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Age 32 (been working constantly since I was 18). Have about $22,000 in 401k. Company matches first 1.5%. I work 5-7 days a week at a manufacturing company (been at this one 7 years) in PA that sells goods internationally, making about 40k/year before taxes.
Anyone who can afford the catch-up contributions should make them and make them as early in the year as possible. But max'ing one's TSP contributions costs $23,000 less the tax savings.
Yep, I became eligible for the TSP catch up at the beginning of this year. I front loaded, contributing the entire $5,500 in the first three pay periods. I'll continue this at the start of each new calendar year, provided it remains an option.
27yo, $13k 401k and about $1.3k in an IRA. I started a bit later and my work doesn't do company matching. I'm paying off debt and saving a lot so I can move in 2015, so focusing on that first. I am still amazed at people who can pay in the full $5.5k into an IRA. I can only hope I can get to that point sometime in the future. It seems like a heck of a lot of money to spare $450/mo right now.
27yo, $13k 401k and about $1.3k in an IRA. I started a bit later and my work doesn't do company matching. I'm paying off debt and saving a lot so I can move in 2015, so focusing on that first. I am still amazed at people who can pay in the full $5.5k into an IRA. I can only hope I can get to that point sometime in the future. It seems like a heck of a lot of money to spare $450/mo right now.
If you want to start saving serious money (and 5.5K per year will not seem like much if you are a serious saver, unless your income is minimum wage level), then you have to rethink how you do your life. This blog will help if you take it to heart:
Are people talking just "401(k)", or 401K plus IRA (possibly including rollovers from any previous 401K's) plus Roth, if applicable? Also, is this individual or household if married and spouse also has savings?
The stock market today must be assumed to be very unstable. I could see it easily crashing back to $6500, i'm not kidding. Just one belch in the political scene could do it. Its as easy as that. You have to realize that Wall St is entirely being artificially maintained and its all political. No real basis for it...strictly political.
That having been said, you have to realize what the term "reactionary" means. Its due, soon! The vast majority of this country is comprised of white, fairly conservative people who will eventually react to all the stuff that has gone on, particularly in the last 5 years. To put it bluntly: this NOT the time to be monkeying around with the stock market!
More importantly, this country has relinquished its capitalism and is seemingly trying to replace it with socialism - process not previously ever attempted to the degree that is happening now. You need to realize that the US is in the back of the line (behind Europe, Canada, Japan, and India) when it come to a socialist (I like to call it "paper shuffling") economy. Will it work? Maybe, but it is not and has never been the economy that maintained the highest standard of living for the masses as capitalism has done in the US. What will be the modern form of capitalism? Nobody really knows. Petroleum production in the US has taken a curiously big boost in the last few years. Hmmm. Wonder why?
So, the moral of the story is this: this is not a time to keep money in a far overblown market. I saw that trainwreck coming in late 2007 and pulled out. Thank goodness for that! My half mil didn't get cut in half. After that? I couldn't see anything driving that market. And that's the point. Its is strictly insider trading and your "financial advisor" is most likely not in on it. That's just the way it is. One burp, and this market will collapse. Those in control are the only ones that will be able to predict it; not you, not your "financial advisor."
The US no longer produces tangible goods that are the real drivers of an economy and the maintainers of a currency. The next several years are gonna be a real roller coaster ride as those "in power" are gonna battle to the death over how this country is run, and what sort of economy it is gonna wind up with. Tumultuous times soon ahead. Play your cards very very close to your chest. This is NOT a time to gamble with your hard earned money. My advice: back off, like right now. There is nothing to gain between now and just a few months or years from now. Your retirement money should not be taken en masse to a casino!
My instincts were right on in 2007. And as far as you're concerned - more pertinent to an individual like YOU, then the so-called "predictions" (related after the fact) of Peter Schiff who, by the way, I had never even listened to up to that time.
Last edited by TwinbrookNine; 10-20-2013 at 11:52 AM..
What % of Americans even have a 401K???? For many years I didn't even know what one was.
I've always worked for non-profits. Occasionally we've been able to participate in a PERS, otherwise, what's a pension fund?
I wish when weasely retirement wonks on the financial shows ask "Are you fully participating in your 401K?" They'd instead ask, "Does your position have a pension fund and if so, are you participating in it to the greatest extent you can?"
For the record, those who have 401Ks work in business and thus are very boring people with very boring lives. Who cares how well you can retire, you've had a ****ty life!
For the record, those who have 401Ks work in business and thus are very boring people with very boring lives. Who cares how well you can retire, you've had a ****ty life!
Nonsense. When I worked for Google, I had a 401k and it certainly wasn't boring.
For the record, those who have 401Ks work in business and thus are very boring people with very boring lives. Who cares how well you can retire, you've had a ****ty life!
401k has become shorthand for the alphabet soup of tax deferred retirement accounts out there (403b, 401k, 457b, IRA, Roth IRA, etc.). Even if you don't have one available, you can still put money in an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) with a reputable mutual fund company like Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Vanguard, et al.
Your statement above is patently ridiculous. The people who have shytty lives are those who have the stress of being in debt or living payday to payday their whole lives, who then live out their old age in poverty or semi poverty. Some of these folks are booted from the work force (or at least from decent paying employment) in their 50s before they're even old.
And did it ever occur to you it's possible to have a nice life AND save at the same time? It usually doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition.
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