After 20 years of investing you should have a tidy sum if you are investing 10-20% of your paycheck in the market.
The S&P 500 went up on average 8.9% annually over the last 20 years.
I had no separate investment for retirement. I worked for NY State, and had to contribute to their retirement fund every two weeks. When I retired at age 56, having 33 years in the system, I took a reduced monthly check so that if I died within 15 years, whatever was left, would be split between my two sons. Based on my family's history, I never expected to live those 15 years. I'm now in my 20th year of retirement, which means even if anything was left, it wouldn't go to my sons. I'll be 76 in August. As the baby of the family, I outlived everyone else. I've also lived longer than the State expected me to when they formulated my monthly payout. When I retired in 2003, the State's average life expectancy for you was 15 years. I still get a pension check each month. There just isn't any of the original money I contributed left in my retirement fund.
What happened to the S&P from 1/2020 to now?
401k’s and IRA’s took a beating...