Here is an update from a post that I put up in February of 2012.
I have just paid off my House (June 2017) after a total of 8 years and 4 Months.
Roth IRA at 44,000
401k at 242,5000
I posed the question - should I pay my house off quickly or invest the additional money that I would put towards the house ? While I am aware that I would be potentiaaly have a great deal more in my retirement and with compound interest better off in the long run financially, Nothing compares to what it feels like to own my home. Thank You for the advice and support that you provided me years ago.
Might you gave advice as I plane the next chapter of my financial future. I will have aproximately 2000.00 more per month in disposable income. I plan to add 100.00 more per month to my child's university fund and am thinking about an additional 1000.00 to my 403b. Currently I am investing as follows
Salary. 120,000/year
12%. 6 percent (me) 6% match by my employer into 401k.
Here is an update from a post that I put up in February of 2012.
I have just paid off my House (June 2017) after a total of 8 years and 4 Months.
Roth IRA at 44,000
401k at 242,5000
I posed the question - should I pay my house off quickly or invest the additional money that I would put towards the house ? While I am aware that I would be potentiaaly have a great deal more in my retirement and with compound interest better off in the long run financially, Nothing compares to what it feels like to own my home. Thank You for the advice and support that you provided me years ago.
Might you gave advice as I plane the next chapter of my financial future. I will have aproximately 2000.00 more per month in disposable income. I plan to add 100.00 more per month to my child's university fund and am thinking about an additional 1000.00 to my 403b. Currently I am investing as follows
Salary. 120,000/year
12%. 6 percent (me) 6% match by my employer into 401k.
500/month into 403B
5,500. Year into Roth IRA.
Thanks Again
Congrats on paying off the house! Greatly limiting outgo allows you to invest a ton more or have more fun now or both. Awesome!
So, you are now either 49 or about to turn 49.
You are currently investing $18,000 per year, and you are starting with $286,500.
Let's see what that does at just 7% annual return for the next several years:
49 286,500.00
50 325,815.00
51 367,882.05
52 412,893.79
53 461,056.35
54 512,590.30
55 567,731.62
56 626,732.83
57 689,864.13
58 757,414.62
59 829,693.65
60 907,032.20
61 989,784.46
62 1,078,329.37
63 1,173,072.43
64 1,274,447.50
65 1,382,918.82
66 1,498,983.14
67 1,623,171.96
68 1,756,054.00
69 1,898,237.78
70 2,050,374.42
So, ~$2 million by age 70 (with last contribution at age 69), or just over $1 million by age 62.
What if you added $1000 a month as you are contemplating?
49 286,500.00
50 338,655.00
51 394,460.85
52 454,173.10
53 518,065.22
54 586,429.79
55 659,579.87
56 737,850.47
57 821,600.00
58 911,212.00
59 1,007,096.84
60 1,109,693.62
61 1,219,472.17
62 1,336,935.22
63 1,462,620.69
64 1,597,104.14
65 1,741,001.43
66 1,894,971.53
67 2,059,719.54
68 2,235,999.90
69 2,424,619.90
70 2,626,443.29
A little better. You aren't on pace to completely replace your $120,000 income in retirement, but with a paid-for house, you don't need to. $1.3 million at age 62 with the potential to take Social Security too either right then or a little later, gives you enough to be comfortable. If your house is big and worth a lot, you could always downsize and then have that extra money too.
This is exactly what I was thinking. 1000.00/Month more.
Are you not including the match in the total investments.
12% of 120,000 14,400
Roth. 5,500
403B 500/Month 6,000
---------
$ 25,900
I am seriously considering an additional 1000.00/Month. I wondered if you would recomend putting the money into my 403 or another spot?
Ah, I misread some of that. You are doing way better then than I thought. Nice. I don't have too much experience with 403(b), so best to pick which ever gives you the best tax benefit. If all is equal, you can't go wrong really no matter what you do. You are in a good spot. Congrats.
My wife and I are 41. She only makes 18,000 working at a daycare and saves 75 a month into a Roth IRA with no company retirement plan. I am an educator and after I am eligible for retirement at 56 I will earn 62% of my highest salary years. It will likely be 95,000 to 100,000 at that point.
Currently, I make 73,000 and with my state retirement I put in 350 a month and the school matches that. I have a duplex that I earn 1000 a month on, but my payment is 1000 a month. I have about 15 years to go to get it paid off. My house will be paid off in 13 years.
Currently getting a 3-6 month emergency fund created. Once my emergency fund is completed I hope to put max out a ROTH IRA for my wife and I.
I hope this works.
is update? How are you doing these days?
2023 update. I'm 38, single, live in Brooklyn and make $200k as an executive speechwriter. I rent, have maxed out Roth since 22 and have maxed out 401 for the last two years. I'm slowly saving enough to put in a downpayment on a place, either in NYC or in the suburgs. Problem is, jobs like mine are mostly in cities. Ideally, I could find an executive writing gig with big pharma in the suburbs, and move there
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.
My wife and I are 41. She only makes 18,000 working at a daycare and saves 75 a month into a Roth IRA with no company retirement plan. I am an educator and after I am eligible for retirement at 56 I will earn 62% of my highest salary years. It will likely be 95,000 to 100,000 at that point.
Currently, I make 73,000 and with my state retirement I put in 350 a month and the school matches that. I have a duplex that I earn 1000 a month on, but my payment is 1000 a month. I have about 15 years to go to get it paid off. My house will be paid off in 13 years.
Currently getting a 3-6 month emergency fund created. Once my emergency fund is completed I hope to put max out a ROTH IRA for my wife and I.
I hope this works.
is update? How are you doing these days?
2023 update. I'm 38, single, live in Brooklyn and make $200k as an executive speechwriter. I rent, have maxed out Roth since 22 and have maxed out 401 for the last two years. I'm slowly saving enough to put in a downpayment on a place, either in NYC or in the suburgs. Problem is, jobs like mine are mostly in cities. Ideally, I could find an executive writing gig with big pharma in the suburbs, and move there
forgot to mention that I have $200k saved, that's with the market taking a big hit the last year
How bad is it to send my teenager to an expensive (NESCAC) school next fall? My kid is a two sport recruit and I want him to have a full student athlete experience. We are solidly middle class and the 60k price tag (after needs based) is tough, to say the least.
With investing, the advice is always to put in a percentage of your income. That's an ok stance, but it's not necessary to think of it that way all the time. For example, what if you work and live in the DC area where housing and everything else is expensive and you know that when you retire that you will sell that $800,000 house and move to Arizona and buy an even nicer one for $200,000? Well, you didn't need to sock a ton away then...you could have done 10% and done just fine.Here are some milestones at 8% annual return that $20,000 a year could bring you:10 years - $312,909.7415 years - $586,485.6620 years - $988,458.4225 years - $1,579,088.3030 years - $2,446,917.36Let's say you only did that for 25 years, so $1,579,088.30.Take 4% a year the first year when you retire and that is - $63,163.53. If you are 62 or older when you do that and a US Citizen who was not a conscientious objector, then you'll get Social Security too. In my case, at age 62, I will get about $34,000 a year THEN. When my wife turns 62, we get half again that, so about $50,000 a year. If you wait until 65 or later, then you SS payments will be even greater.So, if you're married and have made about what I have until age 62, and you had about 1.5 million in investments, you'd be getting about $113,163.52 annually, and it's all set up to increase each year, because the SS goes up with inflation and if you take 4% of your investment pile, you are supposed to adjust that upward for inflation too each year. Just gotta look at real numbers. Does that do it for you? Assuming you retire with no debt including a paid for house, that should be enough. It would be for me.
UsedToBeKnowItAll wrote:
Am I out of my mind or do these threads just attract the "big savers"? My guess is the average American puts -100%-5% into retirement each month.
I thought my household was doing pretty good. We put 10% into the 401k, and that's it. Should I be worried that it we are way below most of the people on this thread? We spend a sh!tload on travel each year, but that's because I think we'd rather see the world and have new experiences while we're relatively young and not when we're 60+.
I think if things were truly dire, we could put $100k into retirement each year, but as it stands, we only put $20k in. Should we make some adjustments, or are we ok? I admit we blow a lot of money, but we live a very happy and full life as a result. Our one rule is that we spend our money on experiences and not things, so we live pretty simply, day to day.
Here is an update from a post that I put up in February of 2012.
I have just paid off my House (June 2017) after a total of 8 years and 4 Months.
Roth IRA at 44,000
401k at 242,5000
I posed the question - should I pay my house off quickly or invest the additional money that I would put towards the house ? While I am aware that I would be potentiaaly have a great deal more in my retirement and with compound interest better off in the long run financially, Nothing compares to what it feels like to own my home. Thank You for the advice and support that you provided me years ago.
Might you gave advice as I plane the next chapter of my financial future. I will have aproximately 2000.00 more per month in disposable income. I plan to add 100.00 more per month to my child's university fund and am thinking about an additional 1000.00 to my 403b. Currently I am investing as follows
Salary. 120,000/year
12%. 6 percent (me) 6% match by my employer into 401k.
500/month into 403B
5,500. Year into Roth IRA.
Thanks Again
Congrats on paying off the house! Greatly limiting outgo allows you to invest a ton more or have more fun now or both. Awesome!
So, you are now either 49 or about to turn 49.
You are currently investing $18,000 per year, and you are starting with $286,500.
Let's see what that does at just 7% annual return for the next several years:
49 286,500.00
50 325,815.00
51 367,882.05
52 412,893.79
53 461,056.35
54 512,590.30
55 567,731.62
56 626,732.83
57 689,864.13
58 757,414.62
59 829,693.65
60 907,032.20
61 989,784.46
62 1,078,329.37
63 1,173,072.43
64 1,274,447.50
65 1,382,918.82
66 1,498,983.14
67 1,623,171.96
68 1,756,054.00
69 1,898,237.78
70 2,050,374.42
So, ~$2 million by age 70 (with last contribution at age 69), or just over $1 million by age 62.
What if you added $1000 a month as you are contemplating?
49 286,500.00
50 338,655.00
51 394,460.85
52 454,173.10
53 518,065.22
54 586,429.79
55 659,579.87
56 737,850.47
57 821,600.00
58 911,212.00
59 1,007,096.84
60 1,109,693.62
61 1,219,472.17
62 1,336,935.22
63 1,462,620.69
64 1,597,104.14
65 1,741,001.43
66 1,894,971.53
67 2,059,719.54
68 2,235,999.90
69 2,424,619.90
70 2,626,443.29
A little better. You aren't on pace to completely replace your $120,000 income in retirement, but with a paid-for house, you don't need to. $1.3 million at age 62 with the potential to take Social Security too either right then or a little later, gives you enough to be comfortable. If your house is big and worth a lot, you could always downsize and then have that extra money too.
How bad is it to send my teenager to an expensive (NESCAC) school next fall? My kid is a two sport recruit and I want him to have a full student athlete experience. We are solidly middle class and the 60k price tag (after needs based) is tough, to say the least.
If you are even considering a 60k a year school, you aren’t middle class.
2023 update. I'm 38, single, live in Brooklyn and make $200k as an executive speechwriter. I rent, have maxed out Roth since 22 and have maxed out 401 for the last two years. I'm slowly saving enough to put in a downpayment on a place, either in NYC or in the suburgs. Problem is, jobs like mine are mostly in cities. Ideally, I could find an executive writing gig with big pharma in the suburbs, and move there
forgot to mention that I have $200k saved, that's with the market taking a big hit the last year
Good job, brother. You’re doing MUCH better than most people.
2023 update. I'm 38, single, live in Brooklyn and make $200k as an executive speechwriter. I rent, have maxed out Roth since 22 and have maxed out 401 for the last two years. I'm slowly saving enough to put in a downpayment on a place, either in NYC or in the suburgs. Problem is, jobs like mine are mostly in cities. Ideally, I could find an executive writing gig with big pharma in the suburbs, and move there
Umm hate to be the bearer of bad news but $200k is over the income limit to contribute to a Roth IRA
I'm 59. I work as a temp lawyer, typically grossing between $50k (in a bad year, like this one) and $100k.
I live strictly hand to mouth. It's been a very long time (like ~14 years) since I put away anything for retirement, and I have no savings account--just checking. I live in NYC, with one kid in college and another about to be.
Fortunately, my spouse makes good bank. I've accepted a lower income to have the flexibility to take care of my kids--a period that (perhaps) is coming to an end. I'll think about career changes once I actually get the younger kid out of high school.
I fully expect to have to work until age 75 or my death, whichever comes first.
Wow. Not much has changed.
Went back to coaching. Between that and SS I bring home maybe $30k? Didn't pick up any lawyering gigs this year but will have to next summer.
Still not putting anything away for retirement--just trying not to drain my TIAA/CREF (or whatever they're calling it nowadays) account, which is down to the very low six figures. But the kids are grown and on their own, which helps.
That "75 or my death" was a little too close to home, as I had my little heart attack less than a year later. But all good now, and the longevity calculators say I'm good for 90+...which is good, because now that I'm back coaching I'll need to work the rest of my life, and at least till 90 just to break even.
The spouse has no plans to quit working either, so it's all good. Noticing a lot of other Boomers with no plans to retire.