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After Years of Growth, the Number of 401(k) Millionaires Has Dropped
By Pete Grieve MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
Retirement balances dipped in Q1, but the market’s strong rebound may already be reversing the slide.
The number of 401(k) millionaires fell for the first time in a year as stock market volatility in the first quarter weighed on account balances. On Thursday, Fidelity said there were 645,000 401(k) millionaires at the end of March, down from an all-time high of 665,000 at the end of last year. The drop in the first quarter marks a 3% decline from the record in December.
Looking not much farther back, the number of millionaires has experienced healthy growth. Fidelity reported 512,000 401(k) millionaires at the end of the first quarter of 2025. The current number of millionaires is about 26% higher than it was a year ago.
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How to become a 401(k) millionaire
Retirement savers become 401(k) millionaires by making sizable contributions on a consistent basis for decades. It’s considered unproductive and even unwise to obsessively check your balance — or worry too much about short-term declines.
Market volatility causes 401(k)s to fluctuate, but long-term investors should stay focused on the bigger picture. The S&P 500’s return was -4.3% in the first quarter. Since then, stocks are up about 15% since April 1, the start of the second quarter. Given that performance, a live look at 401(k) balances today would likely show that the number of millionaires has bounced back.
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Here are the number of 401(k) millionaires over the past five quarters, compiled from multiple online reports:
- Q1 2025: 512,000
- Q2 2025: 595,000
- Q3 2025: 654,000
- Q4 2025: 665,000
- Q1 2026: 645,000
Average 401(k) balance
According to Fidelity’s 2026 first-quarter retirement analysis, the average balance has increased 11% in the past year, rising from $127,100 to $141,000.
Like the number of millionaires, the average 401(k) balance dipped 3.7% in the quarter, dropping from the record high of $146,400 reached at the end of December.
Average 401(k) savings rate
Fidelity reports a record average savings rate of 14.4%, including employer matches. That’s an increase from 14.2% in the fourth quarter.
Fidelity pointed to automatic enrollment features in 401(k) plans, which encourage saving. The share of plans with auto enrollment is 46%, an increase from 37% in 2021, the report said.
The average employer contribution also increased to a record high of $2,080, up from $2,020 a year before.
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Pete Grieve is a New York-based reporter who covers personal finance news. At Money, Pete reports stories that affect Americans’ wallets on topics including insurance, autos, housing, credit cards, retirement and taxes. He studied political science and photography at the University of Chicago, where he was editor-in-chief of The Chicago Maroon, the student newspaper. Pete began his career as a professional journalist in 2019. Prior to joining Money, he was a health reporter for Spectrum News based in Columbus, Ohio, where he wrote digital stories and appeared on TV to provide coverage to a statewide audience. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Sun-Times and CNN Politics. Pete received extensive journalism training through Report for America, a nonprofit organization that places reporters in newsrooms to cover underreported issues and communities, and has attended journalism conferences from organizations including Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. He has discussed his reporting in interviews with outlets including the Columbia Journalism Review, This Morning With Gordon Deal and WBEZ (Chicago's NPR station). He’s been a panelist at the Chicago Headline Club’s FOIA Fest and he received the Institute on Political Journalism’s $2,500 Award for Excellence in Collegiate Reporting in 2017. An essay he wrote for Grey City magazine was later published in a 2020 book, Remembering J. Z. Smith: A Career and its Consequence.