Why Only 3% of US Retirees Have Over $1M

Most headlines shout that you need millions to retire comfortably. The truth? It depends on you. 

Ari breaks down what “enough” really means, and how to design a plan that fits your lifestyle, health, and peace of mind, not someone else’s spreadsheet.

In this episode, you’ll hear real-life stories that prove one size doesn’t fit all. 

• A saver with $3 million who can’t enjoy travel because of sciatica. 
• A Chevron retiree with $487K, a paid-off home, and a $2,800 monthly budget living his version of freedom. 

Same markets, totally different outcomes—and both work.

Listen as Ari shares a simple framework to turn your lifestyle into a retirement number: calculate your after-tax monthly spend, annualize it, and match it to a conservative withdrawal rate. You’ll see why $35K a month might require $8M, but $3K can work beautifully with smart investing and tax strategy.

You’ll also learn how to avoid the silent killers of a good plan: sequence risk, poorly timed withdrawals, and outdated estate documents. Plus, how to time Roth conversions, structure income for flexibility, and protect your health and wealth over decades.

If you’ve ever asked, “Should I retire now with less or wait for more?” this episode gives you the clarity to choose confidence over comparison.

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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.

The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements

Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.

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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Only 50% of retirees over age sixty have a million
dollars.
That love blue hosts watching onYouTube.
You're like, wait, I'm going tohave that.
Or I already have that.
Well, an example of that.
This might not be the episodefor strategy that you talk
about.
I have case studies of yourfinancial website.

(00:26):
And my job is financial to thechannel or to the podcast.
Find what you feel confidentabout your retirement.
Just a quick disclaimer here.
Guys, be more smart about this.
So appreciate it.
You can of course submit you tosubscribe.
If you're listening to theretirement podcast, there's no
subscribe button, but you canjust listen or send me an email

(00:47):
and say you appreciate theappreciate all of you who do
tune into it.
But I received the name isArizona.
I'm a certified financialplanner.
I find it posted the earlyepisode on it.
This very least blew my mind,guys.
Okay, guys.
I looked it up because somesomeone commented on a recent
YouTube video of mine and said,hey, very nice of you to make

(01:08):
videos for people who have$20million.
I have$2 million.
And did you even know only 3% ofpeople over age 60 have a
million dollars?
And I thought, there's no way.
3%?
That's insane.
I mean, clearly I'm just in abubble and I'm talking to such a
small part of the population.
Now, I will say a lot of mycontent is directed towards
those that have one, two, five,ten million dollars.

(01:30):
Not because I'm trying to bemean or exclude others.
That's where I can help.
I don't want to make videos onbest new credit cards and how to
get out of debt.
That's not my specialty.
I do tax planning, I do estateplanning, I do withdrawal
strategy.
That's what lights me up.
So you're never gonna see medoing travel hacking or things
like that, which is not bad.
There's value to that stuff.
It's just not what I do.

(01:51):
So this blew my mind, so I hadto look it up.
So the Federal Reserve Survey ofConsumer Finances said 3.2% of
retirees have a million or morein their retirement accounts.
So I wanted them to clarify.
So that's strictly 401k's IRAs,not including real estate.
So many of you are like, oh,okay.
So like the home equity, thatcorrect.
Just saying retirement accounts.

(02:12):
And I found 2.6%, this isaccording to Investipedia, of
all Americans, including thosenot yet retired, have 1 million
or more in their accounts.
And the Congressional ResearchService reported only about 4.6%
of households, over 1 million inretirement assets, and 4.7% have
500K to a million.

(02:33):
So it's not as if it's oh 3%over 1 million, and then
everyone else has 999,000.
Far from it.
Now the Employee BenefitResearch Institute estimated
4.7% of Americans have a millionplus, and just 1.8% have 2
million or more.
Now, you'll see other articles.
CNBC put out one that saysretirees say they have more than

(02:56):
1 million saved, 16% of them.
Okay, that's different than 3%.
So it depends where you look.
But the reason I'm bringing thisup and why this blows my mind is
you shouldn't feel bad no matterhow much you have.
Life gives us differentcircumstances.
I had one lady, and many of youhave heard this story, but if
you've not, it's literally thestory that to me is the most
powerful that I've told, whosaid she was so upset that she

(03:16):
had three million dollars.
I said, listen, lady, I don'twant to be mean here.
There's people that would loveto have three million dollars.
So why are you upset?
She said, I didn't need threemillion, I only needed two
million.
I said, Well, you have three, soyou should be grateful that you
did a good job and spend moreand you put the work in, so
kudos to you.
She said, You don't understand.
I said, Clearly, tell me, whatam I missing?
She said, Well, I have sciaticaand so I want to hike and I

(03:39):
don't like being on planes forlong periods of time.
And that's where I want, I wantto get on a plane to go hike in
beautiful areas, and I want togo to Machu Picchu, and now I
can't because sitting in a planeis so excruciatingly painful
that in order to go throughthat, I'm not going to want to
only hike.
It's just misery.
So, yeah, I have 3 million, butif I had 2 million and I did not

(04:00):
sit at my desk for the last fiveyears, maybe I wouldn't be in
the level of pain I'm in, and Icould have enjoyed my retirement
more.
And that's when I went, wow.
Okay, so that's the value ofgood planning is when do you
have enough?
You might need 500,000.
I have a story I often tell ofsomeone who um worked at Chevron
for about 35 years, retired on$487,000.

(04:23):
I remember that because I mostpeople don't tell me the exact
number they retired on.
Most people go, about half amillion, about a million, about
two million, five million.
He said, I retired with$487,000.
A small pension was about$810 amonth, if I recall correctly.
If he's watching this and you'relike, it was$812, you can
comment below.
But and then we'll all know whoyou are.

(04:45):
But it blew my mind because heonly needed about$2,800 a month
to enjoy what he wanted to do.
He paid off his home.
That was his major goal.
Doesn't live a uh very bougielifestyle, very frugal
naturally, and he's gonna workon spending in retirement
because he's like, I want toenjoy my life more, but it's
very hard for me to do.
I know the value of a dollar.

(05:05):
I have other clients that haveliterally 30, 40 million plus
dollars with us because they gotinto NVIDIA really early or
Apple really early.
And they're like, Well, I neveranticipated having this.
I didn't have this growing up,but my stock did really well, so
now I'm in a really fortunateposition.
It's weird to even feel like Ihave this money and it feels
like monopoly at times, but it'strue.

(05:26):
And so there's no right orwrong.
I'm making this just to say,yeah, the stats show 3% or 4%,
or according to CNBC, 16% ofpeople over age 60 have$1
million.
To me, I don't care about that.
I actually, you don't need acertain amount to retire.
You will see articles onlinefrom different institutions.
You need a million to retire,two million, three million today

(05:47):
is only worth, you know, onemillion.
It just depends on how much youwant to spend and when you want
to retire.
So if you want to spend, andthis is a common question, I'll
ask, and I'll ask it of you, andthat's what I'm gonna use to
finish this quick episode today.
Would you rather just let meknow in the comments on YouTube
or if you're listening on thepodcast app, you can go to my
website, earlyretirementpodcast.com, submit a

(06:08):
question, or email me, Ari atrootfinancial.com.
Yes, I see those emails, as wellas my team.
And so if you if I were to askyou right now, would you rather
retire today and exactly spendfive thousand a month after
taxes adjusted for inflation,okay?

(06:29):
Or would you rather keep workingthree more years and then you
can spend eight thousand a monthfor the rest of your retirement?
What would you choose there?
Let me know and let me know thelogic.
Don't just say, you know, B8,000, like we're past high
school stage.
So let me know a little bitabout that.
Not that you ever would do thatin high school, but you get my
point.
So I want to know because thequestion I'll ask my clients is

(06:53):
they'll come to me.
I had someone who came, it'sabout four and a half million
and said they'd love to spend$35,000 a month in retirement.
I said, okay.
And is that more important toyou,$35,000 a month, or would
you rather stop working?
They said, I don't really hatewhat I do.
I just want to retire when I canspend$35,000 a month.
I said, okay, well, let's backthat out for a second.
Let's take$35,000.
Let's say you want that everymonth, right?

(07:14):
They go, yep, I go multiply thatby$12.
That's$420,000 a year.
We're going to take aconservative 5%, meaning if you
want$420,000 every single year,you need about$8.4 million.
You could probably get away withabout$8 million, and you could
spend$420,000 every single year.
And he's like, Well, I don'thave that.

(07:34):
I said, Okay, well, you have anoption.
You can spend less, you canspend$20 or$10,000, or you can
say, I'm just going to worklonger and take advantage of
compound interest till you getto that point.
Or you could do a mix.
You could say, I'm going tospend a little bit while I'm
working part-time and thenshift.
You might go, well, part-time'snot even an option for me.
Now, this example is, you know,obviously not one that applies

(07:55):
to all of you, but I could dothe same logic where I take, for
example, if you want to spend,let's say,$3,000 a month,$3,000
a month, times that by 12,that's$36,000 a year.
We're going to divide that by 5%for a withdrawal rate.
Okay, if you if you had about$720,000 a year, you could spend
about assuming you're doing allthe right things, invested well,

(08:17):
everything that we we preach andtalk about in the podcast, you
you could spend about you know$36,000 without concern.
And, you know, if that's whatwould give you a happy life,
then that's what you would focuson.
So pretend right now you'relike, I spend three to four
thousand a month, my home's paidoff, I live a simple life, I'm
I'm happy.
Well, great.

(08:37):
If you have a million dollars, Iwould start looking into
retirement.
And you might be like, really?
Because this article says I needthree million.
That article doesn't know you.
Now, it totally depends.
How much do you want to give toyour kids?
Do you want to pay for theirhomes?
Do you want to give them downpayments?
What about healthcare?
What about insurance?
What about estate planninggoals?
What about tax planning?
So there's so much that you needto go through, which is called

(08:59):
our Sequoia process, where westart with a kickoff call to
know you, then we show you howmuch income you can create, then
we show you here's how theinvestments create that income,
then we show you the taxliability, which is often
someone's biggest expense inretirement.
Then we show you the protection,the security to bulletproof your
plan.
So that's what we do.
That's like the first monthworking with us, is we really
bulletproof your strategy.

(09:21):
If you're interested in workingwith Rue, there's what we love
to do.
If you want to use the softwarethat I talk about in my videos,
you can get access to that inthe description of this episode.
And I'll see you guys next time.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you all, as always, forlistening to the early
retirement podcast.
I love getting to host theseshows and make different content
for you guys every single week.
I've not missed a single week inyears, and that is because I

(09:44):
love getting to do this.
Now, please be smart about thisbefore you actually execute any
strategy that you see me talkabout or hear me talk about,
should I say, please talk toyour financial advisor, your tax
preparer, your estate attorney.
Please be smart about this.
None of this should be construedas financial advice.
This is for fun, educational,informational purposes only.

(10:05):
Once again, just quickdisclaimer here, guys.
Please be smart about this.
Appreciate you listening asalways.
And you can, of course, submit aquestion on my website, early
retirementpodcast.com.
If you, of course, want me toaddress a specific case study or
topic.
I will not promise I can get toit, but I respond to every
single person.
And if I find it will be helpfulfor a lot of people, I will

(10:27):
absolutely make an episode onit.
At the very least, give you someinsight.
That's it.
Thanks, guys.