Retirement is creeping up on millions of Americans, but the money to pay for it is not. A new national analysis finds the typical U.S. worker has less than $1,000 set aside for retirement, a sobering reality that Twin Cities financial advisers say should be a wake-up call, not a white flag.
According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, the median amount of retirement savings for employed adults ages 21 to 64 is just $955. The study, which draws on the U.S. Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation, also finds that among workers who do have retirement accounts, the median balance is about $40,000, and an estimated 56 million private sector workers do not have access to an employer sponsored retirement plan.
That access gap matters because Social Security is still doing a lot of heavy lifting for older Americans, even as its own balance sheet looks wobbly. The Social Security trustees' 2025 summary projects that if lawmakers do nothing, the combined trust fund reserves could be depleted in the mid 2030s and benefits would cover about 77 percent of what is scheduled, roughly a one in five cut in payouts, according to the Social Security trustees' 2025 summary. Reporters have already connected the NIRS findings to trends like retirees heading back to work to make ends meet, as noted by CBS News.
Kyle Moore, a financial planner at Quarry Hill Advisors in St. Paul, told KSTP that workers should "especially just [take] advantage of your employer match" and called Roth IRAs "a very powerful vehicle" because they grow tax free. Moore noted that even modest, regular contributions can compound into substantial sums over a 30 or 40 year career, a long game that matters even more when starting balances are so low.
Minnesota Rolls Out Secure Choice Program
On the policy front, Minnesota is trying to narrow the gap for workers whose employers do not offer retirement plans. The Minnesota Secure Choice Retirement Program began a phased launch on Jan. 1, 2026, to provide auto IRAs for employees who lack an employer plan, according to the Georgetown Center for Retirement Initiatives. The program uses automatic enrollment and staggered deadlines so that smaller employers are pulled in over time, giving more Twin Cities workers a built in way to save.
What Twin Cities Workers Can Do Now
For workers looking at their own numbers and feeling queasy, advisers say the basics still matter. Start by checking whether your employer offers a retirement plan and whether it matches contributions. If it does, try to contribute at least enough to capture the full match. If you do not have access to a plan, consider opening a Roth IRA and find out whether your employer will eventually be covered by Minnesota's Secure Choice. As Kyle Moore told KSTP, small, consistent savings can build meaningful retirement security over time, and even bumping up contributions by a single percentage point each year can add up over decades.
The NIRS authors are hosting a webinar on Feb. 11 to unpack the numbers and discuss policy ideas and personal steps. For readers who want the full analysis, National Institute on Retirement Security has the report and related resources available online.
