Super-savers in 401(k) - what are your retirement plans?

[Anonymous]

Super saver here- also outside of 401k (open a brokerage account.
I Don’/won’t live extravagantly. With a goal to retire at 55

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be a super saver in a 401k? You can only put in $19,500. That makes for a nice retirement, but it's not 5m in the bank.

its amazing how many people on this board don't understand retirement plans and how they work. Combined contribution (employee + employer) maximums for 2022 are $61,000 (under 50) or $67,500 (over 50). Those limits easily allow for 5M in the bank. Take into account that some of that can be Roth / post tax, and it realizes you even more in retirement.

If you were able, starting at 22, to have access to company resources that allowed for contributions to the full $61k/year (ignoring the fact that it hasn’t been $61k for 20 years), someone at 42 would only have about $1.2 in contributions. It would be nearly impossible to get to $4-5M from that given the limitation on most company sponsored plans. Maybe two people, but even then, how many people have access to plans that allow them to fully max the contribution before 30?

[Anonymous]

Early forties super saver here. My parents ran their own business and they had $1m + years and years that they operated at a loss, so I learned to save early and often mostly out of fear. Even though I work a steady W2 job, I still feel like everything could end tomorrow, but at 40 I finally have peace of mind because even if I get fired and don't return to the workforce and my marriage blows up or DH gets hit by a bus, I've got enough saved to live at last middle class lifestyle and put my kids through college by drawing down savings at a 4% rate.

[Anonymous]

My parents were super savers. Retired in mid 50s 20 years ago with $4M. Then my dad got cancer, which he survived but he can no longer walk and has dementia. They have a lot of money but regret waiting to travel.

From them, I learned to save reasonably, but not to the point we miss out on things like traveling. We are able to max 401Ks and Roths, save for college, etc. but we don’t save huge amounts in non-retirement vehicles.

[Anonymous]

We are middle class with a HII of $170k and a pension and about $400k in savings. Trying to put $70k a year total including retirement, 529 and pension. I realize I am not wealthy but I focus on saving to make sure that my family doesn’t have to worry about money if something happens to me. In America most of us are one disaster away from poverty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be a super saver in a 401k? You can only put in $19,500. That makes for a nice retirement, but it's not 5m in the bank.

its amazing how many people on this board don't understand retirement plans and how they work. Combined contribution (employee + employer) maximums for 2022 are $61,000 (under 50) or $67,500 (over 50). Those limits easily allow for 5M in the bank. Take into account that some of that can be Roth / post tax, and it realizes you even more in retirement.

If you were able, starting at 22, to have access to company resources that allowed for contributions to the full $61k/year (ignoring the fact that it hasn’t been $61k for 20 years), someone at 42 would only have about $1.2 in contributions. It would be nearly impossible to get to $4-5M from that given the limitation on most company sponsored plans. Maybe two people, but even then, how many people have access to plans that allow them to fully max the contribution before 30?

I started saving at 21. I will have $3 to $4 million at retirement. By myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be a super saver in a 401k? You can only put in $19,500. That makes for a nice retirement, but it's not 5m in the bank.

its amazing how many people on this board don't understand retirement plans and how they work. Combined contribution (employee + employer) maximums for 2022 are $61,000 (under 50) or $67,500 (over 50). Those limits easily allow for 5M in the bank. Take into account that some of that can be Roth / post tax, and it realizes you even more in retirement.

If you were able, starting at 22, to have access to company resources that allowed for contributions to the full $61k/year (ignoring the fact that it hasn’t been $61k for 20 years), someone at 42 would only have about $1.2 in contributions. It would be nearly impossible to get to $4-5M from that given the limitation on most company sponsored plans. Maybe two people, but even then, how many people have access to plans that allow them to fully max the contribution before 30?

I started saving at 21. I will have $3 to $4 million at retirement. By myself.

You missed the point. Some people are claims to have that much, or more, by their early 30s. I am the PP and my husband and I also expect to have that much at retirement. But we aren’t retiring at 42.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be a super saver in a 401k? You can only put in $19,500. That makes for a nice retirement, but it's not 5m in the bank.

its amazing how many people on this board don't understand retirement plans and how they work. Combined contribution (employee + employer) maximums for 2022 are $61,000 (under 50) or $67,500 (over 50). Those limits easily allow for 5M in the bank. Take into account that some of that can be Roth / post tax, and it realizes you even more in retirement.

If you were able, starting at 22, to have access to company resources that allowed for contributions to the full $61k/year (ignoring the fact that it hasn’t been $61k for 20 years), someone at 42 would only have about $1.2 in contributions. It would be nearly impossible to get to $4-5M from that given the limitation on most company sponsored plans. Maybe two people, but even then, how many people have access to plans that allow them to fully max the contribution before 30?

I started saving at 21. I will have $3 to $4 million at retirement. By myself.

You missed the point. Some people are claims to have that much, or more, by their early 30s. I am the PP and my husband and I also expect to have that much at retirement. But we aren’t retiring at 42.

Sorry, to clarify, we each expect to have that much by retirement (at 60/62 years old).

[Anonymous]

You are on track, but you are right that anything can happen. My dad used to be a super saver until he had a brush with death in 2010 due to blood sepsis. After that he started moderating - saving and traveling. About 10 years later he died from a sudden heart attack at age 70 - while that’s young he still got to enjoy 10 lovely years of traveling with my mom. As you said, you never know what will happen, but being prudent is also important. Like with anything, balance is key.

[Anonymous]

We had kids early (20s). We’ve been imexing 401k since we graduated college and have been investing 20% of our net income in our brokerage account since then. We also have 2 rental properties. We are 49 and our youngest is headed to college in less than 2 weeks. I thought I wanted to retire at 55 and definitely can, but post Covid work life is amazing. We can (and do) work wherever we want. We have a boat share and just spent a week living on a boat in the bay fishing for our dinner and just relaxing. Wr we’re able to work from the boat. With our youngest off we are spending October in the Adirondacks and already have February slated for Scottsdale.

I really don’t see retirement anytime soon because the world just opened up to us with kids grown. Since we saved so diligently we don’t have to worry about college and our expenses are so incredibly small compared to years past. We have the income to do short term rentals all over the states and world if we choose.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a family where we had to move every few years for my dad to take a new high level professional job. We spent everything we earned so it was always dire that he find a new job and we move across the country immediately. My siblings and I all attended multiple high schools. It wasn't great and only intensified as he kept moving into more and more senior positions.

My DH and I are both in very high paying, specialized careers. We have saved in a way that we could stay put if one of us was out of our high paying job by 45, as our only options would be to take a local downsized job or move. We are set so one of us could retire at 50 and we both could retire at 55. This give us the stability to choose to stay where we live. I don't want to play the two career shlep and feel forced to move my kids from their schools and friends. Some may consider this too much savings, but we have a clear goal and are comfortable with our choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are on track, but you are right that anything can happen. My dad used to be a super saver until he had a brush with death in 2010 due to blood sepsis. After that he started moderating - saving and traveling. About 10 years later he died from a sudden heart attack at age 70 - while that’s young he still got to enjoy 10 lovely years of traveling with my mom. As you said, you never know what will happen, but being prudent is also important. Like with anything, balance is key.

Balance is so key. My husband and I are both in medicine and we've seen many people who were otherwise in the peak of health get sick and die in their 50s, 60s, 70s.
It's unlikely that you or I will die in our 50s but those who do didn't think it would happen to them either.
Once you hit 50 you really can't count on anything as your health can truly turn on a dime.
Careers like medicine really bring home the fragility of life.
A balance between living NOW and saving for later is really important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you be a super saver in a 401k? You can only put in $19,500. That makes for a nice retirement, but it's not 5m in the bank.

its amazing how many people on this board don't understand retirement plans and how they work. Combined contribution (employee + employer) maximums for 2022 are $61,000 (under 50) or $67,500 (over 50). Those limits easily allow for 5M in the bank. Take into account that some of that can be Roth / post tax, and it realizes you even more in retirement.

If you were able, starting at 22, to have access to company resources that allowed for contributions to the full $61k/year (ignoring the fact that it hasn’t been $61k for 20 years), someone at 42 would only have about $1.2 in contributions. It would be nearly impossible to get to $4-5M from that given the limitation on most company sponsored plans. Maybe two people, but even then, how many people have access to plans that allow them to fully max the contribution before 30?

Do you hold 100% of your retirement in cash? or 0% return? In your hypothetical, thats how you end up at 1.2M. assume 7% and you're at 2.5M over the last 10 years the s&p has returned 13.9%.

So I don't know what to tell you. I'm 40. My company matches 100% up to 12% of my salary. I started at ~60k 20 years ago, only hit max contribution last year, most of my part is post tax. I have over 2M (just me) in my retirement account from nothing other than contributions to my company plan. If I keep my contributions at the current level (which I won't, it will go up from here along with the caps) and estimate a conservative 5% return, in 20 more years I will have 6.7M. If returns are what they have been for the last 20 years, I'll have 13.1M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents were super savers. Retired in mid 50s 20 years ago with $4M. Then my dad got cancer, which he survived but he can no longer walk and has dementia. They have a lot of money but regret waiting to travel.

From them, I learned to save reasonably, but not to the point we miss out on things like traveling. We are able to max 401Ks and Roths, save for college, etc. but we don’t save huge amounts in non-retirement vehicles.

My parents were in a similar situation - they never really enjoyed their retirement money. I save a lot (including employer match I save almost $80K/year for retirement) but I definitely err on traveling more now vs saving and traveling more in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents were super savers. Retired in mid 50s 20 years ago with $4M. Then my dad got cancer, which he survived but he can no longer walk and has dementia. They have a lot of money but regret waiting to travel.

From them, I learned to save reasonably, but not to the point we miss out on things like traveling. We are able to max 401Ks and Roths, save for college, etc. but we don’t save huge amounts in non-retirement vehicles.

We will *only* have $3mil when we retire earlyish (I'll be 56; spouse will be older), and we definitely are planning to travel at least for 10 years. I lived frugally for most of my life and grew up lower income, and traveling in my early retirement is my reward.