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A Record Number of Americans Are in the 401(k) Millionaire Club
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
595,000 401(k) accounts hit $1 million in Q2 as market gains boosted retirement savings balances.
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A record number of 401(k) accounts had $1 million or more at the end of the second quarter. Amid tariff uncertainty that roiled the stock market, investors who stuck to their long-term savings plans in the spring were rewarded.
The stock market has more than rebounded from the selloff earlier in the year that followed the president’s tariff announcements.
Stocks notched record highs earlier this month, and the S&P 500 is up about 10% year-to-date. Recent earnings beats from large companies, including Nvidia, and anticipation of interest rate cuts have driven gains in the stock market. The growth is helping Americans’ 401(k)s hit fresh records.
New research from Fidelity reveals that 595,000 accounts held $1 million or more at the end of the second quarter, an all-time high and an increase from 512,000 at the end of the first quarter. A year ago, there were 497,000 accounts with $1 million or more.
“Even during periods of turbulence, the majority of savers are wisely making the decision to stay the course and not make sudden changes to their retirement investments,” Sharon Brovelli, president of workplace investing at Fidelity Investments, said in a release Thursday. “This diligence and focus on long-term retirement goals contributed to this quarter’s retirement balance rebound.”
Average 401(k) balance hits a new high
While million-dollar 401(k)s represent just a sliver of all accounts, smaller-dollar 401(k) accounts also performed well in the second quarter, helping savers get closer to their retirement goals.
The average 401(k) balance ($137,800) is up 8% in the past year, according to Fidelity. That was the largest increase in a quarter since the end of 2023.
The report found that the average 401(k) savings rate was 14.2% in the second quarter, including employer contributions. That’s just below Fidelity’s recommended rate of 15%.
Recent growth in the stock market has been impressive, and savers obviously can’t count on it to repeat.
But making steady 401(k) contributions — and increasing your paycheck deferrals when you can — will remain key to long-term retirement planning success, regardless of what’s going on in the stock market day-to-day.
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete covers trending stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including car buying, insurance, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News in Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and he attended the annual Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in 2021. Pete has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.