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📂 Category: Retirement Planning,Personal Finance
📌 Main takeaway:
Key takeaways
- For people in their 60s, retirement accounts typically hold more than $300,000 in stocks on average, but the median balance is closer to about $100,000.
- Taxable brokerage accounts vary widely, but industry data shows that near-retirees often maintain low- to mid-six-figure balances.
As retirement approaches, many wonder whether their investment portfolios will provide the income they will need. For most Americans, the bulk of these investments are in qualified retirement accounts, such as 401(k) plans and IRAs. In fact, while more than 80% of Americans in their 60s invest in retirement plans, only about 35% have brokerage accounts.
This leaves us wondering: What is the average stock portfolio for people in their 60s?
What does the data tell us?
While only a minority of Americans in their 60s have taxable brokerage accounts, those who do often have meaningful balances outside their 401(k)s and IRAs. The Federal Reserve reports that for households ages 55 to 64, the average balance for directly owned stocks is about $30,000, and the average balance for pooled mutual funds held outside retirement accounts is about $300,000. For ages 65 to 74, this averages about $65,000 and $250,000, respectively. Together they indicate that the typical taxable portfolio for older investors falls in the low to mid-six figures.
Industry data tells a similar story at the higher end of the spectrum. In Charles Schwab’s most recent Self-Directed Brokerage Account Indicators report, self-directed brokerage windows within workplace retirement plans averaged about $362,000 overall in the second quarter of 2025.
Baby boomers (those ages 61 to 79 in 2025) held the largest balances, averaging about $599,000, while Generation X investors (whose oldest members started turning 60 this year) averaged about $379,000. These numbers are skewed toward more engaged investors but provide a higher realistic benchmark.
Retirement account balances
You can also get a sense of where you stand by looking at what’s typical for defined contribution retirement accounts, like 401(k) plans and IRAs at Vanguard:
| Defined contribution plan balances by age | ||
|---|---|---|
| Age group | middle | middle |
| 55-64 | $271,320 | $95,642 |
| 65+ | $299,442 | $95,425 |
Average vs average
Note that the medians are slightly higher than the medians (i.e. the 50% midpoint). This is because a small number of very large calculations will skew the average upward. For most Americans, the median number is a better number to use.
IRA accounts
Fidelity also reports average IRA balances, and it’s not uncommon to have a 401(k) from work and also contribute individually to a traditional or Roth IRA. The average in Fidelity accounts for baby boomers is $257,000 in 2025.
If the average is a third of that amount, as is the case for 401(k) balances reported by Vanguard, we can reasonably estimate that the average retirement savings for those in their 60s ranges from $500,000 to $550,000, with an average of about $180,000.
How much of these balances are in stocks?
Vanguard data tells us that 64% of 401(k) assets held by Americans ages 55 to 64 are held in stocks, but this drops to 50% for those 65 or older, which is not surprising as risk tolerance declines with age.
If we assume that about 60% of a typical 60-year-old’s retirement portfolio is in stocks—which is in line with many target date funds for this age group—this implies an average stock balance of about $300,000 and an average stock balance of just over $100,000 in retirement accounts.
advice
A reminder that a 401(k) or IRA is designed for long-term retirement savings, and most people don’t access the money until decades later because withdrawals are restricted and often subject to taxes or penalties. A brokerage account works very differently: it is a flexible, taxable account that people use for regular investing, trading individual stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or building a portfolio that they can tap into at any time. In all of these accounts, you may own stocks, even if indirectly through mutual funds or ETFs.
Brokerage account holdings
While about a third (36%) or so of Americans in their 60s have a brokerage account, fewer (29%) report owning stocks. While this is a minority of those who invest in a retirement plan, it is worth investigating the value of these stocks.
The Fed provides average numbers, but they can be highly misleading, since there are a few unusually large accounts (the largest in the data has more than $1 billion in holdings). But if we remove the outliers at the 1% and 99% of the range, we get a more realistic picture of Americans in their 60s:
- Average value of stocks in brokerage accounts: $5,400,000 (adjusted from 2022 to 2025 Fed figures using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation figures)
- Average value of stocks in brokerage accounts: $535,000
What are you asking yourself now?
Benchmarks like the averages and averages mentioned above are useful, but they are not a pass/fail test. To evaluate your own portfolio, here are some helpful tips:
- Look at your many savings: Experts generally recommend saving eight times your total annual income by age 60, and about 10 times more by age 67 (adjusted up or down to fit your lifestyle and retirement age).
- Review your savings against income needs. A common guideline is to aim for about 25 times your expected annual retirement spending (4% withdrawal rate), although some experts have revised this recommendation upward.
- Find out if your contribution rate is enough: Experts suggest setting aside 15% to 20% of your income, including your employer’s income.
- Check your stock allocation: Holding 50% to 60% in stocks in your early 60s (and tapering off into your 70s) is generally in line with standard advice, but the “right” number depends on your risk tolerance, health, and other income.
- Consider all your assets: Include IRAs, old 401(k)s, pensions, brokerage and bank accounts, Social Security estimates, HSA balances, and home equity — not just your employer plan.
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