Key Takeaways Many workers’ retirement balances trail the value of their vehicles. On average, no age group has reached even 25% of common retirement savings targets. Small contribution increases and spending shifts can help close the gap over time. A new analysis from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) highlights a stark reality: For many Americans, their car is worth more than their retirement savings. The comparison lands because it swaps abstract percentages with something ta ...

Listen and subscribe to Decoding Retirement on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. It’s the question nearly everyone asks: How much money do I need to retire? There are plenty of benchmarks. Fidelity, for instance, says you should save 10 times your salary by age 67, while T. Rowe Price recommends 7.5 to 13.5 times your income. But Jean Chatzky, host of the HerMoney podcast, said those rules only scratch the surface. “You and I can throw out rules of thumb until we are ...