The average 401 plan balance stood at $112,400 at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 4% from the first quarter and up 8.3% from the second quarter of last year, according to new data from Fidelity Investments drawn from more than 23 million accounts.
Individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, also rose. The average balance was $113,800 by the end of the second quarter, an increase of 5% from the first quarter and up 2.7% from the second quarter last year, Fidelity said. The benchmark S&P 500 index rallied to a 15.9% gain through the first six months of the year. It added another 3.6% by the end of July, but has given up some ground so far this month. It was up 14.7% for the year as of Wednesday.
Beyond the stock market's performance, the savings rate, or how much savers set aside from their pay combined with contributions from their employer, also helped push up 401 plan balances in the first half of the year. The savings rate was 13.9%, Fidelity said. That's down slightly from 14% in the first quarter, but slightly higher than the 13.7% rate in the second quarter last year.
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