Do I Need to Save More for Retirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

This

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Behind what? What do you think you're going to be doing in retirement at 75, 85, 90+ years old?

Behind saving. Most likely paying someone 100k+ per year in today’s money to help me.

Try $250k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Behind what? What do you think you're going to be doing in retirement at 75, 85, 90+ years old?

Behind saving. Most likely paying someone 100k+ per year in today’s money to help me.

For how many years? 30? How much you get from social security and medicare to pay for that?

You save because you can't tell the future. Do you know when you are going to die?

I have a pretty good idea about how long I can possibly live, yes.

You never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Behind what? What do you think you're going to be doing in retirement at 75, 85, 90+ years old?

Behind saving. Most likely paying someone 100k+ per year in today’s money to help me.

For how many years? 30? How much you get from social security and medicare to pay for that?

You save because you can't tell the future. Do you know when you are going to die?

I have a pretty good idea about how long I can possibly live, yes.

That's not good enough for retirement planning. Come on PP.

So you planning for the possibility you're going to live 150 years?

Do what you want. Obviously you will never understand dumba$$.

I understand numbers.

That’s cute. Sure you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Behind what? What do you think you're going to be doing in retirement at 75, 85, 90+ years old?

Behind saving. Most likely paying someone 100k+ per year in today’s money to help me.

For how many years? 30? How much you get from social security and medicare to pay for that?

You save because you can't tell the future. Do you know when you are going to die?

I have a pretty good idea about how long I can possibly live, yes.

You never know.

Sure you do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Behind what? What do you think you're going to be doing in retirement at 75, 85, 90+ years old?

Behind saving. Most likely paying someone 100k+ per year in today’s money to help me.

For how many years? 30? How much you get from social security and medicare to pay for that?

You save because you can't tell the future. Do you know when you are going to die?

I have a pretty good idea about how long I can possibly live, yes.

You never know.

Sure you do.

If your retirement plan is to put a bullet in your head and check out, I agree. Not a good plan but it's your call. In that case, why wait?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Yep, only doing better than probably 90% of people.

[Anonymous]

OP, you're finding out that this forum is super conservative when it comes to planning for retirement. According to quite a few posters, having $10M in retirement is barely enough to keep you in a tent on the streets. In your case, if you stopped contributing a single penny more outside social security contributions, your money will keep growing and you'll have a few million plus a comfortable SS income. Which is more than most people will ever have. Certainly enough to live comfortably off a 4% draw plus SS especially once you have no mortgage.

You'll also discover that people vastly overestimate how much they really need for retirement. My widowed mother lives off $135k between pension and SS and her life is comfortable, paid off house, several trips a year, lots of social activities. She always complains she's too busy. Retired ladies lunch a lot! She has friends from her teaching days who have significantly less and are still happy and living well.

People freak out about the costs of continuing care communities but they only look at the extreme examples. The very nice one my mother is vaguely looking at starts at $4k a month for a person in a 1-bedroom apartment once you buy the unit, and that includes virtually all the bills. It goes up if you want a bigger apartment. Full service dementia care can start out at $10k a month but if you're at that point, you're not living very long. The average is 2-3 years. And many if not most elderly people survive just fine without continuing care communities, staying in their homes. My grandparents lived into their 90s and stayed at home till the very end. They had help at the very end but we're talking about 1-2 years at most.

Look around the US. Do we have an epidemic of elderly homeless people, abandoned to starve on the streets? Nope. Somehow it all works out.

I'm in a similar position as you agewise and net worth and know the feeling of being frugal and hard working for the last 20 years and wanting to enjoy some of it now. Continuing our savings pattern, even factoring in two big bear markets between now and 2046 (my planned retirement year goal), we will end up with a significantly larger retirement income than our current income. Which is a bit weird given that we live nicely now.

I do have these thoughts re enjoying life now versus delaying gratifications until retirement. My biggest fear is less retirement savings but getting laid off in my 50s and struggling to find replacement jobs, although truth be told, pretty much everyone I know who was ever reorganized out did find new jobs, perhaps not at the same income levels for some of them, but more than enough to keep life going. Right now the plan is to continue the aggressive savings till I'm 50 and then reevaluate. Priorities have also changed the older I get, a few years ago I'd have been hungry for a bigger house but now I prize my 2.7% mortgage and ain't ever giving that up as we still live in a nice neighborhood, just in a slightly too small house. But I can see us spending a bit more on travel and maybe nicer cars than our standard Japanese vehicles. And if we hit 60 and the retirement goals are on target, then we'll sell and move somewhere nice in one of our preferred locations. Suggest you look at finding a balance in your life between future goals and what you'd like now.

[Anonymous]

I'd do some research about how much in retirement you need to have your desired monthly income. If you want to be able to spend $200k+/yr, you're not anywhere near how much money you would need. Swap your 20 yr old used cars for 2 yr old used cars and keep on saving. The 2008 financial crisis happened when I was in my late 30s and it seemed like my retirement savings didn't increase over what I had in 2007 for almost 10 yrs...point being that we're overdue for a prolonged downturn and you need a financial cushion to be ready for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd do some research about how much in retirement you need to have your desired monthly income. If you want to be able to spend $200k+/yr, you're not anywhere near how much money you would need. Swap your 20 yr old used cars for 2 yr old used cars and keep on saving. The 2008 financial crisis happened when I was in my late 30s and it seemed like my retirement savings didn't increase over what I had in 2007 for almost 10 yrs...point being that we're overdue for a prolonged downturn and you need a financial cushion to be ready for it.

He and his wife will be entitled to social security. We can debate the future of social security but right now, based on the size of their savings and house, they're probably likely to be in a position to receive about $3500 a month, each, in today's value. That's $84k in social security a year. Which means tapping into $120k from their savings. At a 4% draw they'd need $3M in investments. He's already halfway there. Agree he shouldn't completely stop is retirement savings but I'd think maxing out the 401k each year is enough between now and 2046.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd do some research about how much in retirement you need to have your desired monthly income. If you want to be able to spend $200k+/yr, you're not anywhere near how much money you would need. Swap your 20 yr old used cars for 2 yr old used cars and keep on saving. The 2008 financial crisis happened when I was in my late 30s and it seemed like my retirement savings didn't increase over what I had in 2007 for almost 10 yrs...point being that we're overdue for a prolonged downturn and you need a financial cushion to be ready for it.

He and his wife will be entitled to social security. We can debate the future of social security but right now, based on the size of their savings and house, they're probably likely to be in a position to receive about $3500 a month, each, in today's value. That's $84k in social security a year. Which means tapping into $120k from their savings. At a 4% draw they'd need $3M in investments. He's already halfway there. Agree he shouldn't completely stop is retirement savings but I'd think maxing out the 401k each year is enough between now and 2046.

I'd keep saving in the brokerage, even if you want a conservative allocation, because you think we are heading for a crash. Brokerage is your liquidity in case you lose jobs, have a catastrophic event in the family, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Mid 40s and not having $30 million is a fail. Unless you are $100 million liquid at retirement how do you expect to fuel your G800? Pish posh.

[Anonymous]

We are both 43 and have slightly higher stats than you — same equity, 1.6 in 401k, but closer to $3 million in brokerage, fully funded 529s for both kids — and I ask this question all the time. We made some expensive choices (namely private school with 2 elementary kids) so I know I need to stick with my high paying job for a bit, but wonder when I can quit. I’d be nervous about stopping retirement or brokerage contributions entirely, but I think you can certainly afford to enjoy more of life now (vacations, less worry about day to day spending, etc) if you plan to continue working at the lower income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mid 40s and 1.5 NW (excluding home) is nothing to brag about. I'd try to save it aggressively. I actually think you are somewhat behind.

Yep, only doing better than probably 90% of people.

Can't relax till you're in the 99th percentile. Or not even then. 😆

These posts are so ridiculous. FWIW I am mid 40s and have just 355k in my 401k. My spouse has 400k. We will be ok! Not going to be homeless!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you're finding out that this forum is super conservative when it comes to planning for retirement. According to quite a few posters, having $10M in retirement is barely enough to keep you in a tent on the streets. In your case, if you stopped contributing a single penny more outside social security contributions, your money will keep growing and you'll have a few million plus a comfortable SS income. Which is more than most people will ever have. Certainly enough to live comfortably off a 4% draw plus SS especially once you have no mortgage.

You'll also discover that people vastly overestimate how much they really need for retirement. My widowed mother lives off $135k between pension and SS and her life is comfortable, paid off house, several trips a year, lots of social activities. She always complains she's too busy. Retired ladies lunch a lot! She has friends from her teaching days who have significantly less and are still happy and living well.

People freak out about the costs of continuing care communities but they only look at the extreme examples. The very nice one my mother is vaguely looking at starts at $4k a month for a person in a 1-bedroom apartment once you buy the unit, and that includes virtually all the bills. It goes up if you want a bigger apartment. Full service dementia care can start out at $10k a month but if you're at that point, you're not living very long. The average is 2-3 years. And many if not most elderly people survive just fine without continuing care communities, staying in their homes. My grandparents lived into their 90s and stayed at home till the very end. They had help at the very end but we're talking about 1-2 years at most.

Look around the US. Do we have an epidemic of elderly homeless people, abandoned to starve on the streets? Nope. Somehow it all works out.

I'm in a similar position as you agewise and net worth and know the feeling of being frugal and hard working for the last 20 years and wanting to enjoy some of it now. Continuing our savings pattern, even factoring in two big bear markets between now and 2046 (my planned retirement year goal), we will end up with a significantly larger retirement income than our current income. Which is a bit weird given that we live nicely now.

I do have these thoughts re enjoying life now versus delaying gratifications until retirement. My biggest fear is less retirement savings but getting laid off in my 50s and struggling to find replacement jobs, although truth be told, pretty much everyone I know who was ever reorganized out did find new jobs, perhaps not at the same income levels for some of them, but more than enough to keep life going. Right now the plan is to continue the aggressive savings till I'm 50 and then reevaluate. Priorities have also changed the older I get, a few years ago I'd have been hungry for a bigger house but now I prize my 2.7% mortgage and ain't ever giving that up as we still live in a nice neighborhood, just in a slightly too small house. But I can see us spending a bit more on travel and maybe nicer cars than our standard Japanese vehicles. And if we hit 60 and the retirement goals are on target, then we'll sell and move somewhere nice in one of our preferred locations. Suggest you look at finding a balance in your life between future goals and what you'd like now.

This is a great summary. It’s really amazing that so many posters on this forum are financially successful and yet so obtuse