{"id":480238,"date":"2026-05-12T03:38:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/480238\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T03:38:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T03:38:25","slug":"is-465k-rich-enough-to-keep-you-in-your-home-in-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/480238\/","title":{"rendered":"Is $465K \u2018Rich\u2019 Enough To Keep You in Your Home in Retirement?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adequately saving<\/a> for retirement has become a significant struggle in the last few years.<\/p>\n

On April 30, President Donald Trump<\/strong> signed an executive order<\/a> aimed at increasing retirement savings access for Americans not currently covered by a 401(k)<\/a> or other workplace retirement plans.<\/p>\n

He proclaimed that young workers who regularly saved and invested in these private-sector individual retirement accounts could accumulate $465,000 by the time they reach age 65.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, they\u2019ll be rich,\u201d Trump said during the signing ceremony.<\/p>\n

But\u2014would they? Speaking to financial experts, the consensus is that while that figure is more than what most people have saved, given rising housing costs, the looming threat of losing Social Security<\/a>, and the fact that folks are living so much longer, that assessment is debatable.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump signed\u00a0an executive order\u00a0to expand access to retirement plans on April 30, 2026.Getty ImagesThe reality of retirement today<\/p>\n

The president’s figure of $465,000 is based on a specific, saving scenario: a 25-year-old saving $165 per month, receiving a $1,000 annual Federal Saver\u2019s Match, and earning a 6% annual return until age 65.<\/p>\n

The average 401(k) investor had a roughly $168,000<\/a> account balance at the end of 2025, according to Vanguard Group, while the average IRA balance was about $137,000<\/a> at the end of 2025, according to Fidelity Investments.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, roughly 56 million Americans lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan at work, according to 2025 research <\/a>from the Pew Charitable Trusts.<\/p>\n

While getting those people invested in their retirement is important, access to accounts isn\u2019t so much the problem: Funding them is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor low-income earners, the reality is that after nondiscretionary expenses are covered, there often just isn’t $2,000 sitting around to contribute in the first place,\u201d shares Linda Grizely<\/a><\/strong>, a certified financial planner and financial wellness speaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She points out that the president\u2019s executive order has merely pointed people who can \u201calready open an IRA today\u201d in the right direction, which is \u201ca step, but not a game-changer\u201d in getting people set up for retirement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe publicity it is getting in and of itself may be helpful to increase motivation and awareness,\u201d says Bobbi Rebell<\/strong>, a CFP at CardRates.com. \u201cAccess is meaningful and can be helpful in closing the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

For argument’s sake, let\u2019s say a young person could manage to put $165 away. It\u2019s important to note that nearly $155,000 of the total $465,000 projection is attributable to the Saver\u2019s Match, according to a White House fact sheet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this money is not guaranteed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Saver’s Match came from Biden-era legislation,\u201d explains Grizely. \u201cIf eligibility tightens or the match shrinks under a future administration, the math behind it changes significantly. Program eligibility shifts all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only 59% of Americans have a retirement savings plan today, and even among those who do, they are only moderately confident that they will have enough money to fund their retirement, according to a\u00a0Gallup poll released last year<\/a>.The $465,000 question<\/p>\n

For those who have yet to save a cent toward their twilight years, a figure close to half a million dollars sounds tempting\u2014and would be far more than what they could ever reasonably save without help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe number the president cites is more realistic and in most cases simply more than what most people have saved or will have saved by age 65,\u201d says Rebell.<\/p>\n

However, when pressed, Americans surveyed have admitted their \u201cmagic number\u201d (the number needed to retire comfortably) currently stands at $1.46 million, up from $1.26 million in 2025, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress Study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much of this has to do with the fact that prices across the board, whether they be mortgages, gas, or groceries, continue to be on the rise\u2014not to mention life expectancy.<\/p>\n

Today, a 65-year-old has an\u00a0average life expectancy of 86<\/a>, and a 65-year-old couple has a 64% chance that\u00a0at least one partner will live beyond 90<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, which number is truly realistic?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, any number is misleading as a blanket statement,\u201d says Grizely. \u201cThe number that\u2019s enough depends heavily on where you live, what your lifestyle is, and what healthcare costs will be in retirement, including if there is a long-term-care need. Someone retiring in rural Mississippi<\/a> has a very different financial picture than someone in Southern California<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that financial picture becomes very different when you\u2019re a homeowner. In the last five years, the cost of homeownership has jumped 26%<\/a>. For those without retirement savings, Social Security is the only lifeline to keeping their homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as of now, Social Security alone is enough to cover the living expenses in only 10 states, according to the Realtor.com\u00ae<\/a> analysis of median Social Security benefits<\/a> by state and the Elder Economic Security Standard Index<\/a>. Everywhere else, retirees face shortfalls as great as thousands of dollars per year.<\/p>\n

Plus, there is the added concern that Social Security will run out by 2032.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because of that, having an individual retirement plan is more crucial than ever, and understanding your personal finances fully is the only way to know how much will make you \u201crich\u201d in retirement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But no one can argue that having more wouldn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCalling $465,000 \u2018rich\u2019 concerns me because it gives people a false sense of confidence in what they really need,\u201d says Grizely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe $1.5 million figure from consumers is closer to what I see in real planning conversations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adequately saving for retirement has become a significant struggle in the last few years. On April 30, President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[79,210128,18,19,17,210129,234,235,3887,6782,210130,836],"class_list":{"0":"post-480238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-daily-email","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-money-monday","14":"tag-personal-finance","15":"tag-personalfinance","16":"tag-retirement","17":"tag-saving-money","18":"tag-slot-02","19":"tag-video"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116559524908390366","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}