If you want to retire by 65, you should be saving at least 20% of your gross income (starting at 20yo).

Spend the savings on a couple of nice vacations and the car of your dreams. Then you can count on the taxpayers to support you on Medicaid and Social Security (in addition to whatever meager pension you may have accumulated) in the style to which you obviously planned to become accustomed.

lease wrote:

I was a track coach for a quarter-century-plus. I have a 401-type thingy (okay, I don't exactly know what it is) with a balance in the very low six figures; and I have about $15k (between checking and savings) in the bank. I turn 65 this spring.

If I'm physically capable, I have to keep working until I croak. Retirement is completely out of the question.

And that's okay, except for the possibility of being long-term disabled at some point. At which time my spouse will need to divorce me (so she has a chance of retaining something) and I'll throw myself on charity.

Don't you think that a thread like this is going to attract older, more established folks that have an eye on their future retirement which would, in itself, make the responses higher than average/expected?

I doubt there are many early 20 somethings even interested in the thread title. The only people that bothered opening the thread probably have established careers and a plan for retirement making them above average already.

And no I don't make 500K a year. I make 110K, have about 450K in retirements funds and plan to retire at 60. Also will have military pension kicking in at 60.

Not bragging, just stating facts.

Xpe wrote:

39 years old.

160k salary combined with wifey.

50k in IRA

15k in bank

13k in 401k just started

280k house that's worth about 370'ish now

Rental with 175k equity that I make about 700 bucks a month renting out.

Got a late start but I don't really care because my 20's were amazing.

Am I screwed!?

No, you are not screwed...keep doing what you are doing and you will be ok. Like yourself, I didn't save a dime in my 20s, how could I with paying off school loans, purchasing my first home, child care and not earning a whole lot.

Well then wrote:

30 years old

Sole income, wife is home with 3 kiddos

$86k salary

$100k 401k - I put in 10% and get another 5% match

$20k cash on hand

About $70k equity on my house

Paid off civic that's going to be run till it dies, and owe around $7k on the 3 y/o minivan.

Rental home we own and net maybe $200/mo (caught in the crash and are renting instead of taking a big loss)

And here thought I was ahead of the average saver! Not on let's run I'm not!

When wife goes back go work in 5-7 years we will probably dump her entire $70k or so a year salary into savings each year. If she goes back into teaching she may see some pension, I don't know what she gets with her ~12 or so years she's already taught.

You are ahead of where I was at 30.

I had no retirement savings until I started a job with a big company at age 30. I started putting away 10% and then over the years increased that to 15% as I got promotions and pay raises. It grows faster and faster over the years. Just keep doing what you are doing.

Once the kids are out of the house, the wife can get a job and you can put even more money in savings.

Military retirees are OK on the following. But for everyone else, wait until Paul Ryan gives you "Voucher-care" in the future.

So let's say you get cancer or have a heart attack, will you have $300K in your health savings account?

Of course not... but he is selling that you will fund that with your tax cuts. Ha ha ha ha ha. Hilarious.

Met with a Morgan Stanley FA a couple years ago, his calculation based on purchasing his products (of course) said I needed to save $2.7 million dollars for retirement. $2.7m is almost as much I will make in 40 years of employment. How is it possible I will need nearly as much money in 15 years of my life as I did in 40 years of my life when I had to pay off school loans, purchase a house(s), furnish/renovate, raise kids, put them through college, pay a mortgage, etc. Combine that with the fact that between me and my wife, we will get about $3G a month in SS and can always sell -or reverse mortgage our $750K home. It is true that most Americans don't save enough for retirement, but the financial professionals go overboard in their recommendations for retirement planning.

TrackCoach wrote:

Met with a Morgan Stanley FA a couple years ago, his calculation based on purchasing his products (of course) said I needed to save $2.7 million dollars for retirement. $2.7m is almost as much I will make in 40 years of employment. How is it possible I will need nearly as much money in 15 years of my life as I did in 40 years of my life when I had to pay off school loans, purchase a house(s), furnish/renovate, raise kids, put them through college, pay a mortgage, etc. Combine that with the fact that between me and my wife, we will get about $3G a month in SS and can always sell -or reverse mortgage our $750K home. It is true that most Americans don't save enough for retirement, but the financial professionals go overboard in their recommendations for retirement planning.

Your problem is you went to a salesman for retirement advice.

Talk to multiple sources and also utilize the online calculators that ARE NOT affiliated with a company selling retirement plans.

My company goes through Schwab for our 401K and I have talked with them a couple of times about my retirement. Incredibly enough they didn't try to upsell me on any other products and said I was on track with my goals. That surprised me but maybe since I am on a corporate account maybe they don't try sell unneeded services.

I still plan on meeting with an independent FA to get another opinion.

I'm curious about the independent FA. My wife and I have tried to find an FA in our region that is NOT affiliated with any investment company, meaning we don't want them to push products on us to earn a commission. Does such an FA exist?

Seems to make sense.

34. household income around 600K. over 2 mil in savings. planning on retiring/changing careers at 40.

The U.S. has "Social Security". which is basically a state pension. In general, one can start collecting at age 62. The amount received is based on how much one made during their working years, but it gets capped at about $2150 a month (for retiring at 62. If you wait until 66, the maximum is 2687).

Depending on where one lives in the U.S., the monthly $2150-2687 can be a comfortable income, or not nearly enough to live on.

"I'm curious about the independent FA. My wife and I have tried to find an FA in our region that is NOT affiliated with any investment company, meaning we don't want them to push products on us to earn a commission. Does such an FA exist?"

Yes. Look for "Fee only", not "Fee based" or "Commission". The contract should say that they will act as your "fiduciary" (in your best interest)

Fee only come in a few flavors. Some use tiered pricing, some use a percentage of assets and some use hourly.

For us, tiered pricing quote is approx 7000 per year, every year.

Percentage based would be around 1% of assets. Both will usually actively manage your accounts.

Hourly based are more like $3000-4000 and advise but I *think* that you actually do the trading.

Forgot to mention that tier price of 7K is on retirement assets of 1.5M

buying Investing for Dummies and putting *maybe* 10 hours educating yourself is near free.