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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 39. I have 90k in my 401k and about $280k in cash. (I know I need to do something with the cash but I'm extremely risk averse.). DH has a little less in his 401k and a little more in his investment account.

You need to do something about that cash. Not enough 401k.

I agree but what can I do to fix it? I'm maxing out the 401k now. There is no way to catch it up, or am I missing something? I'm trying to figure out how to do an IRA or something else to compensate. I'm embarrassingly financially illiterate.

One small thing you can do is start doing $5500 in Blackfoot Roth IRA each year ($11000 if you have a spouse).

[Anonymous]

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 dont see large amounts posted. What do you consider large?

[Anonymous]

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 started maxing out when I got married at 27. We lived off DH's income and mine went to savings. I also had a 15 percent employer contribution from the time I was 25 until 35.

[Anonymous]

39 yrs old

500k combined 401k/IRA retirement savings with DH
165k for 3 kids in 529s
340k in other investments (planning to shift some over to 529s)

We also have an investment property that should provide ~3k/month when the kids are in college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 39. I have 90k in my 401k and about $280k in cash. (I know I need to do something with the cash but I'm extremely risk averse.). DH has a little less in his 401k and a little more in his investment account.

You need to do something about that cash. Not enough 401k.

I agree but what can I do to fix it? I'm maxing out the 401k now. There is no way to catch it up, or am I missing something? I'm trying to figure out how to do an IRA or something else to compensate. I'm embarrassingly financially illiterate.

One small thing you can do is start doing $5500 in Blackfoot Roth IRA each year ($11000 if you have a spouse).

LOL. You mean backdoor ROTH... I like "blackfoot" better thou

[Anonymous]

I am 42 now. I think the balance in my 401k was 260k at age 40. Husband's was about the same. No extra cash but about $200k equity in our house. We didn't open college accounts for kids until last year (I was 41). Now each account has $15k. Kids are ages 5 and 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 39. I have 90k in my 401k and about $280k in cash. (I know I need to do something with the cash but I'm extremely risk averse.). DH has a little less in his 401k and a little more in his investment account.

You need to do something about that cash. Not enough 401k.

I agree but what can I do to fix it? I'm maxing out the 401k now. There is no way to catch it up, or am I missing something? I'm trying to figure out how to do an IRA or something else to compensate. I'm embarrassingly financially illiterate.

Make your own thread with a few more specifics. I am sure people will give you different ideas you can look into. What you provide above is not detail enough to suggest much.

[Anonymous]

40 years old.

$700K in all retirement accounts combined between DH and I - a mix of 401ks, Roths, and traditional IRAs that were rolled over from past jobs.

About $325K in taxable investments outside of retirement accounts, but they are part of our "retire early" strategy.

$75K cash on hand.

We started working with a fee-only financial adviser in our early 30's and it helped a ton. We were also extremely risk adverse and a little cash-heavy (although not as much as the previous poster asking about what to do with cash). It costs us about $4K a year but is worth every penny not to have to think about it and to know everything is appropriately balanced and overseen to get us to our goals. We were missing at least that much in growth most years just because we didn't have everything mixed quite right.

[Anonymous]

I am 41 and currently have $360k in retirement. Dh has about $750k and he is 43 years old. I think we are on target currently.

[Anonymous]

When I was 40 I had about $700k or so in my 401k. Started saving when I first started working after college. I also have a gov't pension.

[Anonymous]

I am not yet 40, but H is. He has $226k in his 401k and maxes out each year.

I am 37 and have $120k in my 401k. I also max out now.

We also have IRAs, taxable acclunts and cash accounts with $40k, $45k and $36k respectively.

We have two kids and $110k total in 529s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm 45 and have only $119k in my 401k and we have $20k in savings. Very little debt, but also don't own a house (we rent). We have had to dip into retirement accounts several times due to medical issue with one of our kids. We are paying for 2 other kids in college out of pocket without dipping into those amounts. My husband has little in his plan.
Having a sick kid has killed us financially but we are doing the best we can. It's pretty terrifying.

Dumb move. Every spare penny you have should be going towards retirement.

Well, it's a fact that their kids are in college and will need to be able to pay for that somehow. In contrast, none of us know what retirement will be like - how healthy we'll be or whether or not we'll even live long enough to see it.

Ideally, you'll put away a little something for retirement AND for the kids' college.

[Anonymous]

I am 38 and have about $400k in 401k. Husband has about the same and he is 39. Together with other investments, we have over a million. We own our house......around $820k in equity. 2 kids with 529, but need to put more money in it.

[Anonymous]

$375k in 401K/IRAs. $30k total across two 529s. DH has $250k in retirement funds. We feel behind but many calculators say we are OK compared based on our income.

[Anonymous]

DH has about $400k in his TSP. We contribute the max now. We have about $8,000 in savings. No debt other than our home (nearly paid off) and a small car note. Thankfully, DH has a decent pension. We are 50 and getting close to retirement age. I SAH. Four kids through college. One about to leave for college.

I think we are doing ok considering some set backs several years ago. TSP + Pension + social security = comfortable retirement.