$56,300 is the median salary for full time workers in the US.
$1,614 is how much Social Security pays on average per month.
$19,370 a year
34% the median full time salary in the US.
11.6% is the median percentage of income spent on healthcare in the US.
$6,530
Medicare covers that.
Dollar wise, the value of medicare and social security is now at $25,900.
46% of the median income for full time working people.
To get an idea of this, lets position this on a 40 year scale, for what a person who is 25 should look to have by age 65.
For inflation, let’s assume “hope” inflation is the same over the next 40 years as the last.
$1 in 1982 is worth $3.03 today.
Hoping the median salary holds with that, in the year 2062, full time workers should expect to average $170,589.
Assuming medicare and SS are unchanged and adjusted for inflation, that value should hold putting them at $78,477 values at the time.
This means a person should have a goal of being able to get $92,112 at age 65, to hold with the median salary.
401k’s generally pay an average of 8%.
That’d mean a person in 2062 to keep up with living standards would need to have $1,150,000 saved, to get an 8% return either off a 401k or typical investment in the market.
According to the federal reserve, the average savings for seniors is $426,000.
Which adjusted for inflation, that’d be $1,290,000 by 2062, above the needed $1,150,000.
The issue though is that’s an average, where the other groups say the median savings for people over the age of 75 is $255,000 currently.
That’d be $772,600 in 2062, around $400,000 below the goal number of $1,150,000.
Answer is it’s mixed.
78% of people over 65 own a home, many having liquidity in it built up.
That is something that can be sold and scaled down to cheaper living, adding heavily to savings.
21% of people over 65 have pensions. Again, something which helps.
Another thing to factor is seniors tend to not need the expenses of a younger person, where a person who is 25, 35, 45 and 55 are all far more likely to be supporting a kid or multiple kids.
That said though, looking at inflation, it’ll be tough to imagine people living well unless they have at least $750,000 saved.