Planning for retirement requires thoughtful money management and careful planning. When it comes to retirement, curious glances at what other Americans are doing to prepare are a helpful way of assessing where you fall on the preparedness spectrum: Are you totally ready or woefully unprepared?

                By                    Maddie Duley

Learn: GOBanking Rates’ Best Savings Accounts 2023See: With a Recession Looming, Make These 3 Retirement Moves To Stay On Track More: 6 Types of Retirement Income That Aren’t Taxable

Take a look at the results of GOBankingRate’s recent survey to obtain the latest insights on how much Americans are saving for retirement and how to best prepare for this expensive life phase.

A Third of Americans Have Less Than $10K Saved

Many Americans have a long way to go when it comes to affording retirement. According to the survey, 36% have less than $10,000 saved. Not far behind them is the 27% of Americans who have between $10,000 and $50,000 saved. Additionally, 15% have between $50,000 and $100,000 saved, and 9% have $100,00 to $200,000.

Few Americans have saved more than $200,000: 4% have between $200,000 and $350,000, 4% more have $350,001 to $500,000 and a little more than 5% have more than $500,000.

Additionally, women make up a higher percentage of Americans who have less than $10,000: 40% of female respondents fall into this range, while 31% of men do.

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Here’s How Much You Need for Retirement

There are a few helpful guidelines that can help you determine how much money you need to save up in order to retire at the age you want and achieve your retirement goals. According to Fidelity, a great way to make sure you have enough in your retirement savings is to save at least 15% of your pre-tax income each year. The earlier you can start setting aside money for retirement, the lower your yearly savings rate can be.

If you haven’t started saving for retirement yet, it’s not too late. If you start saving at 30, you might want to save 18% annually for retirement; or, if you start saving at 35, you should save 23%, according to Fidelity.

See: With A Recession Looming, Take These 3 Retirement Moves To Stay On Track

11% of Americans Put 10% to 20% of Their Income Toward Retirement

Additionally, 18% of respondents said they could not afford to put any of their income toward retirement.

Follow These Age Markers

Another helpful starting point is to strive to put aside at least one times your annual income by age 30. Then, you want to stay on track by saving three times your income by 40, six times by 50 and eight times by 60. This rule is based on the assumption that you save 15% of your income annually from the age of 25 and are planning to retire at 67.

This technique is a helpful way of gauging where you are in your retirement savings and can give you goals that will allow you to maintain your lifestyle in retirement.

77% of Americans Count on Social Security

With the majority of Americans investing under 10% of their income toward retirement, many are planning to supplement their savings with Social Security.

According to our survey, 20% of respondents said they plan to fund all of their retirement with Social Security, 31% are counting on Social Security to cover more than half of their retirement and 26% are counting on the program to cover less than half. Other respondents have less hope for the program, as 23% stated they are not counting on Social Security at all.

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