HH retirement accounts just crossed 2m!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would you think it’s temporary? If if you are still contributing, even if the market fluctuates down a bit, you will probably still be over $2M.

Congratulations!

We're literally at 2,007,000 so if it goes down .3% tomorrow we're under 2m . But yes, we're still contributing and the trend tends to go up. Thanks for the congrats.

PP who posting this. Very true. When I cross a milestone like this I tend to stop checking for a bit until I am sure it’s staying safely over the milestone. That way I am always over the milestone in my mind. I find it very effective.

Same with us.. I try to never check my account balance when the market is down for extended periods and find myself checking every week (or even more often) when the market is up. I don't act on it, as everything is in index funds

[Anonymous]

Congrats!! A big win for a hard working and frugal families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would you think it’s temporary? If if you are still contributing, even if the market fluctuates down a bit, you will probably still be over $2M.

Congratulations!

We're literally at 2,007,000 so if it goes down .3% tomorrow we're under 2m . But yes, we're still contributing and the trend tends to go up. Thanks for the congrats.

PP who posting this. Very true. When I cross a milestone like this I tend to stop checking for a bit until I am sure it’s staying safely over the milestone. That way I am always over the milestone in my mind. I find it very effective.

Same with us.. I try to never check my account balance when the market is down for extended periods and find myself checking every week (or even more often) when the market is up. I don't act on it, as everything is in index funds

Whatever keeps us motivated, right? Even if it's a bit self-deluding.

[Anonymous]

I hit the $1M mark in retirement at the end of 2021- then the market went down and it took 2 years to get back there with regular contributions. And that is with good matching, too! So I agree with a PP, don't check too much when the market is down

[Anonymous]

Congratulations, but any chance you can write how much was:
1. Your contribution
2. employers match
3. growth
I put about $80k into market starting 2020, no match because I have never had a job that offers retirement.The balance right now is $340k.
I'm not planning to add anymore, but simply grow this one.
I had to do something drastic or what people would consider risky, but so far so good. I also learned a lot being very hands on. I'm slowly moving money into Roth, but this will take years. Not really worried about taxes though as I make $20k max at work working very part time and I'm HH.

[Anonymous]

My wife has you all beat. For fun in 1991 she put $1,500 in 401k. Her company matched that $1,500 in Chase stock.

Chase stock was $5 dollars a share in 1992 so she got 300 shares. Today worth $200 a share so 300 shares is $60,000.

But it gets better Chase pays a good dividend and she reinvested it all. Current dividend is $4.60 a year per share. She been reinvesting dividends into more Chase stock for 32 years.

She now has one million in chase stock in 401k but here is kicker she has never bought a single share of Chase. As the match was chase stock

She put in around $24,000 of her own money to get to a one million 401k. All compounding

She quit working at 36. She is on track a two million 401k at 72.

My first 401k I never rolled over is at 450k I only put in 25k. All equities and a very small portion junk bonds. No target date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife has you all beat. For fun in 1991 she put $1,500 in 401k. Her company matched that $1,500 in Chase stock.

Chase stock was $5 dollars a share in 1992 so she got 300 shares. Today worth $200 a share so 300 shares is $60,000.

But it gets better Chase pays a good dividend and she reinvested it all. Current dividend is $4.60 a year per share. She been reinvesting dividends into more Chase stock for 32 years.

She now has one million in chase stock in 401k but here is kicker she has never bought a single share of Chase. As the match was chase stock

She put in around $24,000 of her own money to get to a one million 401k. All compounding

She quit working at 36. She is on track a two million 401k at 72.

My first 401k I never rolled over is at 450k I only put in 25k. All equities and a very small portion junk bonds. No target date.

Nice! Although we all know boomers are doing fantastic.

[Anonymous]

Woo hoo, congrats!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you been maxing out since college in a 401K? What assets do you hold in your retirement accounts? What's your annual strategy for contributions? 401K? Pension? IRA? Backdoor? Frontdoor?

Congrats.

Thanks all for the congratulations!
Our income is low enough that we can contribute to Roth IRAs directly and I've been doing that since I was a teenager before college and we've both always maxed those out. DH has a 403b, has been contributing at least 15% since college plus employer contributions. I have 403b and generally contribute 20%. I usually don't quite max them out but for a few years early on I had a 403b and a 457 and no housing costs (international job with a US public university) and I was able to max them both and that really gave me a great start.

I stick to mainly total market index funds, but in the Roth IRA/rollover IRAs I do have a few individual stock picks--a few have done very well but mostly so-so and a few stinkers. Overall our current portfolio is about 70% in stocks, 30% bonds/cash (mainly individual short-term treasury bills lately rather than bond indices just because of all the rate craziness.

Neither of us have a pension, but we don't have that high of living expenses either (a little under 6k/month not including stuff taken out of our checks--taxes, insurance etc) so I think we should have plenty in retirement. I love my job and plan to work until I'm 70 if I can. DH is planning on retiring fairly soon to start his own business.

Bullshit. OP is lying. Roth IRAs came out in 1998 but op claims s/he is in his/her 50s and contributing to a Roth since op was a teen. Op was last a teen no later than 1997 which is before Roth IRAs existed. And that presumes op is exactly 50.

What a strange thing to lie about. Especially when it is demonstrably false.

I think you must be the Resident Stooge. There are too many details to be demonstrably false. She might not remember everything exactly, but she knows too much about the other details for it to be false. And seriously, why do you care? It is wonderful and motivating for many.

In a post like this the details are really important. Having money in a Roth Va not a Roth is a really big difference. Starting 25 years ago Vs 15 matters. $1M vs $2M matters.

When you give false details that are relevant, the whole post becomes questionable.

I'm the OP-- You don't have to believe me--that's fine--but the point of my thread was just a mild celebration that when I added up all the accounts--all the Rollover IRAs, Traditional IRAs, 403bs, 457s, Roth IRAs, 401ks that my DH and I have they now--after 34 years of my contributing (don't really know DH's precise whole history) have surpassed 2 million (and I'm taking PP's advice not to look if they've dropped below that for a few months). I wasn't planning on sharing details because the details aren't really important/interesting for anyone else. But someone asked me what my strategy was so I quick described the details as I remembered them--and, really, they weren't that far off--just confused which retirement vehicle the first few years of contributing were in. If you find that evidence that I have a nefarious plot to anonymously convince other anonymous people I have 2m that I don't--so be it, I wish you well in your world and I do appreciate people who are detail-oriented (it's not a personal strength).
* I also have to thank you because it did make me go in and figure out why I had a traditional IRA and to see that my puny contributions back when I was 17-24 did really add up to something--good thing to show my kid and tell him how much better off he is because his won't be taxed).

DP, but I also think you’re lying and trying to backtrack now that you got caught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife has you all beat. For fun in 1991 she put $1,500 in 401k. Her company matched that $1,500 in Chase stock.

Chase stock was $5 dollars a share in 1992 so she got 300 shares. Today worth $200 a share so 300 shares is $60,000.

But it gets better Chase pays a good dividend and she reinvested it all. Current dividend is $4.60 a year per share. She been reinvesting dividends into more Chase stock for 32 years.

She now has one million in chase stock in 401k but here is kicker she has never bought a single share of Chase. As the match was chase stock

She put in around $24,000 of her own money to get to a one million 401k. All compounding

She quit working at 36. She is on track a two million 401k at 72.

My first 401k I never rolled over is at 450k I only put in 25k. All equities and a very small portion junk bonds. No target date.

I was impressed until you told me she quit working at the age of 36. So, she is basically an indolent gold-digger that set her sights on Chase at a young age? And you’re proud of being affiliated with someone as atrocious as this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife has you all beat. For fun in 1991 she put $1,500 in 401k. Her company matched that $1,500 in Chase stock.

Chase stock was $5 dollars a share in 1992 so she got 300 shares. Today worth $200 a share so 300 shares is $60,000.

But it gets better Chase pays a good dividend and she reinvested it all. Current dividend is $4.60 a year per share. She been reinvesting dividends into more Chase stock for 32 years.

She now has one million in chase stock in 401k but here is kicker she has never bought a single share of Chase. As the match was chase stock

She put in around $24,000 of her own money to get to a one million 401k. All compounding

She quit working at 36. She is on track a two million 401k at 72.

My first 401k I never rolled over is at 450k I only put in 25k. All equities and a very small portion junk bonds. No target date.

I was impressed until you told me she quit working at the age of 36. So, she is basically an indolent gold-digger that set her sights on Chase at a young age? And you’re proud of being affiliated with someone as atrocious as this?

Did someone put a mean potion in the water today?

[Anonymous]

Congrats on the $2M balance in IRA accounts. What is the split between Roth vs tax deferred? Just curious if you have any worries over expected RMDs down the road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats on the $2M balance in IRA accounts. What is the split between Roth vs tax deferred? Just curious if you have any worries over expected RMDs down the road.

Thanks! About 1/3 in Roth, 2/3 tax deferred. I do have concerns about RMDs and I have access to a Roth 403b so I'm splitting contributions between Roth and tax-deferred as well as continuing to max out Roth IRAs (and we have "catch-up contributions" now too).
DH will be "retiring" early to start his business so depending on how that goes we have a plan for him to start some withdrawals at 59.5 from some tax-deferred then which will lower RMD. We've got to work out the detailed plan still though--balancing the current tax benefits with future RMDs and offsetting the chance of higher tax rates in the future etc. We've been diy on all this so far, but we'll meet with an accountant before DH quits so we can set up a retirement withdrawal (and self-employment) plan that makes tax sense. I feel more confident in saving and investing than in thinking about withdrawals and taxes in retirement/self-employment.