Here's how much you should have saved up for retirement by now
You probably want to retire at some point in the future. But before you can get to that point, you have to be able to answer a few questions.
For example, how much money should you have already saved up if you want to retire by age 65?
JP Morgan Asset Management's 2015 "Guide to Retirement" has a handy retirement savings checkpoint guide to help you with that one.
To get a crude idea of how much you should have saved, find the age nearest to your age and then go across to the column with the salary nearest to your current salary. Then multiply the number you land on by that salary.
For example, this guide suggests that if you're 35 years-old and earn $100,000 a year, you should have saved $140,000 by now. Among other things, this assumes you continue to contribute 5% of your salary annually, you retire at age 65, and you die at age 95. (See box for other assumptions.).
This is of course a rough guide, but helpful in keeping you on track for your retirement.
