How much are you socking away for retirement each month?

34 years old, Sales occupation, Make $75,000-$110,000 a year

1) 6% 401K contribution + 50% company match = $6,750-$9,900/year

2) Full contribution to Roth IRA = $5K per year

Total yearly contributions=$11,750-$14,900

Per month = $980-$1,242 into retirement

You get social security if you're permanent resident(green card holder)

Well, man that's a nice deal. I think more companies should do things like that. It accomplishes two things:1) Retains good employees.2) Provides enough of a retirement for all of them that they will likely retire before they become too expensive (more retiring at 62 rather than 67 for example.

spendthrifts wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

2k a month from your employer into a 401k?! I've never heard of such a thing...that's more than you could do yourself even if you were over 50 ($22,500 would be the max...$17,000 plus $5,500 a year catchup).

...sorry, it's a 401(a). I'm actually not sure what the difference is other than the contribution limits. My employer pays 15% of our salaries into it, with no match required on our parts. My guess is that the benefits are the same as a 401K for us, but costlier for the employer.

liars wrote:

Most of these guys are lying or going to get hounded by the IRS soon. You aren't eligible to contribute to a ROTH making more than like $115k. And even like 90-115k, you aren't allowed to contribute the max.. And $22k for 401k? They just upped it THIS YEAR to make the max $17k

If you're over 50, you get to add $5,500 to the max, so you could do $22,500 a year if you're 50 or over.

[quote]Flagpole wrote:

Well, man that's a nice deal [2K/month into 401(a)]. I think more companies should do things like that. It accomplishes two things:

1) Retains good employees.

2) Provides enough of a retirement for all of them that they will likely retire before they become too expensive (more retiring at 62 rather than 67 for example.

[quote]Flagpole wrote:

Yeah, we'd be kind of screwed right now without it, because we have most of our money in a declining asset, my wife's employer has no 401k match for the year (her first), and we have two kids in a city with expensive daycare. So it's most of what we are saving right now.

They actually use the 401a like a pension plan here. Same 15% contribution for all employees. Not used for incentive or merit pay like most places. So it could be keeping bad employees around as well as good. But it definitely helps with recruiting good new ones.

I've got no problem with wanting to do that, but since you can't, you can just put it in a mutual fund and consider that for retirement and untouchable. I have a non-retirement mutual fund that I never touch even though there were times I was tempted to. Just decide it's off limits. Shouldn't need a penalty for early withdrawal to make you behave.

EZ10Miler wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

It's only how much you can save in that one vehicle. You can buy a mutual fund and put ALL of your money into it if you want. You can sink it all into individual stocks or bonds or CDs or just put it in the bank.

Duh. But we're talking retirement. If I want to put my entire paycheck in the 401k I should be allowed to do that.

Flagpole wrote:

Shouldn't need a penalty for early withdrawal to make you behave.

entire paycheck in the 401k I should be allowed to do that.

[/quote]

It's NOT the penalty I "want" it's the tax savings. I'm an exceptionally disciplined saver.

Salaried govt employee with spouse as PT teacher.

me 8%, plus govt contribution of 9%.

Mid 50s, but was in grad school a long time, interspersed and followed by years of low-paying jobs. Didn't start making much income/retirement until about 40-42. Spouse's story is even tougher luck: decades of subbing with little or no retirement contribution. We'll be working to 70.

Nice car and cell phone perks, but I really only care about how much you DO invest. With the house about to be done in 7 years (when you'll just be 50), I say keep at it. You're investing enough to attack the house too, and since your wife owns a business that currently doesn't pay her anything, you need to eliminate debt.Let's break it down.At age 43, you've got $75,000. That's not a ton, but let's see what a reasonable stance from here on out does.I'll make a guess that your employer match is 50 cents on the dollar, so that would be $6,000 for you and then a $3,000 match for $9,000 a year going into it.2 Roth accounts. One has $10,000 in it. The other I'll assume NO VALUE just to be conservative and see what $500 a month does.I'll assume NO more money into the Roth that has $10,000.So, we add it all up and you've got about $85,000 now and will invest $15,000 a year in 401k and Roth 403(b) accounts.Yes, I think 8% is a reasonable amount. Mutual funds have done closer to just over 10% since inception, and so 8% is reasonable. You should be well-diversified. The stock portion of your funds should be even distributed this way - growth, aggressive growth, growth & income, and international type funds. At age 43 you should have some bonds, no more than 20%...I'm 45 and have 13%. When within 5 years of retirement, you should do 30% bonds and then in retirement either stay at 30% or up it to 40%, OR if you're VERY happy with the balance, go even a little higher.Milestones at 8% annual return:Age 50 - $290,224.47Age 55 - $521,473.90Age 60 - $861,255.19Age 62 - $1,038,264.05Age 65 - $1,360,505.36Age 67 - $1,620,589.46So, you won't have a million dollars at this rate until you are 62. 4% of that is $41,530.56. That's not a lot. You will be able to add social security to it if you're an American, and for you that will be about $33,000 a year in future dollars or there about. When your wife turns 62, she adds hers, and the minimum it will be is half again of yours, so that's another $16,000 or so per year. All that together is $90,530.56. If you're debt free then and own your home, that's not horrible.Make it better by doing this at age 50 when your house is paid for:Max your 401k with your company match AND your "catchup" option for being over 50. It probably goes up, but let's assume it's the $17,000 = $5,500. Then also continue the $6,000 in the 403(b). That's $22,500 + $6,000 for $28,500.New milestones with the new amount after age 50:Age 55 - $628431.75Age 60 - $1,103,946.39Age 62 - $1,351,665.47Age 65 - $1,802,633.41Age 67 - $1,2166,614.01Retire at 62 and take 4% ($54,066.61) then add likely SS of $33,000 for you and $16,000 for your wife. That's now $103,066.61. You could probably make that work.Pay that house off and up your contributions by age 50 and you'll be able to make it work brother.

25 years old working at one of the big management consulting firms.

1. 1,375 into a Roth 401K which was matched 100% last year

2. 3,000 into a Vanguard brokerage account

3. 500 into a money market to continue to supplement my 8 months emergency savings fund

Net of all that $6,250 a month. My goal is to retire by 50 and get into Coaching/Teaching.

Dang this thread is making me depressed... I though I was ballin makin $95k at age 27. Apparently I'm below the LR community average. Hmmm... So the average letsrun poster not only runs a 14:45 5k training 100 mpw but they also make $200k a year. Right....

EZ10Miler wrote:

Dave Ramsey will tell you to pay off the house, then you can save like crazy. (And I follow most of his advice.)

Personally I'd rather save the cash and pay off the house, especially if you can have it done in only 10 yrs.

Ramsey says to pay off the house because a) it frees up a lot of cash b) if something terrible happened, you have a place to live, you've reduced that risk.

My reasoning for saving cash is that you can't eat your house. If I lost my job I could at least buy groceries and pay the light bill.

To be clear about the house, here's what Dave Ramsey says.

1) Starter emergency fund of $1,000.

2) Become debt free except for the house.

3) Up Emergency fund to 3-6 months of expenses.

4) Put 15% into retirement accounts made up of good growth stock mutual funds (no bonds ever).

5) NOW throw more money at house to pay it off if you can. He's ok with a 15-year mortgage ONLY as long as it's not more than 25% of your take home pay, so as long as you were debt free but for the house and you continued to do 15% in retirement accounts as he recommends, he'd be ok with you riding out the 15 year loan. He would like it if you paid it off early, but not stopping retirement giving to do it. He's only for suspending retirement giving to get rid of other debt; he allows debt on a home as long as it's with the parameters I mentioned.

EZ10Miler wrote:

Flagpole wrote:

Shouldn't need a penalty for early withdrawal to make you behave.

entire paycheck in the 401k I should be allowed to do that.

It's NOT the penalty I "want" it's the tax savings. I'm an exceptionally disciplined saver.[/quote]

Well, that tells you why there's a limit.

johnny_waterski wrote:

Dang this thread is making me depressed... I though I was ballin makin $95k at age 27. Apparently I'm below the LR community average. Hmmm... So the average letsrun poster not only runs a 14:45 5k training 100 mpw but they also make $200k a year. Right....

If it makes you feel any better, I'm 45 and make less than you do, I haven't run 100 miles per week now in almost 20 years, and my 5,000 PR is 14:58.

I will represent the low end here. 29 years old, I make $43k as a community college teacher. I save generally nothing, $5k per year in a ROTH and my wife does $3k in a 401k. She makes about $20k working part time as a nurse.

I figure that travel more than 6 months a year would be way too expensive to ever attain after retirement so I would want/need to find some part time work.

I feel like I can teach Community College until I am 75 and be happy. With moderate vacation ability. When I worked for an insurance company, I wanted to retire by the time I was 40.

Now for the requisite times. I am a 3:04 marathon runner, 17:23 5k and run a fun 50 miles per week.

Why are you giving us running times? (what is this 'running' you speak of?) This is a financial message board...oh wait...nevermind.

Hopkins Grad wrote:

I will represent the low end here. 29 years old, I make $43k as a community college teacher. I save generally nothing, $5k per year in a ROTH and my wife does $3k in a 401k. She makes about $20k working part time as a nurse.

I figure that travel more than 6 months a year would be way too expensive to ever attain after retirement so I would want/need to find some part time work.

I feel like I can teach Community College until I am 75 and be happy. With moderate vacation ability. When I worked for an insurance company, I wanted to retire by the time I was 40.

Now for the requisite times. I am a 3:04 marathon runner, 17:23 5k and run a fun 50 miles per week.

johnny_waterski wrote:

Dang this thread is making me depressed... I though I was ballin makin $95k at age 27. Apparently I'm below the LR community average. Hmmm... So the average letsrun poster not only runs a 14:45 5k training 100 mpw but they also make $200k a year. Right....

I was making 20K/year when I was 27. So don't get too depressed. You probably won't be making 95K when you are 40. And hopefully you'll have learned not to regulate your mood based on how many other people earn more than you do.

Pretty good post here:

Since people are living longer and because the assumed real rate of return has probably dropped some for many people, the reasonable savings rate should have increased. In addition, long distance people tend to live longer and to be the 'delayed' gratification-type. Thus, they will tend to save more than typical. Probably the most important thing is to get the first $15,000/year saved (hard on smaller income).

54K per year or so (plus pension plan contributions), including college savings for two kids. May have to cover part of kid's schools out of earnings by the later years, depending on plan earnings.

31

28k

0 currently (have 140k put away already)