Experts Say You Should Have 1x Your Salary Saved for Retirement by 30. Here's How to Get There

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If you're in your 20s, you probably can't even imagine being retired, right? Heck, at this point, you may be working toward your first promotion. The idea of not having to work at all may read like a foreign concept.

But while you certainly don't have to start picturing retirement in your 20s, you should absolutely start saving for it. In fact, Fidelity recommends having the equivalent of your annual salary in retirement savings by age 30. So to pull that off, you clearly can't wait until you're 30 to start saving. Instead, you'll have to start earlier. But with the right approach, hitting that milestone may be more than doable.

What can having 1x your salary by age 30 do for you?

If you manage to save the equivalent of your salary by age 30, you'll be giving yourself a solid foundation you can build on for the rest of your career. You'll also then have the flexibility to take a few years off from savings if need be -- say, if you decide to leave the workforce for a few years to raise kids or decide to take a sabbatical.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the median weekly wage of workers aged 25 to 34 at $1,080. That's about $56,000 a year when we multiply that sum by 52.

So let's say you have $56,000 in your individual retirement account (IRA) by 30, and you never add a dollar more. If your investments in that account generate an average annual 10% return, which is consistent with the stock market's average return over the past 50 years, then by age 65, you could be sitting on $1.57 million.

Now to be clear, this is not a recommendation to save a bunch of money by age 30 and call it a day. You should aim to continue saving regularly well beyond that point.

The point, however, is that if you manage to accumulate enough money to match your salary by that age, there's a great chance you'll end up with more than enough money to buy yourself the comfortable retirement you deserve. And again, you'll also buy yourself the flexibility to scale back on savings in future years should your financial situation change.

How to save 1x your salary by 30

Saving the equivalent of your annual salary by age 30 might seem like a tall order. But it's surprisingly doable if you set money aside for retirement as soon as you begin collecting a paycheck. If you begin working full time at age 22 and sock away a little over $400 a month between then and age 30, that brings you to $56,000 if your portfolio delivers a 10% return during that window.

That's why it's so important to get into the habit of automating retirement plan contributions from the moment you start getting paid regularly. If you get used to collecting a larger paycheck, you're more apt to spend the money rather than save it. If you send $400 or so into a retirement plan from the start, you're likely to forget about that portion of your earnings -- which is a good thing in this context.

Another trick to get to 1x your salary by 30? If you have a 401(k) plan with an employer match, contribute enough to snag your free cash in full. The $400 monthly contribution we just talked about could actually only mean putting in $200 a month from your own paycheck if your employer kicks in the equivalent as part of its matching program.

Saving 1x your salary by age 30 might seem hard. And it's not an easy thing per se, since it means parting with some of your earnings and earmarking them for a goal that's way off in the future. But if you make that effort, it could be your ticket to the retirement of your dreams.

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