If you max out your retirement, what is your income?

[Anonymous]

My husband and I started when our joint income was about $200k, with us both maxing. But we don't have kids and have a reasonable mortgage.

[Anonymous]

I am 42 and I currently max out. I make $148,500. I started maxing out when I was about 30 and I made about $90,000. I stopped maxing out for a couple of years when my husband and I had two kids in day care, but I started maxing out again a few year ago.

My current employer contributes 9% of my salary into my 401K, so I wonder sometimes if I am contributing too much. Between my contribution and their match I'm contributing $33,865 a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did it from the outset. Prioritizing retirement savings over current spending is the best path to a secure future, but many people prefer current consumption at a higher level over a more restrained lifestyle. IF you start maxing out retirement savings from your very first job, it becomes an accepted priority and practice, rather than something to eventually get around to. Given the time value of money, delaying the start of saving and investing is very costly.

I agree. I always maxed out my retirement, no matter what salary I was making. I prioritize that over consumption. Currently, I make $110K. I don't have any other debt. I'm 46 years old.

[Anonymous]

“max out” depends on the situation of the individual.

I am a teacher and have 7.5% of my income taken for pension. This basically gets matched by the state.

I also have a 403b, 457b and Roth. My wife has only a Roth.

We have a combined income of $171k and are able to max out all the accounts along with the pension. We have finally done so when the pandemic hit. I was able to save over a 3rd of my income and “max out”. However now, inflation and lack of raises is forcing us to pull back. We still save over 25% of our income plus the pension.

[Anonymous]

I started working for the fed govt in 1988 as a GS-7 making $18K a year. I maxed out my Thrift (10%) from day 1. I only worked for 14 years and quit to become a SAHM. I think I was making around $70K a year when I quit working. I rolled my Thrift into an IRA and it's now worth $500,000.

My DH started working right out of high school and went to college part time via community college then transferring to GMU. The reason why I mention that is he had his degree paid for via employee reimbursement. Yes, it took him 10 years to get his bachelor's but he didn't have to take out loans. It was not easy or a fun way to get his degree. Thanks to advice from his older brother, my DH also started saving enough in his companies 401K to get the employee max at 18 years old, only making $15K a year. Every time he changed companies, he rolled over the 401K into an IRA. That IRA is now worth $1.5M and my DH is not a big wage earner. I'm not sure how much is in his current 401K.

Our oldest just started working. He's making $80K a year - and he is putting the $20K in his 401K. He's currently living at home to save money, so we advised him to max out now. He is also building up his 6 month cash savings. He plans to move out once he has that cushion in the bank.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand how some people believe saving enough to get an employer “match” equals maxing out.

To answer the question, I started maxing out when I made 80k at 30yo. Previous to that I had always saved at least enough to get the employer match.

[Anonymous]

By max out I thought we meant putting in the maximum allowed by the IRS not to the employer match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By max out I thought we meant putting in the maximum allowed by the IRS not to the employer match.

That is the general understanding for most ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did it from the outset. Prioritizing retirement savings over current spending is the best path to a secure future, but many people prefer current consumption at a higher level over a more restrained lifestyle. IF you start maxing out retirement savings from your very first job, it becomes an accepted priority and practice, rather than something to eventually get around to. Given the time value of money, delaying the start of saving and investing is very costly.

I agree. I always maxed out my retirement, no matter what salary I was making. I prioritize that over consumption. Currently, I make $110K. I don't have any other debt. I'm 46 years old.

Another one who has always maxed (in the true sense of the word). If you don't have the money to spend, you don't spend it. At 59 I have $2M in my TSP.

[Anonymous]

$60,000. I have a high earning spouse and if I did not defer the maximum, all of that would be taxed at a marginal rate that doesn’t make sense for my low salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband and I started when our joint income was about $200k, with us both maxing. But we don't have kids and have a reasonable mortgage.

We are at about that level now (230k) jointly and we each max out. With employer contributions, it’s just over 50k/year. But we do have kids and a 3200/month mortgage payment. It’s hard! Sure hope it’s worth it eventually.

[Anonymous]

$82k. I’m a public school teacher and I’m behind on retirement savings. I’ll have to back off the max soon when my kid goes to college.

[Anonymous]

I maxed out my retirement on $68K when the max was about $7500. I've always maxed out other than the two years I was on maternity leave and didn't draw a full year's salary.

[Anonymous]

I make 50k and can't max out. I calculated I'd need to make around 90k for that milestone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I started maxing out at 55k when I graduated college. Currently at $230k salary and now added backdoor roth.

55k??

I also started maxing out at 55k when I was about 31 — but the mark was nowhere near 20k. I’ve always maxed out since then and didn’t hit $100k in earnings until I was in my 40s (I work for a nonprofit). I’m 53 now and my retirement account hit $1M last year…more like $880k now though.