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A new study from Northwestern Mutual suggests that Americans' "magic number" for how much money they believe they need to save for retirement has sharply risen in recent years, even while their actual savings are falling.
Northwestern Mutual's 2024 Planning & Progress Study, which is the company's research series exploring Americans' attitudes, behaviors and perspectives on a range of issues tied to their long-term financial security, found that U.S. adults believe they will need an average of $1.46 million to retire comfortably, which is a sharp 15% increase from last year and a robust 50% higher than at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when Americans' target number was $951,000.
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