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'By the time your kids are 13 or 14, you need to have a serious talk with them about why you can't afford to help much with their college, and what they are expected to do (in high school, get the best grades, the summer before senior year, apply for as many scholarships as possible, etc.).'
Curious as to why you think I wouldn't be able to help with my kids college? I wrote just about my finance situation, not much about my DH's. My parents would also help with schooling for my kids if we needed the help. Of course if my kids got scholarships that would be great...but my 401k was never meant to help with my kids college tuition.
I'm really not used to married people discussing their finances without regards to their spouse's. What does the whole picture look like if you consider the total household?
'By the time your kids are 13 or 14, you need to have a serious talk with them about why you can't afford to help much with their college, and what they are expected to do (in high school, get the best grades, the summer before senior year, apply for as many scholarships as possible, etc.).'
Curious as to why you think I wouldn't be able to help with my kids college? I wrote just about my finance situation, not much about my DH's. My parents would also help with schooling for my kids if we needed the help. Of course if my kids got scholarships that would be great...but my 401k was never meant to help with my kids college tuition.
You simply didn't mention the other parts of your financial life, that's all. If your husband will support you and your children then I think in the minds of many that would change their understanding and perhaps even the advice. If this is the case then I might say "you're fine, you've got enough, educate yourself but don't sweat it much'
well for the money that went into the 529 does it have to be used for college? Plans change
They changed it, can be used for k-12 education as well, and you can change the beneficiaries as well. As a last resort you can cash it out and pay tax/penalty on the earnings.
I’m a soon to be 41 year old female and according to everything I’ve read I should have about 400k in my 401k. I guess I’m very behind because I only have 89k. I started contributing when I was 25 and I’ve never had high paying jobs. I also only contributed around 3 to 5 percent and worked for companies that matched. I didn’t even have a salary of 50k until 2012 before that I was making 40k something. 2 months ago I got a job that pays 70k but I am in the process of rolling over my 401k. I am flabbergasted that people my age have 500k in their 401k my husband has a pension plan with his job. My previous job had a pension plan and I see I have another 30k in there that will continue to grow even though I don’t work there anymore but I can’t really touch the money until I’m 65
I’d like to be more aggressive with saving into my 401k but I have a 3 year old and 5 year old so I feel like I need money now.
The other thing I do which is probably dumb is I save money in my savings account. I have 71k just sitting there in case of an emergency. Is there anyway to roll that into a 401k?
I thought I was doing ok by even having a 401k but I am kicking myself for not contributing more . But again I am not someone who’s had high paying jobs and I do think these are the typical people who have 400k at 40. How could this be the average that 40 year olds have saved?? Maybe 40 year olds in NYC?
All of the blogs and articles discussing how you should have X times the amount of salary by the age of 30, 40, 50 etc. are woefully out of touch with what the vast majority are people are capable of accomplishing. You can look up the median size of retirement accounts for people in their 60s....it is below $200k. What the blogs and articles ignore is the fact that life happens. People have kids. Kids need to go to college. Your car breaks down or you need a new one. You have a major and expensive health issue. Your pet has a major health issue. You lose money on the stock market. You home needs to be repaired. etc. etc.
OP, don't beat yourself up. The only thing you can do is look forward. Heck, at least you are saving SOMETHING, which is not what a ton of Americans do. Make plans and a strategy to attack the next 2 years, then the next 5 years, and then then next 10 years. How will you improve your situation?
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