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y'all just gave me a panic attack. We've been mostly poor until about 2 years ago, now we are doing our best to save save save. We are thinking to have me go back to work this year and just put my entire savings (minus child care) into an IRA. I don't expect ourselves to die millionaires, but I want to at least be able to live my final years in comfort.
61 years old, north of $500K in mine, total net worth a bit over $2MM not including our personal junk and our house. Haven't started drawing out yet so I consider us to be in real good shape.
BTW, I had a few good years where I earned pretty big, but not most of my life. We ALWAYS lived, including now, well below our income.
Sacrifice while you're young and avoid Alpo when you're older.
Saving/sacrificing young is really important. I remember when I was 18 (or 19) seeing Suze Orman saying something like, "if you start at 18 and save only $100 a month from now until you are 60 and you will have enough to retire." We save way more than $100 a month but even while in college I always tried to stick away $100...and after graduating I managed to save $100-200 a month despite having a very low salary for the first couple years.
Fast forward over a decade, two degrees later, I don't know or think that is enough money (and pretty much don't like Orman and think a lot of what she has to say is nonsense) but it's a great (and true) lesson: START SAVING YOUNG.
We have many friends 10, 15 years older who are debt free and financially responsible, but have the same amount of savings...we started saving younger (well my wife started at 22, I started at 19), and they never caught the "savings bug" until their 30s.
With 2M in net worth you can live a really nice retirement now, that's for sure. I estimate in today's dollars most people (couples) need 1.3-1.5M to live a lifestyle where you can have fun (I am assuming retirement in the mid-late 50s depending on spending habits). Obviously you can "make do" with much less, but most people envision nice vacations when they retire, not sitting at home all day watching TV/netflix.
I am 70.
I don't have a 401k.
I always thought it was some kind of Capitalist scheme to steal your money.
According to the events of the past couple of years, I was right.
I really don't understand the notion of retirement, but I do have some retirement accounts due to employers that made contributions, etc. The last time I looked the total is around $15k.
Note that that this amount value has dropped down in value to 78k during the worse times of this economy the past 2 years, and it's going back up, and I continue to in my contribution.
I am 29 and have about $45k. I've been throwing money at it with a 8% company match on a $60k salary for the last 5+ years. Until this year I hardly gained anything. I hate the idea of throwing money into something that I have little knowledge or control over. Some fund managed by a guy in a cube 2000 miles away.
Last year I started putting my savings towards a downpayment on a 4 plex apartment and am planning on getting into real estate. 401ks are too hands off for me.
we are 63 and 70. Dh still working and probably always will. about 56,000 in IRA but 2.5M in paid for rental property. That income plus DH salary, retirement from previous career, social security and other investments will keep us and our 4 kids in good standing. I too never got really excited about 401- relatively new to my generation.
Low-mid 5 figures, almost age 30. I did not have a job that offered a 401k until age 25, and not one with good matching until 27. It's a relatively small portion of my net worth as I have much larger taxable and roth ira accounts.
My employer does not match at all... is this normal????
For me I guess I said - well if the company is not matching I do not understand the point of a company 401k. I can get a traditional IRA with anyone for free and not have to worry about them changing banks every year, or when I change jobs?
I am maxing out my Roth IRA, that is all I am doing right now, age 29 - 25k in there. we are trying to pay off the house.
Last edited by joe moving; 01-12-2010 at 06:30 AM..
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