Finally hit $100K in retirement savings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am glad for you, OP. Big congratulations. This was us many years ago. The first 100K is the hardest. After that, it starts growing at a nice clip.

Wanting that our DS gets a financial leg-up in life - we let him go to our state school for graduation with merit scholarship and with some of the saved tuition money we bought him a new car. When he graduated college debt-free we made him live with us for a couple years for free. We paid for everything. We made sure that most of his earnings (100K+) was locked into investments and retirement.

He is in another city now, about to get married. Living in an apartment with his fiancee. We set him up with necessities for an apartment - furniture, furnishings, cleaning supplies and all kitchen stuff etc. DH and I will pay for the entire wedding.

Meanwhile, they now live a modest lifestyle like the majority of their peers in their 20s ... but without student debt, car payments and 100K in their savings. And thankfully, they have a saver and investor mindset and are responsible kids.

No one cares about your kid

[Anonymous]

Great job, OP! I'm glad you're celebrating!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am glad for you, OP. Big congratulations. This was us many years ago. The first 100K is the hardest. After that, it starts growing at a nice clip.

Wanting that our DS gets a financial leg-up in life - we let him go to our state school for graduation with merit scholarship and with some of the saved tuition money we bought him a new car. When he graduated college debt-free we made him live with us for a couple years for free. We paid for everything. We made sure that most of his earnings (100K+) was locked into investments and retirement.

He is in another city now, about to get married. Living in an apartment with his fiancee. We set him up with necessities for an apartment - furniture, furnishings, cleaning supplies and all kitchen stuff etc. DH and I will pay for the entire wedding.

Meanwhile, they now live a modest lifestyle like the majority of their peers in their 20s ... but without student debt, car payments and 100K in their savings. And thankfully, they have a saver and investor mindset and are responsible kids.

No one cares about your kid

OP here. Not my comment.

[Anonymous]

Well done, OP! Although the first $100k are the hardest, keep up the good work and pay attention to lifestyle creep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s slow in the beginning. What age are you?

Too old and I knew better but then life happened while I was making other plans.

Congratulations, OP. I also wanted to say that I'm getting my kids to invest early. I don't want them to say at 30 that they should have started earlier.
Young people are busy with other things like school and friends. They don't think about retirement yet.
18-year old just got a job and we will put every dollar he make into his Roth IRA. I'm hoping we can add $4k this year as he just started working and definitely the max $7500 for 2026.
For OP, keep going. Try to max Roth IRA and don't be afraid of a regular investment account. The taxes in it can be nearly tax free (maybe state tax) in retirement when your income is low.
You will pay earned income taxes from 401k. I hope your money is in Roth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s slow in the beginning. What age are you?

Too old and I knew better but then life happened while I was making other plans.

Better late than never. Congrats! Keep saving.

[Anonymous]

Nice job OP!

[Anonymous]

You will seem to get stuck at certain points. I got stuck at around 100k, 500k, and at 1.2 m. The next million seemed to come really quickly. This is not meant to be a brag, but encouragement whe it seems like nothing is happening. Just let it ride. Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will seem to get stuck at certain points. I got stuck at around 100k, 500k, and at 1.2 m. The next million seemed to come really quickly. This is not meant to be a brag, but encouragement whe it seems like nothing is happening. Just let it ride. Congrats!

What caused “stuck”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations. Big milestone. Gets easier from here.

Yes it does. Keep up the good work OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am glad for you, OP. Big congratulations. This was us many years ago. The first 100K is the hardest. After that, it starts growing at a nice clip.

Wanting that our DS gets a financial leg-up in life - we let him go to our state school for graduation with merit scholarship and with some of the saved tuition money we bought him a new car. When he graduated college debt-free we made him live with us for a couple years for free. We paid for everything. We made sure that most of his earnings (100K+) was locked into investments and retirement.

He is in another city now, about to get married. Living in an apartment with his fiancee. We set him up with necessities for an apartment - furniture, furnishings, cleaning supplies and all kitchen stuff etc. DH and I will pay for the entire wedding.

Meanwhile, they now live a modest lifestyle like the majority of their peers in their 20s ... but without student debt, car payments and 100K in their savings. And thankfully, they have a saver and investor mindset and are responsible kids.

No one cares about your kid

OP here. Not my comment.

Yeah figured as much, not sure why the PP had to chime in with their kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will seem to get stuck at certain points. I got stuck at around 100k, 500k, and at 1.2 m. The next million seemed to come really quickly. This is not meant to be a brag, but encouragement whe it seems like nothing is happening. Just let it ride. Congrats!

What caused “stuck”?

The market decided to drop, stall, or otherwise be weird. I remember being so annoyed after a couple of years when the number seemed to stay the same and then I calculated how much I had put in and how much had been matched. At the time I thought “shoulda taken the cash”, but I stayed the course. Hold and ride it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You will seem to get stuck at certain points. I got stuck at around 100k, 500k, and at 1.2 m. The next million seemed to come really quickly. This is not meant to be a brag, but encouragement whe it seems like nothing is happening. Just let it ride. Congrats!

What caused “stuck”?

The market decided to drop, stall, or otherwise be weird. I remember being so annoyed after a couple of years when the number seemed to stay the same and then I calculated how much I had put in and how much had been matched. At the time I thought “shoulda taken the cash”, but I stayed the course. Hold and ride it out.

Those are the years you want to absolutely max out. Sounds like you have done that.

Congrats OP!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s slow in the beginning. What age are you?

Too old and I knew better but then life happened while I was making other plans.

Congratulations, OP. I also wanted to say that I'm getting my kids to invest early. I don't want them to say at 30 that they should have started earlier.
Young people are busy with other things like school and friends. They don't think about retirement yet.
18-year old just got a job and we will put every dollar he make into his Roth IRA. I'm hoping we can add $4k this year as he just started working and definitely the max $7500 for 2026.
For OP, keep going. Try to max Roth IRA and don't be afraid of a regular investment account. The taxes in it can be nearly tax free (maybe state tax) in retirement when your income is low.
You will pay earned income taxes from 401k. I hope your money is in Roth.

We did this with both of our kids. DD is turning 19 in January and has $37K in her Roth IRA. DS just turned 21 and has $96K.

[Anonymous]

People, great that you are teaching your kids to invest. But this is not the thread for these wise lessons and updates on how much money you/they have!

Congratulations, OP. Life doesn’t deal all of us an even hand. Saving $100,000 is hard and you should feel proud about reaching your goal!