What is the best way to fund your retirement?
Emma Jordan
Published Feb 25, 2026
Consider the following tips, which can help you boost your savings — no matter what your current stage of life — and pursue the retirement you envision.
- Focus on starting today.
- Contribute to your 401(k)
- Meet your employer’s match.
- Open an IRA.
- Take advantage of catch-up contributions if you are age 50 or older.
What is a reasonable retirement fund?
Retirement experts have offered various rules of thumb about how much you need to save: somewhere near $1 million, 80% to 90% of your annual pre-retirement income, 12 times your pre-retirement salary.
What Vanguard fund does Warren Buffett recommend?
S&P 500 index fund
Buffett recommends putting 90% in an S&P 500 index fund. He specifically identifies Vanguard’s S&P 500 index fund. Vanguard offers both a mutual fund (VFIAX) and ETF (VOO) version of this fund. He recommends the other 10% of the portfolio go to a low cost index fund that invests in U.S. short term government bonds.
What’s the biggest challenge in saving for retirement?
The big challenge for nearly all retirement savers is projecting how much to save and then following through on that plan, in good times and bad. The reality is that this is very challenging, even if you have a 401 (k) at work and your own individual retirement account (IRA) .
How many people are in danger of not having sufficient retirement funds?
Other recent studies offering a similar analysis include the Boston College Center for Retirement Research’s National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI), which pre-pandemic said that 50% of households are in danger of lacking sufficient funds to continue their standard of living once they stop working.
Why are so many people struggling with retirement?
The reality is that this is very challenging, even if you have a 401 (k) at work and your own individual retirement account (IRA) . Stagnant wages and rising fixed costs, like health care and housing, have limited the ability of many to even stow away anything.
What are the top sources of financial stress?
In a new study, the institute found “nearly half of employees are concerned with their household’s financial wellbeing, citing saving for retirement and having savings in case of an emergency as top sources of financial stress.”
