles can only go so far. PeakWorth runs every scenario against your real income, expenses, and goals — so you see the dollar-and-year impact of every decision before you make it.

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Frequently asked questions

Is 1× salary saved at 30 realistic?

For median earners, it's a stretch but achievable with a 15% savings rate from age 22.

What if I'm behind?

Increase savings rate aggressively. Going from 5% → 20% in your 40s can still get you to 8× by 60.

Does the home count?

Fidelity's targets are investable assets only — no home equity. PeakWorth tracks both separately.

Do these multiples get me to financial independence or just retirement at 67?

Just traditional retirement at 67. They assume you work to full Social Security age and your spending drops. For FI in your 50s you typically need 1.5–2× these targets — PeakWorth models your exact number against your spending.

How much sooner can I retire if I beat the savings target?

Each extra increment of savings rate both adds contributions and lowers your FI number, so it compounds. PeakWorth reports the dated FI Age for each savings rate you might choose, so 'ahead of the 3× target' becomes a specific number of years earlier.

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