American Dream Ledger: Retirement Savings Needed

## What this measures

The lump sum needed at 65 to fund 20 years of retirement at 70% of median household income (Census), after Social Security for a couple both receiving benefits (SSA's average), in the month's dollars: (70% × income − Social Security) × 20. Dollars, monthly.

## Why it matters

Retirement is the cost households most often under-save for. This states the gap Social Security leaves in plain dollars.

## How to read it

Higher means a household needs more saved. It rises when incomes outpace Social Security and falls in January when the cost-of-living adjustment raises benefits.

## What it does not say

It assumes savings keep pace with inflation and earn nothing more; any real return lowers the sum. 70% is a common planning rule, not a law. Income is the national median; Social Security is the average for an aged couple both receiving benefits, so a higher earner needs more. Taxes in retirement are ignored.

## How it is priced

Each month is priced in that month's dollars. Annual public figures (a BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey year, an NCES academic year, a CMS health-spending year) are the average for their own period: a month inside the period is the figure × the matching CPI-U index for the month ÷ its average over the period, and months after the newest published period carry that figure forward by the same index until the next edition replaces it. Nothing is projected forward and nothing is discounted: it is the price tag at today's prices. A month is written once its CPI and a full month of mortgage rates exist. October 2025 has no reading because BLS published no CPI for it.

## Assumptions

Assumptions used across the American Dream Ledger: an adult lifetime of 60 years (18 to 78, about the remaining period life expectancy at 18 in SSA's life tables); a working lifetime of 40 years (25 to 64); two adults and two children; a 30-year fixed mortgage with 20% down; four years of public in-state college per child; retirement of 20 years from 65 (about SSA's period life expectancy at 65, men and women averaged) at 70% of median household income. Weddings are left out: no public-domain source measures what a wedding costs.

## Source

Palanor calculation (src/lib/standards/american-dream.ts), recomputed daily by /api/cron/american-dream. Inputs: Census Bureau median household income (MEHOINUSA646N via FRED, public domain), carried forward by CPI-U; SSA COLA fact sheets, average monthly benefit for an aged couple both receiving benefits, each January from 2012 (public domain; 2012–2019 sheets read from the Internet Archive copy).