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Back in the 1970’s I worked while going to school for a financial company as an office boy .
They talked m in to a 50 dollar a month plan ….I had no idea what I owned …all I knew is I got a bill every month and I paid it .
By the time I realized what it was and how expensive the fees and commissions were it grew to an amount that let me at least do something with it .
I started an ira at a very young age and contributed yearly …in the late 1980s the company I worked for started a 401k …I couldn’t contribute much but I did as much as I can .
Before 401ks the company had a profit sharing plan which accumulated over 25 years to over 200k since I was part of mgmt and was not in the union which got a pension .
I ended up rolling that in to my ira when the company folded ..
So between my ira and company 401ks over the decades the retirement account grew to 2 million.
I recently went back in to the company 401k since I worked one day a week and started from scratch throwing my entire check in it , that grew to 50k already and I didn’t work for a year during covid .
So the power of compounding takes the little bits we can save and grows it in to something for meaningful
I started my Roth around 2002 with 50 monthly contribution. For a while I stopped when I realized the Primerica financial advisor had put me in American funds with front end loads. This was my first investment account and before I qualified for a 401k so I didn't know better. Obviously the commissions weren't making them rich, but for a while I stopped contributing till I figured out I could roll it over it to Fidelity. AF made money, but I didn't like the concept of the loads. I now only add 100 monthly to it and prefer to invest in my tsp and brokerage accounts instead, but after 19 years there is 68k.
Years ago I had a number of direct reports that were not contributing to the 401K even with a dollar for dollar match. They claimed they couldn’t afford it. I sat them down individually and asked if we had a 10% pay cut would you quit this job, all said no. Then you can afford to participate in the 401K. That was thirty years ago and I run into them today and they thank me for pushing them as most are now retired with $500,000 and 600,000 in retirement savings.
Years ago I had a number of direct reports that were not contributing to the 401K even with a dollar for dollar match. They claimed they couldn’t afford it. I sat them down individually and asked if we had a 10% pay cut would you quit this job, all said no. Then you can afford to participate in the 401K. That was thirty years ago and I run into them today and they thank me for pushing them as most are now retired with $500,000 and 600,000 in retirement savings.
It’s unprofessional that you looked at all and that you spoke to them about it by asking a question like that.
Back in the 1970’s I worked while going to school for a financial company as an office boy .
They talked m in to a 50 dollar a month plan ….I had no idea what I owned …all I knew is I got a bill every month and I paid it .
By the time I realized what it was and how expensive the fees and commissions were it grew to an amount that let me at least do something with it .
I started an ira at a very young age and contributed yearly …in the late 1980s the company I worked for started a 401k …I couldn’t contribute much but I did as much as I can .
Before 401ks the company had a profit sharing plan which accumulated over 25 years to over 200k since I was part of mgmt and was not in the union which got a pension .
I ended up rolling that in to my ira when the company folded ..
So between my ira and company 401ks over the decades the retirement account grew to 2 million.
I recently went back in to the company 401k since I worked one day a week and started from scratch throwing my entire check in it , that grew to 50k already and I didn’t work for a year during covid .
So the power of compounding takes the little bits we can save and grows it in to something for meaningful
It’s interesting isn’t it? You’re a bit older than me and can probably name every stock market crash for the last 50 years. Add a divorce of top of the crashes for me and still, it turned out well for us. Bit by bit, month by month.
Sure, there was a time when we didn’t save much. When my FIL had to go into a nursing home and the exchange rate was 1.5 or less to 1 meaning we had to cover a $4000 bill every month for example. That didn’t last forever. Nothing does. We survived, I started my contributions again and racked up some impressive gains. It worked out.
a lot of this is simply because houses nowadays are way bigger and nicer than they used to be
the avg middle class house in the 60s was 1300 sqr feet, it's not 2600 sqr feet
and a lot of people buy houses that they have no business buying. If you make 50-60K household income, you shouldn't be buying a 400K house. You just can't afford it
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