Even if some retirees do not know how their retirement assets are allocated, a consensus among workplace plan participants is they will need more than $1 million for retirement when it is time to cash out.
Schroders PLC’s 2026 US Retirement Survey, which surveyed 1,500 U.S. investors nationwide from ages 30 through 79, including 382 retired individuals, from March 20 through April 15, asked plan participants, “What level of savings is needed on Day 1 of retirement?” Survey respondents, on average, believed they would need $1.2 million.
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“Advisers can use that opportunity, or that data, to educate individuals on how to better allocate their portfolio,” says Deb Boyden, Schroders’ head of U.S. defined contribution.
Nearly one-quarter of surveyed plan participants (24%) did not know how their retirement assets were allocated. Among those who did know their allocation, they reported that an average of 26% of their savings was in cash, with one-third saying they were waiting for the right time to invest.
“Because for participants with long time horizons, excessive cash can create a meaningful opportunity cost,” Boyden says.
Minding the Gap
When Schroders’ respondents were guessing the cost of a comfortable retirement, most reported doubt that they could attain such a sum. Only 30% of participants believed they would accumulate $1 million in retirement savings. Half expected to have less than $500,000 saved, including 24% who predicted they would have less than $250,000.
The vast majority of plan participants (81%) were worried about running out of money in retirement, with 69% of respondents reporting they believed rising healthcare, utility, insurance or housing costs would have the biggest impact on savings.
“The actual amount of healthcare that one spends in retirement has been a surprise to individuals,” Boyden says. “The [retirement] industry as a whole has spent years focusing on accumulation. … How do we educate individuals about turning that savings into a monthly income for what your needs and your expenses are in retirement?”
The realities of retirement were highlighted in Thrivent’s separate 2026 Retirement Expectations Survey, which found that 47% of surveyed nonretirees were skeptical that they would ever be able to fully retire.
While most of Thrivent’s nonretiree respondents (58%) felt they would retire on schedule, 64% said they were focused more on their current financial situation, rather than planning for retirement.
Additionally, 35% reported feeling behind their peers when it came to retirement planning due to high cost of living (53%) and not earning enough to save for retirement (47%).
“The future has always brought uncertainty, but many Americans today are navigating a wider range of questions about work, the economy and retirement than they did just a few years ago,” said Jason Rogoff, a Thrivent financial adviser, in a statement.
Ipsos conducted the poll on behalf of Thrivent from June 15 through June 22 with 2,032 U.S. adults.
The Downside of a ‘Magic Number’
While it is easy to guess the perfect amount of savings one needs for a comfortable retirement, Eric Sondergeld, managing director of Greenwald Research, says setting such high expectations is not always helpful.
In the last couple years, Schroders’ “magic number” for a comfortable retirement has remained about the same. In 2025, survey respondents, on average, said $1.28 million was needed to comfortably retire, up from $1.24 million in 2024 but down from $1.35 million in 2023. One constant across all of Schroders’ annual surveys since 2022 was the expectation of needing at least $1 million.
In a prior interview with PLANADVISER, Sondergeld said that unrealistic expectations can offset the outcomes.
“That actually leads to paralysis and inaction when people say you need to save … a particular amount of money or a particular multiple of your income,” Sondergeld said. “If you’re not on track to get to that number, you’re going to say, ‘Well, I can’t,’ and you’re just going to give up.”
Sondergeld said two individuals with a similar age and income can have widely different needs for retirement income, depending on access to benefits such as Social Security or a pension.
“A lot of people start taking issue with those [magic] numbers,” Sondergeld said. “They say you can’t apply that because everyone’s situation becomes much different the closer they get to retirement.”
