Now factor in debt like student loans and credit cards. Is the national average negative?

The article states $995 and references 30+ page report. When i search that report both ctrl+F and skimming it i can’t find where they are pulling that $995 from. Wouldn’t surprise me if they gave that pdf to an ai and it hallucinated the $995 and who knows what else

Note that this is excluding things like home equity, which is a pretty important exclusion.

I wouldn’t call home equity the best place to stick assets — you can probably find better investments — but real estate also represents a substantial chunk of a typical American’s assets.

This is talking about IRAs and 401(k)s and stuff like that, saying that Americans have an average of less than $1k in those.

By-and-large, Americans probably should spend less on housing and should make more use of things like those — that’s a real takeaway — but it’s important to note that the article isn’t saying that Americans have an average of less than $1k in assets stored to live on in retirement.

EDIT: That does seem low, though.

Fidelity says that the average 401(k) has $144k in it.

It’s technically possible, if enough people don’t have 401(k)s, to bring the average for people, if you include those who don’t have a 401(k) or other retirement savings plan set up, below $1k, but I have a hard time believing that that’s actually the case. The median might well be below $1k, but normally “average” means “mean”.

https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/average-net-worth-by-age

Average retirement account balance by age

The average 401(k) retirement balance across all age groups is $144,400, according to Fidelity Investments’ Building Financial Futures Q3 2025 report.3 Here is the average 401(k) account balance for different generations.

Average 401(k) retirement account balance by generation

Generation	Average 401(k) balance
Baby boomers (born 1946–1964)	$267,900
Gen X (born 1965–1980)	$217,500
Millennials (born 1981–1996)	$80,700
Gen Z (born 1997–2012)	$17,000

Keep in mind that 401(k) account balances are just one chunk of someone’s net worth—and might even be just one part of their retirement savings. An investor could have long-term money saved in other types of retirement accounts or a brokerage account.

That generational increase represents how normally, one accrues assets over one’s working life — it starts small and then grows.

goes looking at the article

https://www.nirsonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/NIRS_2026-Retirement-in-America-FINAL.pdf

Page 18:

The goal of contributing to a DC savings plan and aiming for a savings target is to accumulate assets for retirement, i.e., retirement wealth. The sample for this analysis is restricted to respondents ages 21-64 who have positive personal income, likely from a job, but possibly from other sources. Further restricting the sample to those for whom DC retirement wealth is positive and then examining the median values shows that the median amount of DC retirement wealth was $40,000 in December 2022 (Figure 17). This finding is only for those with at least one dollar saved in a DC plan. Examining all respondents ages 21-64, even if they have nothing saved for retirement, indicates that the median amount of DC retirement wealth is a meager $955.

Okay, so that’s what’s going on. Basically, a lot of workers never set up a retirement savings plan, so they have $0 in retirement savings plans. The original report uses “median” and along the chain of quotes, the thing got converted to “average”. And then the title uses “retirement savings” rather than “retirement savings plans” or something that clearly indicates that it’s specifically talking about a class of savings plans.

EDIT2: The report is apparently making the case that more people should use 401(k) or similar plans, and more employers should offer them.

Normally, when you’re getting hired at a new job, if it has a 401(k) plan, they’ll ask what you want to contribute. You likely want to max out your contribution if you can afford it. If they have an employer-match or something, it’s an even better idea.

https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/average-401k-match

How does a 401(k) match work?

It’s like free money you don’t want to miss out on.

A 401(k) match is when an employer puts money in an employee’s retirement account based on what the employee contributes. Match formulas vary, but a common setup is for employers to contribute $1 for every $1 an employee contributes up to 3% of their salary, then 50 cents on the dollar for the next 2% of an employee’s salary. Ideally, workers should aim to save 15% of their pre-tax income each year, including any match.

More than 85% of 401(k) plans for which Fidelity is the service provider offer some type of employer contribution, according to Mike Shamrell, vice president of Thought Leadership at Fidelity. “As the largest service provider in the country with around 25,000 plans as of March 2025, our numbers are viewed as a good indicator of what’s going on across the retirement landscape,” he says.

Throw the rich in the ocean.

Average superannuation balance in Australia, so defined contribution pension fund, is AU$170,000. All workers get 12% of their wages from their employer added to it by law. I think the hope is that eventually, there will be no aged pension and people will depend on their super rather than the government for retirement.

Yup we all got fucked

BS