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Retirement\u00a0account<\/a> balances, which fell at the start of the year due to market volatility, bounced back<\/a> in the second quarter, according to the latest data from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) savings plans.<\/p>\n The average\u00a0401(k)<\/a>\u00a0balance jumped 8% from a year earlier\u00a0to $137,800, a record high,\u00a0Fidelity found<\/a>.<\/p>\n The average\u00a0individual retirement account<\/a>\u00a0balance also rose 5% year over year\u00a0to $131,366.<\/p>\n Number of 401(k), IRA millionaires hit all-time highs<\/p>\n The rebound in account balances helped boost the number of 401(k) millionaires<\/a> to an all-time high.\u00a0<\/p>\n The number of 401(k) accounts with a balance of $1 million or more jumped to 595,000 as of June 30, up 16% from the first quarter, according to Fidelity.<\/p>\n The number of IRA-created millionaires also increased by 16% to a record 501,481.<\/p>\n Positive savings behaviors were key to better outcomes, said Mike Shamrell, Fidelity’s vice president of thought leadership.<\/p>\n The majority of retirement savers\u00a0continued to make contributions<\/a>, even during periods of market turbulence, Fidelity found. The average 401(k) contribution rate, including employer and employee contributions, largely held steady at 14.2%, just shy of Fidelity’s suggested savings rate of 15%.<\/p>\n More from Personal Finance:<\/strong> A great stretch for the major indexes also helped.<\/p>\n U.S. markets came under pressure after the White House first announced country-specific tariffs on April 2, causing some of the\u00a0worst trading days<\/a>\u00a0for the\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n However, markets then rebounded from those losses.\u00a0Savers who “stayed the course, continued to contribute at healthy levels and didn’t make significant changes to their allocation, were able to take advantage of the positive market conditions that followed,” said Shamrell.<\/p>\n As of Wednesday’s close, the\u00a0S&P 500<\/a>\u00a0was up about 10% year to date, the Nasdaq<\/a>\u00a0had gained more than 11% and the\u00a0Dow Jones Industrial Average<\/a>\u00a0rose roughly 6%.<\/p>\n “We have seen a lot of resilience out of the market despite a lot of volatility,” said Tim Maurer, a\u00a0certified financial planner and the chief advisory officer at SignatureFD,\u00a0based in Atlanta.<\/p>\n “Markets have a positive rate of return,” said Maurer, who is also a member of the\u00a0CNBC Financial Advisor Council<\/a>. “Any asset class that has a positive rate of return should regularly hit new highs.”<\/p>\n
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