If you have a pension, do you max out retirement savings too?

[Anonymous]

OP, go see the personnel office in your agency - they will be able to help you with planning.

I am in a similar situation. I'd like to be able to max out my retirements savings in addition to the pension - because the more savings I have the earlier I can retire. But I also live in the real world, and can't afford to save for kids' college, pay daily expenses, and max out retirements savings. So I save 5%, get the match, and accept that that is the best I can do.

I've done this for years - and although perhaps I am not doing so well by DCUM multi-million dollar net worth standards, I am on track for a comfortable retirement.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks for the replies. Also for the suggestion to stop by the personnel office - I should. I put 15% of my salary into TSP, but I'm part-time, so I'm a couple hundred short each paycheck of maxing out. Really hard to think about increasing that number to the maximum amount when there's so many other things to plan and save for!

[Anonymous]

No, we are on target to have 8x our salary in cash at retirement, plus a pension. Actually two pensions. But we aren't maxing out to do that. I do about 15% of my salary. And no, that doesn't hit $17,500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question is in the subject line. I see lots of advice on this board to max out retirement savings, which to me means $17,500 for both working adults, as well as $5000 to an IRA each year. DH and I will both have FERS pensions coming to us, and while we put a good chunk of change in our retirement savings, we still don't max out. I've played with various calculators online to try and estimate whether we are saving enough, but I was just curious if others with pensions felt the need to fully max out other retirement vehicles as well. Thanks for indulging my curiousity.

Yes, we never know when the pension will go away.

I think it is ridiculous to think that the federal government will renege on its legal commitment to provide the agreed pension - which is fully funded, by the way.

Didn't the government recently renege on military pensions?

You were grandfathered in...so things will be different for new personnel.

[Anonymous]

I maxed out on FERS contributions, then catch-up contributions on top of that, plus max out nondeductible IRA contributions. On top of that I saved about 3-5% of may salary in a non-retirement investment account.

Gotta max out FERS at least IMO, pay yourself first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question is in the subject line. I see lots of advice on this board to max out retirement savings, which to me means $17,500 for both working adults, as well as $5000 to an IRA each year. DH and I will both have FERS pensions coming to us, and while we put a good chunk of change in our retirement savings, we still don't max out. I've played with various calculators online to try and estimate whether we are saving enough, but I was just curious if others with pensions felt the need to fully max out other retirement vehicles as well. Thanks for indulging my curiousity.

We do. Pensions are on their way out. We only use the expected pension based on what we have earned thus far- not what we would earn if we continued working here until we retire. Too many potential layoffs or chance that the company will go under - no matter how secure the job feels today- things can change in the next few decades.

[Anonymous]

We're not maxing it out. We're each putting in a good amount and I started my retirement contributions when I was 25. So the partial fed pension + my retirement account will give us approx the same HHI (adjusted for inflation, etc) that we enjoy right now. DH's retirement package will be gravy on top of that. If he ends up with a partial pension (a possibility), then maybe we'll retire early. We're not counting on SS for obvious reasons, but if that's still around when we retire, then again - that's just gravy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, go see the personnel office in your agency - they will be able to help you with planning.

I am in a similar situation. I'd like to be able to max out my retirements savings in addition to the pension - because the more savings I have the earlier I can retire. But I also live in the real world, and can't afford to save for kids' college, pay daily expenses, and max out retirements savings. So I save 5%, get the match, and accept that that is the best I can do.

I've done this for years - and although perhaps I am not doing so well by DCUM multi-million dollar net worth standards, I am on track for a comfortable retirement.

+ 1 for us - one fed worker and one SAHM with a part time job. I worry about this but it is the best we can do

[Anonymous]

Pension will be around 14k/month (private) or lump sum of low 7 figs.

Max out two 401ks and 2 Roth IRAs.

Save another 75k per year in taxable accounts.

Hoping we will be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pension will be around 14k/month (private) or lump sum of low 7 figs.

Max out two 401ks and 2 Roth IRAs.

Save another 75k per year in taxable accounts.

Hoping we will be ok.

I will be praying for you, OP.

[Anonymous]

LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pension will be around 14k/month (private) or lump sum of low 7 figs.

Max out two 401ks and 2 Roth IRAs.

Save another 75k per year in taxable accounts.

Hoping we will be ok.

Bullshit. In 2013, the modified AGI limit for a married couple filing jointly was 188,000. Yet you're claiming to pay $36,000 pretax to your 401ks , and another 75,000 in after tax savings? That's a minimum of 136,000 in AGI. You're telling us you live on 53,000, and save another 10,000 of that into a Roth?

Bullshit.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I max my 401(k) like plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pension will be around 14k/month (private) or lump sum of low 7 figs.

Max out two 401ks and 2 Roth IRAs.

Save another 75k per year in taxable accounts.

Hoping we will be ok.

Bullshit. In 2013, the modified AGI limit for a married couple filing jointly was 188,000. Yet you're claiming to pay $36,000 pretax to your 401ks , and another 75,000 in after tax savings? That's a minimum of 136,000 in AGI. You're telling us you live on 53,000, and save another 10,000 of that into a Roth?

Bullshit.

Back door roth. It's $5500/year per person, regardless of agi. 401k max is 17,500 per person for a max of 35 k pretax.

You're clearly not up to date on tax law or even Roth contributions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pension will be around 14k/month (private) or lump sum of low 7 figs.

Max out two 401ks and 2 Roth IRAs.

Save another 75k per year in taxable accounts.

Hoping we will be ok.

Bullshit. In 2013, the modified AGI limit for a married couple filing jointly was 188,000. Yet you're claiming to pay $36,000 pretax to your 401ks , and another 75,000 in after tax savings? That's a minimum of 136,000 in AGI. You're telling us you live on 53,000, and save another 10,000 of that into a Roth?

Bullshit.

How do you know their income? Is it because she said they were contributing to Roth IRAs?