Here's the Average American's Retirement Savings Balance. How Does Yours Compare?

Finding money for your IRA or 401(k) is not an easy thing to do. After all, you no doubt have bills, from mortgage loan payments to groceries, monopolizing your income. But it's important to try to consistently fund a retirement savings plan, because if you don't, you might end up short by the time your senior years roll around.

You may be curious as to how much money the typical American has saved for retirement. And to that end, Northwestern Mutual has some information. In its latest Planning & Progress Study, it found that the average retirement savings balance across savers of all ages is $89,300.

Now, generally speaking, $89,300 is not a lot of money to retire on. But if that's what your savings balance looks like, you don't automatically have to panic. And even if you haven't reached that amount of savings yet, it certainly does not mean all is lost.

Your age matters

If you're in your 20s or 30s with $89,300 in retirement savings, it can be argued that you're in pretty good shape. Heck, even a $20,000 or $30,000 IRA or 401(k) balance is something to be proud of at that age. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you're in bad shape for retirement.

On the other hand, if you're within a few years of retirement and $89,300 is the total amount of savings you have, that's less ideal.

You may have income sources other than your savings to tap once your career wraps up, such as part-time work and Social Security. (Although Social Security is facing its share of financial challenges, those benefits aren't in danger of going away completely.) But still, the nest egg you build might play a huge role in your retirement finances. And so you may want to go into retirement with more than $89,300 to your name.

Let's say you withdraw from your $89,300 savings balance at a rate of 4% per year, which is what financial experts recommended for a long time. (That's actually a somewhat aggressive recommendation these days, but for simplicity purposes, let's go with it.) That means your $89,300 nest egg will result in $3,572 a year of income. That's less than $300 a month.

You may need to ramp up, and fast

If you're a good 20 or 30 years away from retirement, don't panic if you're sitting on $89,300 and not a penny more. You still have lots of time to contribute to your IRA or 401(k) and invest your savings so it grows into a larger sum. But if you're closer to retirement age, you may want to do what you can to boost your nest egg before your career ends.

First, take a look at your spending and aim to cut back on most non-essentials so you can pump more money into your savings. Then, strike the right balance in the course of investing your money.

If you're close to retirement, going heavy on stocks may not be the best move, since stocks tend to be volatile. You may not have time to ride out losses on stock investments when you're about to start tapping your nest egg, so a safer bet may be to load up on bonds, even if that means snagging a lower return on your money.

At the same time, it could pay to consider delaying retirement a bit if your savings aren't looking so robust. Postponing that milestone even a year or two means leaving your nest egg untapped that much longer. Plus, ideally, you'll be able to add to your savings during that time.

You may find it interesting that the average American has $89,300 in retirement savings. But that figure means different things for people of different ages. It's important to recognize that as you keep tabs on your own savings progress.