Average Investment Portfolio Size in Your 40s: Are You Keeping Up?

Your 40s are typically when you’re hitting your peak earnings—or you’re getting close to it. Yet the latest Federal Reserve data shows that the median financial portfolio for people in this age group—that is, all assets except for your home—is worth only $37,700. And almost four in 10 American fortysomethings have no retirement savings at all.

Much More in Cash Than Stocks

While the typical fortysomething household holds $37,700 in total financial assets, the average is almost $277,538, a split that reflects how heavily a handful of wealthy households distort the picture.

Cash dominates most Americans’ assets, and those in their 40s are no exception. The median balance of liquid assets—checking, savings, and money market accounts—is $8,500, with a mean of $47,902. That’s a massive chunk for accounts that tend not to keep up with inflation over time.

Also, direct stock ownership is still relatively rare: only about 21% of households ages 40 to 49 own individual shares of companies. Among those who do, the median value is $10,000, and the mean is $188,015. Owning bonds is even rarer, held directly by fewer than 1% of households in this group.

The Retirement Savings Gaps

About 61% of 40-to-49 households have some money in retirement accounts. Among those who have these accounts, the median balance is $73,000, and the mean is $195,173. Across all households in this age group, including those with zero retirement savings, the median falls to $13,000.

That figure is well below common benchmarks. Fidelity recommends having three times your annual salary saved by age 40, four times by age 45, and six times by age 50. The median 40-something household hasn’t cleared the lower target.

More recent data offers context, though the picture hasn’t shifted dramatically since the Fed’s 2022 survey. Workers ages 35 to 44 hold an average 401(k) balance of $103,552 and a median of $39,958, according to Vanguard’s “How America Saves 2025” report.

Fidelity’s data shows Gen X workers (broadly ages 46 to 61) holding an average 401(k) balance of $222,100 and an average IRA balance of $120,300. Gen X workers are also increasingly turning to IRAs as a supplement: Fidelity reported a 25% year-over-year increase in this cohort’s IRA contributions in the fourth quarter of 2025.

How To Make Your 40s Count for Your Savings

The best move for you might be the most basic one. If your company offers a 401(k) match, make sure you’re contributing enough to get the full match—it’s essentially free money.

The pay-off-debt-or-invest-more calculus changes a bit in midlife. If your expected investment returns exceed your loan interest rate, carrying that debt while investing the difference usually wins, especially if you itemize and can deduct mortgage interest. That move could lower the cost of that debt by a few percentage points.

Your 40s are also the last decade to build a meaningful Roth IRA balance before income limits become a real concern. Single filers can make full contributions up to a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) of $153,000 in 2026. For joint filers, it’s $242,000. Roth contributions grow tax-free, and that tax-free status becomes more valuable the longer you can let it compound.

You’ll also want to be ready for your 50th birthday. That’s when the IRS allows catch-up contributions: an extra $8,000 on top of the standard $24,500 401(k) limit in 2026, for a total of $32,500.