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Old 11-06-2013, 07:09 PM
 
296 posts, read 569,182 times
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Hello, I put 15% in my 401k which comes out to 9,000.00 a year. I am 49 so I will need to increase the amount as I get closer to retirement. The company I work for unfortunately has no company match. I wish they did because it sure would help me out. I have even thought about just putting the money into a Roth IRA at my local bank. murph
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Old 11-06-2013, 09:31 PM
 
1,343 posts, read 2,665,868 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thinking-man View Post
1. what's your contribution amount for the year?
2. About how much is your salary?
3. Do you find it difficult to contribute the full 17,500?
4. what's your company match?
I max the full 17500 per year. It helps me on taxes.

Its not too difficult once you get use to it. My company matches 3%
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:46 AM
 
3,620 posts, read 3,827,070 times
Reputation: 1512
ive read this thread now and over half the posters have said they fully fund there 401k, which just isnt true.

a fidelity study says that about 1 in every 15 americans has a fully funded 401k.

im one of the few honest ones who said id like to max it, but i know i probably wont be able to.

when 60 percent of the respondents say they fully fund it, odds are 10 percent of that 60 percent are really maxing it. i say 10 percent instead of 3-5 percent because this is a personal finance forum and not a general forum, so the percent would be slightly hire, but not 50 percent higher.

would just like some more honesty instead of people constantly making things up to look better online.

especially when were dealing with finance and numbers.

thanks.
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:52 AM
 
106,249 posts, read 108,257,613 times
Reputation: 79791
I would dis-gree. You are in a personal finance forum. That means you already weeded out many that have no interest in such matters .

It is like alians landing in a hospital and reporting back everyone on earth is sick.

Ususally the forums are populated with those who are interested in such things.

A poll we did in the retirement forum had surprsing results. The income level of those responding from the forum was way higher than average .

But again it is the source of the poll that will influence the outcome.
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Old 11-07-2013, 06:56 AM
 
3,620 posts, read 3,827,070 times
Reputation: 1512
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
I would dis-gree. You are in a personal finance forum. That means you already weeded out many that have no interest in such matters .

It is like alians landing in a hospital and reporting back everyone on earth is sick.

Ususally the forums are populated with those who are interested in such things.

A poll we did in the retirement forum had surprsing results. The income level of those responding from the forum was way higher than average .

But again it is the source of the poll that will influence the outcome.
i had already stated that. i said in a regular forum it would be 3-5 percent, but in the finance forum i would expect 10 percent, since the niche is different. to go from 1 out of 15 to 3 out of 5 is just not realistic.

were not ever going to meet each each other and were behind a computer, why do we have to constantly misrepresent how much one has in a 401k or how much one makes.

im honest. im entry level. ill be starting at roughly 30,000. im using this forum to look at resources for starting a 401k and roth ira. im in my 20's.

I WANT to max out my 401k, but that will be 60 percent of my gross. Unless I got a part time job, I could not max it.

realistic responses can lead to realistic discussion.

saying i fully fund my blah blah blah and have a net worth of 5 million blah blah blah is great for your online character profile, but not helpful for people like me looking for advice.

granted there ARE people who are like that, but there arn't 60 percent of people like that. there is likely less than 10 percent of people like that.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:14 AM
 
1,914 posts, read 2,234,849 times
Reputation: 14562
Quote:
saying i fully fund my blah blah blah and have a net worth of 5 million blah blah blah is great for your online character profile, but not helpful for people like me looking for advice.

granted there ARE people who are like that, but there arn't 60 percent of people like that. there is likely less than 10 percent of people like that.
You seem young. At some point in your life, it may finally occur to you that you don't know everything and that your experience is not universally shared. Of course, if your reaction to someone whose life experience is different from yours is automatically to assume they are lying, you will likely not learn much.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:24 AM
 
4,196 posts, read 6,284,086 times
Reputation: 2835
Quote:
Originally Posted by gtc08 View Post
i had already stated that. i said in a regular forum it would be 3-5 percent, but in the finance forum i would expect 10 percent, since the niche is different. to go from 1 out of 15 to 3 out of 5 is just not realistic.

were not ever going to meet each each other and were behind a computer, why do we have to constantly misrepresent how much one has in a 401k or how much one makes.

im honest. im entry level. ill be starting at roughly 30,000. im using this forum to look at resources for starting a 401k and roth ira. im in my 20's.

I WANT to max out my 401k, but that will be 60 percent of my gross. Unless I got a part time job, I could not max it.

realistic responses can lead to realistic discussion.

saying i fully fund my blah blah blah and have a net worth of 5 million blah blah blah is great for your online character profile, but not helpful for people like me looking for advice.

granted there ARE people who are like that, but there arn't 60 percent of people like that. there is likely less than 10 percent of people like that.
Not sure why you think people would be lying here.....I'm the OP and definitely don't get that impression reading the responses. As Mathjak stated, this is the personal finance forum, with a higher financially savvy folks participating.


I too max out my 401k. Salary is 140k, and it doesn't seem to be that much of a burden. In fact, i was only contributing 5% up to now since my company match is only 4%, but in order to catch up before the end of the year and contribute the full 17.5k, i've increased my contribution to 45% for the last 2 months of the year. that'll mean that i'll be meeting the max by Dec. 31st.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:29 AM
 
Location: Chicago
1,953 posts, read 4,951,461 times
Reputation: 919
Quote:
Originally Posted by gtc08 View Post
i had already stated that. i said in a regular forum it would be 3-5 percent, but in the finance forum i would expect 10 percent, since the niche is different. to go from 1 out of 15 to 3 out of 5 is just not realistic.

were not ever going to meet each each other and were behind a computer, why do we have to constantly misrepresent how much one has in a 401k or how much one makes.

im honest. im entry level. ill be starting at roughly 30,000. im using this forum to look at resources for starting a 401k and roth ira. im in my 20's.

I WANT to max out my 401k, but that will be 60 percent of my gross. Unless I got a part time job, I could not max it.

realistic responses can lead to realistic discussion.

saying i fully fund my blah blah blah and have a net worth of 5 million blah blah blah is great for your online character profile, but not helpful for people like me looking for advice.

granted there ARE people who are like that, but there arn't 60 percent of people like that. there is likely less than 10 percent of people like that.
I dont know why anybody would lie about this, its not like its sexy to max your 401k. I'm not going to hold anyone's username to a higher regard if I see that they max out there 401k.

Probably 1 in 10 people you find on the street are interested in investing an personal finance. 100% of the folks that post here are interested in this topic (I would hope).
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:34 AM
 
346 posts, read 548,832 times
Reputation: 755
I contribute the max as well, and my company match about 20% of whatever employees contribute so it makes all the sense in the world to take advantage of this benefit.
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Old 11-07-2013, 07:42 AM
 
1,201 posts, read 2,662,075 times
Reputation: 1407
Quote:
Originally Posted by gtc08 View Post
ive read this thread now and over half the posters have said they fully fund there 401k, which just isnt true.

a fidelity study says that about 1 in every 15 americans has a fully funded 401k.

im one of the few honest ones who said id like to max it, but i know i probably wont be able to.

when 60 percent of the respondents say they fully fund it, odds are 10 percent of that 60 percent are really maxing it. i say 10 percent instead of 3-5 percent because this is a personal finance forum and not a general forum, so the percent would be slightly hire, but not 50 percent higher.

would just like some more honesty instead of people constantly making things up to look better online.

especially when were dealing with finance and numbers.

thanks.
I particularly like the poster who told us in an abstracted way that he/she makes $400,000 a year and contributes $28,000 more than allowable (max $23,000 for those over 50) to the plan. So, I'd take most of these answers with a grain of salt.
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