Interesting retirement conundrum...

[Anonymous]

Retirements shouldn't be individual, especially since one person sacrificed earning anything at all for years and perhaps some earning potential forever in order to help the family. Not fair at all. Even that up.

[Anonymous]

Regardless of the name on the account, all retirement assets are joint. We max out all our options.

FWIW, my sister recently divorced (in another area) and retirement accounts were considered joint assets even though they under each individual's name (as it should be IMO).

[Anonymous]

also, you can both do back-door Roths (5,500 per person per year). That's the first thing I'd do with some of that $20k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Retirement accounts are clearly specified as individual property in event of divorce.

Yeah, good luck with that. There's no way that would hold up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Retirement accounts are clearly specified as individual property in event of divorce.

Yeah, good luck with that. There's no way that would hold up.

NP here and it depends on the state but, for example, VA has the Premarital Agreement Act so it would likely hold up in VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious how folks would approach this one...

Scenario: happily married but practical couple. We have a prenup and though we never want to use it, want to be fair if anything actually does happen (at least while we love school other!). Retirement accounts are clearly specified as individual property in event of divorce.

Husband took time off to be stay at home dad but just went back to work. Makes $90k a year. Wife makes $160k per year.

Husband is behind in retirement savings (35, about 60k in retirement). Wife (33) has about $200k in retirement

Wife’s job puts 10% salary into 403b automatically. Husbands firm has no 401k plan.

So here’s the issue— salaries too high for IRA deduction. Wife still gets deduction for additional 403b contributions.

Figure budget can support (with childcare right now) putting in an additional $20k (across both husband and wife) into retirement. What would you do and why?

If you flipped the words husband and wife in this post the thread would be 30 pages and people would be losing their minds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious how folks would approach this one...

Scenario: happily married but practical couple. We have a prenup and though we never want to use it, want to be fair if anything actually does happen (at least while we love school other!). Retirement accounts are clearly specified as individual property in event of divorce.

Husband took time off to be stay at home dad but just went back to work. Makes $90k a year. Wife makes $160k per year.

Husband is behind in retirement savings (35, about 60k in retirement). Wife (33) has about $200k in retirement

Wife’s job puts 10% salary into 403b automatically. Husbands firm has no 401k plan.

So here’s the issue— salaries too high for IRA deduction. Wife still gets deduction for additional 403b contributions.

Figure budget can support (with childcare right now) putting in an additional $20k (across both husband and wife) into retirement. What would you do and why?

If you flipped the words husband and wife in this post the thread would be 30 pages and people would be losing their minds.

so far most posters said this is unfair setup. did you even read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:prenup? Was one of you a millionaire coming into the marriage? if not, you are too poor to be wasting time on things like a pre-nup. Your entire married income belongs to both of you. Don't waste time nitpicking through that. Save as much as you can in a tax deferred account knowing fully well that it belongs to both of you.

This. OP is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Agree. Op, none of the money figures you've discussed is of enough importance to worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd revise the prenup and max out all retirement savings options.

+1

It's not really fair for retirement savings to be individual property, yet you agreed (apparently) for one spouse to forego contributing to retirement while providing a service to the team. You should have been contributing an amount to his retirement during his at-home-parenting. But, I think it just makes more sense to split the retirements 50-50.

This. Revise the prenup, wife withholds max, backdoor Roth as much as you can.

[Anonymous]

WTH, OP? I thought this was going to be a thread about a millionaire married to a bum. Grow up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd revise the prenup and max out all retirement savings options.

+1

It's not really fair for retirement savings to be individual property, yet you agreed (apparently) for one spouse to forego contributing to retirement while providing a service to the team. You should have been contributing an amount to his retirement during his at-home-parenting. But, I think it just makes more sense to split the retirements 50-50.

This. Revise the prenup, wife withholds max, backdoor Roth as much as you can.

^^ agreed -- this is a no-brainer. It will make up for OP's mistake in not funding his retirement when he was home.