Joe Rogan floored after Caleb Hammer says US boomers should have $2M-$5M saved — no sympathy if they don't. Is he right?

Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC whitethorn gain committee oregon gross done links successful the contented below.

"I'm starting to not person sympathy for the boomers. I'm truly not," fiscal influencer Caleb Hammer told Joe Rogan connected a caller occurrence of The Joe Rogan Experience (1).

"If you were 25 successful 1990 and made an mean U.S. wage for 40 years, redeeming 5% to 10% per period successful the S&P 500, however overmuch would they person now?" Rogan asked.

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"If they conscionable enactment 5% to 10% a period aside, successful the banal marketplace that they had, that they had, they would beryllium multimillionaires," Hammer said.

Rogan asked Perplexity AI to confirm, and it responded: "They would person astir $2 cardinal to $5 million, depending connected nonstop assumptions."

It's a provocative claim, and 1 that's apt to inflame the persistent taste communicative that boomers person hoarded wealth and chopped younger radical retired of some the occupation and lodging market.

But does the mathematics really enactment Hammer's claim?

Moneywise ran the numbers

The mathematics is little explosive than the clip suggests. Based connected Social Security Administration (SSA) information (2), the nationalist mean wage roseate from $21,028 successful 1990 to $69,847 successful 2024.

Using Slickcharts' S&P 500 full instrumentality information (3) and assuming contributions were made astatine the extremity of each twelvemonth with dividends reinvested, an mean earner investing from 1990 done 2025 would person accumulated:

• $550,000 astatine a 5% yearly savings rate.

• $1.1 cardinal astatine a 10% yearly savings rate.

Hitting higher figures would necessitate variables not accounted for successful the clip, specified arsenic above-average earnings, leader matches, oregon a longer timeline.

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The powerfulness of staying invested

The S&P 500 has gone done crashes, recessions, bubbles and carnivore markets (4) since 1990. Investors, including boomers, person lived done the dot-com collapse, the 2008 fiscal crisis, the COVID-19 clang and the 2022 carnivore market.

And yet, the semipermanent result for disciplined investors has inactive been powerful. That's due to the fact that investing doesn't necessitate each twelvemonth to beryllium good. It requires capable clip for the bully years to overwhelm the atrocious ones.