How much are you socking away for retirement each month?

spendthrifts wrote:

We are 40 & 45 with joint gross of about 22K/mo.

2K/mo into 401K -- all from my employer.

1K/mo towards principal on mortgage.

Somehow, we spend all of the rest.

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).

My family is currently living paycheck to paycheck. We spent the $30k in savings we had in '09 on a custody lawsuit and a few vacations, admittedly. My income is $83,000 from a local government job, but we live in an expensive city and the wife stays home with the two kids. I'm 11 years into a 30 year deal with pension upon retirement.

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.

In my 20's I did not save much at all, and was fiscally irresponsible. I always maxed out my Roth IRA (even if my parents had to give me money in order to do it), and saved maybe an additional couple $100 - $200 bucks a month. I did not have a 'real job' until I was 27 so now at 35 I feel like I need to play catch up. My salary is considerably more than it was in my 20's. I am trying to save $2,000 per month for retirement and 1,000 a month for a down payment on a house. I will up my retirement savings by $300 when my car is paid off later this year. Based on the cost of the house I will probably end up buying I will be able to up my retirement savings by an additional $500 after I buy.

The max amount the government will allow. (Isn't it crazy that the government restricts how much you can SAVE!!!???)

EZ10Miler wrote:

The max amount the government will allow. (Isn't it crazy that the government restricts how much you can SAVE!!!???)

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.

I'm 32, self employed, live in my own house, gross about 30-35k a year. I put nothing away.

My wife and I save $5000 dollars a month (60K a year) for retirement through 401ks IRAs ect. We earn about 200K a year total but we are not rich. I am 45 and she is 36. We are very frugal. We have a house we can afford and drive inexpensive cars. So we save about 30% of our income. We are concerned that the US will spend itself into oblivion in about 10-20 years and we will have to leave the country for a more stable place so we are saving all we can. If we are wrong, we will retire here rich.

Flagpole wrote:

spendthrifts wrote:

We are 40 & 45 with joint gross of about 22K/mo.

2K/mo into 401K -- all from my employer.

1K/mo towards principal on mortgage.

Somehow, we spend all of the rest.

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.

sub3over40 wrote:

My wife and I save $5000 dollars a month (60K a year) for retirement through 401ks IRAs ect. We earn about 200K a year total but we are not rich. I am 45 and she is 36. We are very frugal. We have a house we can afford and drive inexpensive cars. So we save about 30% of our income. We are concerned that the US will spend itself into oblivion in about 10-20 years and we will have to leave the country for a more stable place so we are saving all we can. If we are wrong, we will retire here rich.

Wow that's a crazy amount of saving! As in crazy GOOD. If now at age 45 you were starting from nothing and just put that in the bank earning no interest, at age 60 you'd have $900,000. Assuming 8% annual return the next 15 years, that turns into $1,759,456.98. I'm assuming you started before age 45 though. Make sure the house is paid for and you retire with no debt, and you WILL retire rich for sure.

25 & 23

Gross household income $112,000

School loan debt $700 per month

401k = $358.08 per month

Company match = $153.46 per month

Money market = $1,000 per month

Total = $1,511.54 per month OR $18,138.48 per year.

That's pretty damn good at the age my wife and I are if you ask me.

Flagpole wrote:

[quote]sub3over40 wrote:

My wife and I save $5000 dollars a month (60K a year) for retirement through 401ks IRAs ect. We earn about 200K a year total but we are not rich. I am 45 and she is 36. We are very frugal. We have a house we can afford and drive inexpensive cars. So we save about 30% of our income. We are concerned that the US will spend itself into oblivion in about 10-20 years and we will have to leave the country for a more stable place so we are saving all we can. If we are wrong, we will retire here rich.

Wow that's a crazy amount of saving! As in crazy GOOD. If now at age 45 you were starting from nothing and just put that in the bank earning no interest, at age 60 you'd have $900,000. Assuming 8% annual return the next 15 years, that turns into $1,759,456.98. I'm assuming you started before age 45 though. Make sure the house is paid for and you retire with no debt, and you WILL retire rich for sure.

Our big concern is that the government will not have enough people to tax to pay the crush of entitlements that are in our future. More and more people are paying no taxes and people at the top will only pay so much before they try to evade taxes or leave the country. There is not enough money out there to meet the budget in 20 years unless we make changes soon. Most socialist regimes end up confiscating the wealth of the most productive citizens ( Russia, Cuba, China, ect. ) We can handle some tax increases but if we think they are going to confiscate our livetime of savings....we will disappear overseas...adios amigos! It may sound paranoid but read your history...it can happen here. Last comment from me on this thread.

Ok. I'm have no opinion to share on the reason why you are saving so much...I'm not even critical that you ARE saving so much. As frugal as you say you are with that nice income, you really could save more than half your income if you really wanted to. Many Americans retire to other countries. I've got no problem with that.Your money...your life goals and concerns. Nice job brother!

[quote]Flagpole wrote:

Ok. I'm have no opinion to share on the reason why you are saving so much...I'm not even critical that you ARE saving so much. As frugal as you say you are with that nice income, you really could save more than half your income if you really wanted to. Many Americans retire to other countries. I've got no problem with that.

We could save 50% but we still want to have tons of fun. We take 4 weeks of vacation a year and travel all over the world. I spend more money on wine than I should. You can have a lot of fun while saving a lot and sleep better at night. I'd say that half the money I end up saving is what other people waste on foolish purchases and bad deals. Have a nice weekend. Out of here for sure this time!

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

Flagpole wrote:

EZ10Miler wrote:

The max amount the government will allow. (Isn't it crazy that the government restricts how much you can SAVE!!!???)

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,

I am a little worried about my retirement.

I have started very late in the game saving for my retirement. I now make respectable money and have been very aggressive in preparing. Newly married and making about 100,000 a year myself. I bought a new home 3 years ago and refinanced twice (now at 3.3 for 10). Goal is to have it payed off in 6.8 years which would be a total of 10 years

Age 43

Matching with employer @ 6 %. (75,000 current number)

2 years of 5000.00 into Roth

500 per month into Roth 403b

No credit card debt

No. CAr payment. The business that I work for provides a car and cell phone.

My wife and I share a business together where she will not draw a salary for a year.

Questions for you. Better to pay the house off or sock the money away for retirement. Do you really believe the 8 percent annual return as a realistic growth. Any tips would help.

Bo Diddlely

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.