The Major MONEY Milestones To Hit By EVERY Decade!

By the time you reach financial independence, you should have around 20 times your income invested. But how do you actually get there? While everyone’s financial journey differs, each decade comes with key milestones worth targeting. These financial benchmarks will help keep you on track toward a secure future.

So today, we’re going to cover the major milestones on the way to financial independence for each decade, including some income and net worth targets to hit based on some of the most recent data.

Starting off with your 20s, this decade comes with a lot of new challenges. You’re likely out of college or some other form of education, and you’re entering your first full-time workforce. Life comes at you pretty fast. This decade dumps new costs on you one after the other—like an apartment, a car, insurance, and even some student loan payments. If you’re not careful, it can quickly snowball out of control.

That’s why the major money milestone to hit in your 20s is mastering discipline. This isn’t a traditional milestone with a finish line, but rather a daily behavior that many fail to develop on their financial journey.

The first key discipline is avoiding high-interest debt. Credit cards and other debts with a 10–20% APR can derail your wealth-building journey since you can’t reliably out-invest these rates. If you’re paying 20% interest while earning only 8% on investments, you’re already losing money. While lower interest debt like a 5% student loan might be manageable, prioritize eliminating high-interest debt first.

The second discipline is creating forced scarcity by automating wealth building. Set up automatic transfers from your paycheck to your 401(k)—especially getting those free employer matches—your Roth IRA, or your brokerage accounts. This helps you adapt to living without that money available to spend. Think of it as paying yourself first. The money is transferred before ever seeing it in your checking account, removing the temptation to spend it.

Start with whatever percentage you can manage, even 5–10%, and gradually increase it over time, especially when you receive raises. This automation creates a psychological advantage, too. You won’t miss the money if you’ve never had it in the first place, making it easier to maintain your savings habit long term.

Both of these behaviors work together—growing the top line and then shrinking the bottom line—to get you to the real net worth milestone of your 20s, which is having one times your income invested. In your 20s, the time you have ahead of you really is so powerful for your money. At one times your income invested, you’ve laid a strong foundation for future wealth building and begun to harness the power of compounding interest.

So, for your middle-of-the-road, late 20-something, what does that look like? The most recent income data from Fidelity states that the median income for someone this age is about $58,500. Using the multiplier of one times, that would mean you aim for a net worth target of $58,500.

We know that might sound a little daunting, especially if you’re just starting out. But at an 8% rate of return, that’s saving just $437 a month on average from age 22 to 30.

Before we go through the other net worth milestones, let’s clear up one question we get asked a lot. Let’s say you get to one times your income saved and suddenly you get a raise. Are you all of a sudden behind? Of course not. What many people do when they reach this situation—or if they have variable income—is average out their last three years of income to give themselves a more reasonable benchmark.

Moving on to your 30s: this decade often brings career advancement and bigger financial decisions like homeownership and even starting a family. While you’re likely earning more than in your 20s, your expenses are probably also going higher. This decade is crucial for building on the foundation you laid and accelerating your path to financial independence.

The major milestone to hit in your 30s is to reach a 25% savings and investment rate. We’ve done extensive analysis on why 25% is the sweet spot, and the math is quite compelling. When you consistently save and invest 25% of your income, you’re setting yourself up to fully replace your pre-retirement income when you eventually stop working.

We know this might sound like a daunting number, but if you include employer matches, scaling up your income, and avoiding lifestyle inflation, it is definitely possible. By implementing this savings rate consistently through your 30s, you should aim to build your net worth to approximately three times your annual income by age 40.

Based on median income data, which states that most folks in their late 30s earn around $69,000, that would mean you target a net worth of around $208,000. This might sound ambitious, especially if you’re balancing a mortgage, childcare costs, or still paying off student loans—the quasi “messy middle.” However, the power of compounding interest really starts to show during this decade. Those automated savings habits you built in your 20s will be working harder for you now, especially if you’ve been consistently investing in diversified, low-cost index funds through both market ups and downs.

Moving into your 40s, this decade often brings increased financial complexity as your career and assets start to mature. While your income is likely at its highest—the median salary for someone at the end of their 40s is close to $72,000—your responsibilities have also grown. You might be simultaneously saving for your children’s education, helping aging parents, and also trying to maximize your own retirement contributions during these peak earning years.

The major money milestone to hit in your 40s is to create an airtight risk and estate plan. This really should be done as early as you need it, especially if you have a spouse and children. But it becomes particularly important now as your assets and responsibilities continue to grow. With more to protect, proper planning becomes essential rather than optional.

A risk and estate plan goes far beyond just having a well-funded emergency fund. It’s about protecting your loved ones if something happens to you. This includes creating an ironclad will, obtaining sensible term life insurance coverage, establishing health care directives, and potentially setting up trusts. While these topics aren’t always comfortable to address, they’re crucial for ensuring your family’s security. Consider working with an estate attorney who specializes in your state’s laws to ensure everything is properly documented and legally sound.

By your 40s, your assets should also be growing substantially through the power of compounding interest. The target net worth milestone is 6.4 times your income invested by the end of this decade. Using the median income of $71,552, that translates to $457,932 invested. If you’ve been diligent about saving and investing in your 20s and 30s, you should be seeing meaningful growth in your portfolio, even during market fluctuations.

As you enter your 50s and beyond, your financial goals shift toward preparation for retirement. Congratulations! The key milestone becomes paying off your home—or at least being positioned to pay it off with other assets. In your 50s, you’re ultimately reaching toward financial independence in your 60s. Income may begin to plateau or even decrease slightly, with median incomes of $67,740 in your 50s and $63,544 in your 60s. This makes it even more important to have built solid savings habits earlier in your life.

Your net worth targets, on the other hand, increase significantly. You need to aim for 13.7 times your income—approximately $928,000 in your 50s—getting very close to seven figures or double commas. Finally, you’ll reach that magical 20 times multiplier—about $1.3 million—in your 60s, which signifies true financial independence for most people.

These are just guidelines rather than strict rules. Your specific retirement needs will vary based on your lifestyle, health considerations, and where you plan to live. Consistency beats perfection, and starting early gives compound interest more time to work its magic as you build your great big beautiful tomorrow.