Tell me how much you have saved in your 401K at age 40.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Currently $0.

But you have sense of humor and it worths several million dollars. Honestly!

[Anonymous]

We're over 50 and we're poors, so zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how in most cases here - the DHs have a lot more than the DWs. Are the DHs earning that much more? Or are the DHs maxing out while the DWs are responsible for additional bills like childcare?

I noticed that, too. The question was individually and many answered for their DH's. I'm not even seeing mention of IRAs for those who SAH.

The answer is obvious, wives are generally younger than husbands so they've less saved. And wives tend to be the ones leaving the workforce to care for kids. It's no an evil misogynous conspiracy.

Right? Doesnt take rocket science to figure out.

I fall into this exact scenario yiu outline. I'm younger than my DH and took a few years off work when our kids were little. It's NBD, I'm not a "victim" of the evil white man. Years later our combined retirement has us ontrack for a very comfortable retirement.

Not for you, it's not

[Anonymous]

I'm 40 with about $400k. My wife is 38 and she's got about $275k. Then we have another $70k each in IRAs. And a joint brokerage with about $250k.

[Anonymous]

When we were 40, our combined net worth was $528,138. Today at age 46, it's $1,225,072. How? We inherited some when my Dad died (in a separate IRA for me), and we ramped up 401k when kids went into school. I just switched jobs and can't start contributing to 401k for 3 months, but will roll over all previous accounts and max out the new one when eligible.

[Anonymous]

^^ not net worth because I don't count the home equity. Meant - all retirement and investments.

[Anonymous]

DH and I both 42

I have about 200k in iras/Roth/401k(I didn't work for a few years when kids arrived)
DH has 760k of same mix
90k for kids 529-3 kids
170k in investments and stocks
80k cash
430 home equity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was 40 (in 2008) DW and I had $210,000

Weathered the storm of the financial crisis, kept contributing, and am now at $540,000.

I'm a fed,so this was all in TSP. I've never been able to max out, but I've always contributed at least 5% to get the 5% max.

I may not be doing as well as some people here, but I'm on target to hit $1 million at age 57 and $1.35 million by age 60. With that, plus my fed pension, i should be good.

How do you allocate your $ in TSP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how in most cases here - the DHs have a lot more than the DWs. Are the DHs earning that much more? Or are the DHs maxing out while the DWs are responsible for additional bills like childcare?

I noticed that, too. The question was individually and many answered for their DH's. I'm not even seeing mention of IRAs for those who SAH.

The answer is obvious, wives are generally younger than husbands so they've less saved. And wives tend to be the ones leaving the workforce to care for kids. It's no an evil misogynous conspiracy.

Right? Doesnt take rocket science to figure out.

I fall into this exact scenario yiu outline. I'm younger than my DH and took a few years off work when our kids were little. It's NBD, I'm not a "victim" of the evil white man. Years later our combined retirement has us ontrack for a very comfortable retirement.

Not for you, it's not

Explain. What is not? Are you somehow under the ignorant impression that if we got divorced, i wouldn't get half of all retirement accounts? I'd get half the house too, and half of all investments. I'd come out with a pretty sweet deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're over 50 and we're poors, so zero.

thanks. i'm with you at age 49. i do have some saved - but nothing like what I'm seeing on this thread.

[Anonymous]

I'm 38 and have $465k saved in rollover 401k/TSP/Roth ira. Not sure about DH but it is less. I started saving at 21 with my first job out of college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was 40 (in 2008) DW and I had $210,000

Weathered the storm of the financial crisis, kept contributing, and am now at $540,000.

I'm a fed,so this was all in TSP. I've never been able to max out, but I've always contributed at least 5% to get the 5% max.

I may not be doing as well as some people here, but I'm on target to hit $1 million at age 57 and $1.35 million by age 60. With that, plus my fed pension, i should be good.

You are doing well.

[Anonymous]

Have $375k. Dh Has $250k. We have $150k in home equity. He started late, and I took a break from cubeland work for about 4 years in my mid twenties to do some stuff and thangs.

I'm feeling fine. We are maxing out 401ks.

I am not trying to build an empire or leave a legacy. We are putting enough away for the kids to have no debt for undergrad, taking family vacations and going to concerts, shows, etc. Able to give the kids a couple weeks of away camps in the summers.

Both DH and I had very, very little growing up and this is my priority. Fresh food, laughter, love, learning.

If it means moving to a very low COL at retirement and going without, I am ok with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people building such large 401k balances for those ages given the annual contribution limits? Even with high market returns it doesn't seem to add up. Maybe it's generous employer match??

I'm early 40s with 500k. I don't max out (used to). Govt matching.

I'm 38 and have $500k +/- $25k. I have been maxing out since age 30 and coming close before that. I remember when the max was $13k. I get a 3% match and an annual profit sharing contribution. I have a diversified mix of low cost Vangaurd funds balanced annually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we were about 40, my husband and I had $325K between us in retirement accounts (401k+IRA). We are now about 50 and we have $1.2M in those same accounts with only one of us working (so only one of us is contributing to a 401k, although with a very generous match).

How generous is the match? I'm the PP with 50k a year going into my 401k/pension and hoping it catches me up. Given irs rules I assume your husband isn't putting more than 54k into the 401k

I haven't contributed to my 401k since I was 40 in 2007 (stopped working full-time). My husband has contributed the max during those 10 years which was about $18K each year (a bit less in earlier years, I think). For most of that time his company matched 50%, so they put in $9K each year, so $27K contribution each year. He turned 50 in 2015 so he has put in $24K for the past 2 years, again with a match of $9K (they do not match catch-up contributions). We have also each put in $5500 into our IRAs every year, with my husband putting in $6500 since 2015. We haven't made this year's contribution yet, and I turn 50 this year, so will start putting in $6500 each year. Hope that helps.

Serious question - if you use a buy and hold strategy, as most people do, why contribute post-tax dollars to an IRA rather that just keep it in a taxable account? I am assuming you aren't doing a backdoor Roth.