0.1% of People Retire With This Much Money. Will You?

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For retirees, a million dollars has always seemed like a solid goal. $1 million puts your mind at ease. Without doing the math to back into an annual salary, the sum should be enough to keep you afloat (and then some) through retirement, allowing you to do largely what you want and live where you please, enjoying your golden years to the fullest.

When you’re saving toward retirement, $1 million seems like an attainable plateau, too — somewhere you should reach, if all goes to plan. Though other surveys put that number closer to $4 million to be safe, a million is a commendable financial milestone that most will never reach. According to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s analysis of the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, just over 3% of retirees reach the $1 million milestone. 0.1% of them get to the $5 million mark. That means, in reality, most Americans are retiring with much less. Some have no savings at all, and, in turn, no investment income either. 

That means reaching either of the aforementioned financial milestones is an incredible achievement. At that point, it’s more than a nest egg; it’s an estate — something that puts you, and your family, at a financial advantage for generations, potentially. But it comes with new challenges, which require you to work smartly to protect what you’ve built. When your assets grow, so do your tax considerations — and even minor missteps can cost you more than you think.

As such, it’s wise to seek out the most tax-efficient ways to manage your wealth. From optimizing your investment strategy to planning when and how to draw from your account, a tax-smart approach can make the difference between maintaining your wealth and watching it erode.

Fisher Investments’ free guide, Tax-Efficient Wealth Management for Affluent Investors (for those who have $5 million or more), breaks it all down. It offers forward-looking advice to strengthen and optimize your portfolio, along with clear, actionable tax management techniques for retirement. Inside, you’ll find strategies that affluent investors use to stay a step ahead — whether that’s timing capital gains, structuring income for lower tax exposure, or making smarter charitable and estate planning decisions.

Download Tax-Efficient Wealth Management for Affluent Investors today.