Twice my salary, as in... two months of salary? Two years?
Either way, it's not much money π
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
328 points (98.2% liked)
Brand New Sentence
140 readers
294 users here now
Showcasing the brazen and nouveau in English communication.
- Be cool to each other.
- Post title must be the sentence, include username if available.
- Link for context if possible.
- Tag NSFW where applicable.
founded 3 days ago
MODERATORS
Two years. But given you can only put 7K in an IRA per year, and a lot of companies match 3% for a 401k, it would take quite a while to build up to your annual salary x2 unless youβre doing quite a bit more.
Assuming you started work at 25, that's ten years.
Of course, assuming your salary is increasing year-to-year, it's also a moving target. I started my career earning $32k way back in 2006. Changed career paths and jobs a couple of times. By the time I was 35, I was making $90k. Needless to say, I did not accumulate $180k in savings during that period.
But, on the flip side, it's much easier to save money when you're making $20k above the average income than $40k below it.
Yeah I'm confused too
Twice my salary is zero because Iβve been unemployed for four years now, but Iβm also 39, so life goal achieved! Woohoo?
2x0 is still 0 so I guess I'm ahead of the curve.
I turned 30 last year and just started making money that I can actually save.
Congrats! Thatβs awesome.
Well guess majority of Americans are fucked.
This is why I strive to keep my salary as low as possible. Easier to hit those numbers when you only work part time and they are in the low thousands. Worker smarter, not harder.
I have two months of rent saved. That's something, right?
Fully unironically.
Anual or like monthly?
Mothly
As an Australian we have what's called super. Forced retirement savings.
Does this include this or should I come up with a lot of money in the next 3 years?
2x only? At 35? How does that help with retirement? Sounds FAR too little.
I think the expectation is that you will retire at 75 and die by 80, so having 5 years of salary to fade into oblivion with sounds nice.
And better to have just a bit extra, too, so that your leftover funds can pay off all the medical debt incurred while dying so your family doesn't inherit it.
Fuck it really is bleak, isn't it?
This includes the people that died in their 50s and 60s and only worked their entire life with no vacation
Rule of thumb is 1x at 30, 3 times at 40
As investments get larger, they reach a "boiling point" where they build up much quicker.
This rule of thumb is meant for someone retiring at age 65
I bought my first house at 30 how tf am i supposed to also have had enough money to have a whole years worth of pay saved. This may have been great advice 10 years ago, and is probably still great today, but seems unreachable for a significant number of people.
The house is a form of saving and investment, the value of that minus the debt would count for these numbers.
How?? You didn't just take a nickel from the couch cushions and pay for an entire semester of college right before driving your $500 dollar NEW luxury vehicle to buy your 3rd house for 10k?
Kids are so lazy these days
Seriously... I have a coworker like this. He's in his 60s and talks about the numerous properties he owns and rents that he bought decades ago and asks me why I don't do it...
Motherfucker we're underpaid factory workers, how the fuck am I supposed to get $500k and who the hell is going to rent that house at the price I'd have to set for rent? Just because you got your houses for ~90k back then doesn't mean I can now...
It's insane. I have clients all the time tell me "oh you should travel more" yeah I'll get right fuckin on that
"retiring at age 65"
Hah! I'll be dead long before I retire.
Is that rule of thumb for retirement savings or savings in general?
Retirement savings specifically
It is. You need at least six moths.
Nice; there's definitely way more than just 6 moths around where I live.
Go ahead and gloat about all of your moths while we all talk about not being able to retire. What an asshole
Btw, can I borrow two moths? I'm trying to catch the bus to get home
Saved or invested? I feel like it should be invested given how bad inflation is.
Assuming that nunber wasnt pulled completely from someones ass, it has gotta include assets. There is no way anyone my age has two years salary available in cash. Shit, I probably only have one salary year's worth of equity in my house. Cash on hand I have maybe a weeks salary, depending how close I am to payday.
Is this for USA? Because in Europe, by 35 the country has already taken from you one salary only for the retirement...
Let's do the math on this then. TL;DR: comes out to 22% annual savings rate, maybe 15% with market returns factored in.
So we'll have four variables:
s: starting salary
r: raise coefficient per year, eg. 1.05 would be a 5 percent raise per year
v: retirement savings rate, eg. 0.05 is saving 5 percent a year including employer match if you can get it
n: number of years working
So the amount saved would be the savings rate times starting salary for the first year, plus the savings rate times the starting salary times the raise coefficient for the second year plus the savings rate times the starting salary times the raise coefficient squared ...
Which is:
(sv) + (svr) + (svr^2) ... (svr^n)
We can extract out the sv to make it:
(sv)(r+r^2...r^11)
The second part is the sum of the geometric series which is also:
(r^(n+1)-1)/(r-1)
So all in all we get
(sv(r^(n+1)-1))/(r-1) = Retirement savings
If we want 2 times salary at the end then we get
(sv(r^(n+1)-1))/(r-1) = 2sr^n
The s's cancel out so we get:
(v(r^(n+1)-1))/(r-1) = 2r^n
So let's plug in some numbers we'll say:
r = 1.05 = 5 percent raise a year
n = 11 = working for 12 years from 23 -> 35, don't count the first year
So:
(v(1.05^(11+1)-1))/(1.05-1) = 2*1.05^11
15.91v = 3.58
v=0.225
Or you'll need a savings rate of 22% ... which seems absurd. If you get no raises then it gets lower as your end salary is lower so it becomes a simple 12sv=2s or 1/6 , 17%.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, haven't done math like this in a while. Yes there should be market returns factored into this, I don't feel like doing that math but claude says that it would be about 15% if you factor that in.
Itβs hard because what is twice your salary at 35 is probably a lot higher than your salary at 20. So, which salary figure is supposed to be 2x?
I was thinking that as well as its pretty hard to be making excess money to the point of saving before 30.
True retirement experts aren't giving professional advice, they are fuckin chillin.
"I've been in the Retirement business for 40 years"
"Wow, you must suck at it"
Conventional wisdom is three months salary, lmao. The finance bros are shit posting into a slaughter.
This kind of bullshit has to come from someone who stands to gain from it. I'm guessing someone in the financial sector trying to drum up business by scaring the general public.
Well I've done something right.