Here's How Much You Should Have Invested for Retirement at Age 30

Have you recently begun your 30s? If so, then you already know it's a busy time of life. Career paths are often being established at this point in time. Children may be coming into the picture (if they're not already here). Perhaps a home purchase is in the works.

Yet, the reality of an eventual retirement is also starting to loom on the horizon.

It's a lot to think about, let alone pay for! It's easy to be so overwhelmed by the present, in fact, that you end up not fully planning for the future. It's also easy to believe an adequately funded retirement account is too far out of reach to bother saving anything at all.

Well, good news: The average 30-year-old doesn't have -- or even need -- a ton of money saved up yet. Most of your personal wealth is built during the final one-third of your working years when you're likely to be earning more income than you are right now.

Here's a rough idea of where your retirement savings should be at this stage of your life.

A retirement savings target for 30-year-olds

What's the magic number for a 30-year-old? It depends. Presuming your goal is to maintain your current standard of living, though, you'll want to have saved up roughly the same amount as your current annual salary. For instance, if you're a 30-year-old earning $50,000 per year, you'd ideally have saved up at least $50,000 for retirement by this point in time. A 30-year-old with an annual salary of $100,000 would have $100,000 in a retirement account at this point.

That's the rule of thumb suggested by mutual fund giant Fidelity, anyway. The same target is suggested by brokerage firm Edward Jones, fund company T. Rowe Price , and several other financial firms.

That's only the midpoint of a relatively wide target range, for the record, so don't sweat it if you're not quite there. Edward Jones and T. Rowe Price both agree that you could have half (or even less) than that amount saved up, and you'd still be on track for a nice retirement.

Most 30-year-olds are likely shy of their suggested target, by the way. Vanguard's recently published report on the matter suggests, as of the end of last year, that people between the ages of 25 and 35 boast an average retirement account balance of less than $38,000. And that's the average. The median balance of these accounts is much lower at just under $15,000.

The good news is, even if you're a thirty-something with nothing saved up for retirement yet, it's not too late for you.

The nickels and dimes add up

It's very possible you feel as if there's just nothing left at the end of the month to tuck away for retirement (particularly given today's rising prices of ... well , everything). Or if you're already saving something, it could feel as if you can't do any more than you already are.

Take a step back and devote just a few minutes to an honest look at your spending habits , however. Can you cut back on just one restaurant visit per week? Do you really need cable television in light of all the other free or low-cost alternatives now available? Raising your auto insurance deductible from $500 to $1,000, for example, can lower your premiums by quite a bit.

None of these moves -- or others like them -- will be life-changing in and of themselves. A few of them combined, however, could free up as much as a couple thousand bucks per year. That can add up to a significant amount of money given enough time.

The graphic below tells the tale. Just investing the aforementioned yearly savings of $2,000 (about $170 per month) in an S&P 500 index fund every year and then earning its average annual return of around 10% would leave you with more than $300,000 after the end of 30 years.

Data source: Calculator.net. Chart by author.

And if you can raise your annual investment to just $3,000 per year ($250 per month), you'd end up with nearly half a million dollars after three decades!

Data source: Calculator.net. Chart by author.

Also, notice the bulk your investment gains in both examples materialized in the final one-third of the 30-year stretch, when earnings from your previous growth start generating more in additional returns than your annual contributions. It illustrates the important role time plays in this process, so don't wait any longer to get started.

By the way, saving for 35 years ramps these totals up to more than half a million and over $800,000, respectively. That just might inspire you to work five more years than you may have been planning on at this point in time.

Optimism helps a lot!

So how does the average 30-year-old get started or start doing more to save for retirement?

Although it's not always easy, it's doesn't have to be complicated. The key is to identify where you can save extra cash in your budget and then actually set it aside with services like direct deposits or automatic money transfers into a retirement account. If you never put it in your pocket or your bank account in the first place, you won't miss it as much. Also, don't forget to enroll in any retirement plan offered by your employer, many of which contribute additional money to a retirement account on your behalf.

Perhaps more than anything, though, you may want to reframe your way of thinking to one that's optimistic. Discouraged people often simply fail to take action. Encouraged people, conversely, see opportunities others don't and are more likely to execute plans that push them closer to their long-term goals.

James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends T. Rowe Price Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .