How Your Savings Stack Up Against the Average American at Age 55-64: The Shocking Truth

Retirement Reality Check: Are You Ahead or Behind the Curve?

The Numbers Don't Lie

While traditional finance preaches the same old diversification gospel, the 55-64 age cohort's savings figures reveal a stark divide between those playing by yesterday's rules and those building real wealth. Conventional retirement planning moves at institutional speed—meanwhile, forward-thinkers leverage asymmetric opportunities that traditional portfolios completely miss.

Wake-Up Call for Conventional Wisdom

The average savings benchmark for this age group exposes how outdated financial advice leaves millions shortchanged. Banks push cookie-cutter solutions while quietly skimming fees—but innovative assets don't ask for permission to outperform legacy systems.

Breaking Free From Mediocre Returns

Smart investors aren't waiting for pension funds or social security to save them. They're building self-custodied portfolios that compound exponentially while Wall Street still charges 2% for index fund underperformance. The old guard protects its fees; the new paradigm bypasses middlemen entirely.

Time to Audit Your Financial Stack

If your retirement strategy still relies on 'set it and forget it' fund allocations, you're essentially betting on a system designed to benefit institutions first. True financial sovereignty means taking control—not outsourcing your future to suits who still think 7% annual returns are 'aggressive.'

Key Takeaways

• Americans ages 55-64 hold more in savings than most of their younger peers, but less than their older counterparts. 
• Financial experts emphasize that retirement may last 30-plus years, making it crucial to keep investing for long-term growth even if you’ve stopped working.
• Adding even a few hundred dollars a month to a retirement account can significantly grow your nest egg over time. Catch-up contributions can also help.
• For cash you want easily accessible, consider a top high-yield savings account or one of the best nationwide CDs to maximize your short-term savings.
  

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What the Average American Has Saved by Age 55–64 (and How You Stack Up)

If you’re in your 50s or 60s, you may find that you have more financial flexibility than in previous years. With fewer obligations like paying for college tuition or raising children, you might be in a good position to focus on boosting your retirement savings.

Whether you plan to continue working for several more years or are nearing retirement, your ability to save is impacted by several factors, including age. It’s not surprising that the older you are, the larger your savings balances tend to be. According to the Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances, the median balance that households with bank accounts had in 2022 (the most recent data available) ranged from $5,400 for those under 35 to $13,400 for those ages 65-74.

Americans who are 55-64 are in the middle. Among the 98.3% of people in that age group who have a bank account, the median balance was $8,000.

Median Bank Account Balances by Age Among Bank Account Holders

	Under 35	35-44	45-54	55-64	65-74	75 or older
2013	$2,800	$4,840	$5,090	$6,360	$8,910	$8,910
2016	$3,150	$4,690	$5,010	$6,620	$9,870	$12,330
2019	$3,760	$5,460	$7,420	$6,520	$9,270	$10,780
2022	$5,400	$7,500	$8,700	$8,000	$13,400	$10,000

Source: The Federal Reserve’s “Survey of Consumer Finances” (2022), median transaction account balances by age group. Transaction accounts include checking, savings, money market, and brokerage cash accounts, as well as prepaid debit cards.

Important

We use median figures here, instead of mean averages, to reduce the impact of those with exceptionally high or low savings amounts. The median value is that of an American in the middle of the range–where half of the survey respondents reported more savings and half reported less.

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People in the 55-64 age bracket also have money saved or invested in other kinds of accounts and assets, with more than half having retirement accounts.

Where Else People Age 55-64 Are Saving Money

Asset	% Households with Asset	Median Value for Asset Holders
Savings Bonds	8.5%	$3,000
CDs	6.6%	$25,000
Stocks (directly held)	19.2%	$30,000
Retirement Accts	57%	$185,000
Bonds (directly held)	1.2%	$400,000

Source: Source: The Federal Reserve’s “Survey of Consumer Finances” (2022)

"Directly held" means the asset is not in a retirement account. The value of bonds in this table looks much higher than the other categories because only a small, wealthy group of 55-64-year-olds owns directly held corporate or municipal bonds. When they report the face value or purchase price of corporate or municipal bonds, the median holding appears very large compared with categories that are more broadly held, like retirement accounts or stocks.

Strategies to Maximize Your Retirement Savings in Your 50s and 60s

There’s no right/perfect/ideal amount to save. It varies based on your personal and financial situation. Your lifestyle and costs can vary region to region, and if you have pensions or additional sources of retirement income beyond Social Security, that can mean you can have less in retirement savings, said Marguerita Cheng, CFP, founder of Blue Ocean Global Wealth.

If you were raising children and helping them with large expenses such as college, you may not have been able to save as much when you were younger. Or if you had car payments or credit card debt that you’ve been able to pay off, you may now be able to direct more money toward savings. 

Cheng offers these tips:

If you are not already collecting Social Security payments, Cheng recommends creating an account at SSA.gov to see what you can expect to receive at age 62, at your full retirement age (as determined by the Social Security Administration), and at age 70. You will receive the most if you wait until age 70, but you can start collecting the benefit at age 62. You may receive less at that age, “but there's times and situations where that may be appropriate,” Cheng said.

If you have extra money from paying off debt, allocate some of the cash FLOW to both short-term savings and long-term investments. “Even if you're in your 60s and you're retiring today, you're still a long-term investor,” Cheng said. “It’s not unusual to spend 30 years in retirement.”

If you are balancing college costs and retirement and you have a 529 education account, Cheng recommends not paying for school solely with those funds. While they are very favorable and utilize tax-free money, she suggests paying some college expenses with taxable money so you may be eligible for some education tax credits.

Tip

If you pay for $4,000 of qualified higher-education expenses per year with taxable funds, you may be eligible for a $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit. This credit is on expenses within the first four years of higher education; another credit called the Lifetime Learning Credit is designed for all education levels. You cannot claim the AOTC and the Lifetime Learning Credit for the same student in the same tax year. 

Holding some of your investments in a Roth IRA could save you some headaches when you later withdraw the money—since withdrawals from a Roth will be tax-free, said Cheng. Plus, being over 50 means you can make catch-up contributions. But you don’t need to max out the full amount each year if it WOULD strain your finances, Cheng said. A few hundred dollars a month in contributions can still add up to $3,000 a year.

“This is a great time to talk to your spouse and partner about what they want to do and the vision they have, and it's OK if it's different,” Cheng said. “It's important to have these conversations, because we all have different experiences and preferences based on what we've experienced and what we've seen.”

How to Use High-Yield Accounts and CDs to Boost Your Savings

If you’re in a position to add to your short-term savings, CDs and high-yield savings accounts are two great options—especially now, while interest rates are high.

A high-yield savings account offers full access to your money and can provide a solid return—though the rates are variable, meaning that the credit union or bank can change them at any time. A dozen of the highest-paying savings accounts paybetween 4.40% and 5.00% annual percentage yield (APY) right now. A high-yield savings account is a good place for your emergency fund, Cheng noted, and is her recommendation if someone’s short on cash reserves.

If you don’t need immediate access to your money, a certificate of deposit may be a good choice. CDs pay a guaranteed, fixed rate while you leave your money untouched for a certain time period, usually between 3 months and 5 years. The top-paying CDs are currently offering yields as high as 4.60%.Those returns are locked in regardless of what happens with interest rates during the length of your CD.

While they aren’t as accessible, Cheng recommends CDs as an alternative or in addition to high-yield savings accounts because of the fixed rate and suggests considering a CD ladder as a strategy to boost your guaranteed returns.

Daily Rankings of the Best CDs and Savings Accounts

We update these rankings every business day to give you the best deposit rates available:

• Best High-Yield Savings Accounts
• Best Money Market Accounts
• Best High-Yield Checking Accounts
• Best Overall CD Rates
• Best 3-Month CD Rates
• Best 6-Month CD Rates
• Best 1-Year CD Rates
• Best 18-Month CD Rates
• Best 2-Year CD Rates
• Best 3-Year CD Rates
• Best 4-Year CD Rates
• Best 5-Year CD Rates

Important

Note that the "top rates" quoted here are the highest nationally available rates Investopedia has identified in its daily rate research on hundreds of banks and credit unions. This is much different than the national average, which includes all banks offering a CD with that term, including many large banks that pay a pittance in interest. Thus, the national averages are always quite low, while the top rates you can unearth by shopping around are often 5, 10, or even 15 times higher.

How We Find the Best Savings and CD Rates

Every business day, Investopedia tracks the rate data of more than 200 banks and credit unions that offer CDs and savings accounts to customers nationwide and determines daily rankings of the top-paying accounts. To qualify for our lists, the institution must be federally insured (FDIC for banks, NCUA for credit unions), and the account's minimum initial deposit must not exceed $25,000. It also cannot specify a maximum deposit amount that's below $5,000.

Banks must be available in at least 40 states to qualify as nationally available. And while some credit unions require you to donate to a specific charity or association to become a member if you don't meet other eligibility criteria (e.g., you don't live in a certain area or work in a certain kind of job), we exclude credit unions whose donation requirement is $40 or more. For more about how we choose the best rates, read our full methodology.