How much should I be saving for retirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:!

I am doing this thanks to this website. While there are a lot of pessimistic assholes on this site...There are some smart fucking people.

I have shared this with a couple of my friends who are starting to save now.



WOW, This is how you thanks people who gave you advice? You are such smart ass, why are you asking for advice?

Regular giver of financial advice here- I love being differentiated from pessimistic assholes. It fucking swells my heart with jizztastic joy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:!

I am doing this thanks to this website. While there are a lot of pessimistic assholes on this site...There are some smart fucking people.

I have shared this with a couple of my friends who are starting to save now.

WOW, This is how you thanks people who gave you advice? You are such smart ass, why are you asking for advice?

Regular giver of financial advice here- I love being differentiated from pessimistic assholes. It fucking swells my heart with jizztastic joy

Hey, that was a DCUM compliment. You have to take 'em when you get 'em.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We make ~$210K per year (two income) and have saved $1.2M for retirement (excludes house equity ($400K) and college savings ($200K)) and our two kids go to private school. We are 43 years old.

How have we done this? We have always lived below our means. We buy things off Craigslist/Yard Sales wherever possible but we do not feel deprived. We have save 25% + of our income for at least the last 15 years maybe more. We save in aftertax retirement accounts such as 401k aftertax and IRA's.

The sad thing is we don't even feel financially secure but we know we are in a better position then most. Can't wait until we get to $2M. Hopefully, we will be there in 5 years.

You are us. We make $200k, one income, saved $1.2M including home equity ($700k without it), max 401K and try to save $100k a year total (we don't always manage). We are 32. Like you, $2M is my point of relaxation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We make ~$210K per year (two income) and have saved $1.2M for retirement (excludes house equity ($400K) and college savings ($200K)) and our two kids go to private school. We are 43 years old.

How have we done this? We have always lived below our means. We buy things off Craigslist/Yard Sales wherever possible but we do not feel deprived. We have save 25% + of our income for at least the last 15 years maybe more. We save in aftertax retirement accounts such as 401k aftertax and IRA's.

The sad thing is we don't even feel financially secure but we know we are in a better position then most. Can't wait until we get to $2M. Hopefully, we will be there in 5 years.

Well done. Did you and DH always make this level of income for the last 15 years (I mean similar - obviously lower in early years)?
For a couple who makes $200K now, but in previous years had much lower level salaries, the 3 x income saved goal by 45 (or whatever advice it is) does not work - makes one feel very behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are supposed to have 1x salary in retirement savings by age 30 and 2x by age 35 to be on track

So you're saying if you even hit the first milestone, you basically need to be saving almost 20% of your salary between ages 30 and 35? I think it's really hard for most people to do that. I've only got 1/3 of my salary saved at 29, but I also spent 2 years in grad school. I'm saving 10% of a government salary.

PP is wrong - it isn't 2x by age 35. It's 1x by 35.

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/suggested-retirement-savings-goals-by-age/

Thanks for posting this chart makes me feel so much better since we're on track to be over 2x by 40. The more you save the more it starts to snowball in an up market. For instance my retirement accounts have probably made as much as I net in two months just in gains in the past year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We make ~$210K per year (two income) and have saved $1.2M for retirement (excludes house equity ($400K) and college savings ($200K)) and our two kids go to private school. We are 43 years old.

How have we done this? We have always lived below our means. We buy things off Craigslist/Yard Sales wherever possible but we do not feel deprived. We have save 25% + of our income for at least the last 15 years maybe more. We save in aftertax retirement accounts such as 401k aftertax and IRA's.

The sad thing is we don't even feel financially secure but we know we are in a better position then most. Can't wait until we get to $2M. Hopefully, we will be there in 5 years.

Well done. Did you and DH always make this level of income for the last 15 years (I mean similar - obviously lower in early years)?
For a couple who makes $200K now, but in previous years had much lower level salaries, the 3 x income saved goal by 45 (or whatever advice it is) does not work - makes one feel very behind.

When I started working I made 28k per year and husband somewhere in the mid 30's. I don't remember how we got from from there to where we are now. In the late 1990's and mid 2000's we did get good raises. It wasn't like we started in fields where salary doesn't change much over career. We worked hard. We don't have maids or fancy cars. I bought a whole bunch of clothes at a yard sale yesterday for the kids only because they were high quality. We think differently than most people.


Poster who says they are similiar to me. Do you find yourself to be different than most of your peers? Do you feel people look down on you because they take nicer vacations? While my friends stay at the Disney Grand Floridian, we stay at the All Stars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We make ~$210K per year (two income) and have saved $1.2M for retirement (excludes house equity ($400K) and college savings ($200K)) and our two kids go to private school. We are 43 years old.

How have we done this? We have always lived below our means. We buy things off Craigslist/Yard Sales wherever possible but we do not feel deprived. We have save 25% + of our income for at least the last 15 years maybe more. We save in aftertax retirement accounts such as 401k aftertax and IRA's.

The sad thing is we don't even feel financially secure but we know we are in a better position then most. Can't wait until we get to $2M. Hopefully, we will be there in 5 years.

Well done. Did you and DH always make this level of income for the last 15 years (I mean similar - obviously lower in early years)?
For a couple who makes $200K now, but in previous years had much lower level salaries, the 3 x income saved goal by 45 (or whatever advice it is) does not work - makes one feel very behind.

When I started working I made 28k per year and husband somewhere in the mid 30's. I don't remember how we got from from there to where we are now. In the late 1990's and mid 2000's we did get good raises. It wasn't like we started in fields where salary doesn't change much over career. We worked hard. We don't have maids or fancy cars. I bought a whole bunch of clothes at a yard sale yesterday for the kids only because they were high quality. We think differently than most people.


Poster who says they are similiar to me. Do you find yourself to be different than most of your peers? Do you feel people look down on you because they take nicer vacations? While my friends stay at the Disney Grand Floridian, we stay at the All Stars.

What I find is interesting is that you choose to send your kids to private school. That is a huge expense, and really unnecessary in this area. Plus your kids are exposed to people who have a lot more money then as well.

[Anonymous]

$700 a month for the next 32 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We make ~$210K per year (two income) and have saved $1.2M for retirement (excludes house equity ($400K) and college savings ($200K)) and our two kids go to private school. We are 43 years old.

How have we done this? We have always lived below our means. We buy things off Craigslist/Yard Sales wherever possible but we do not feel deprived. We have save 25% + of our income for at least the last 15 years maybe more. We save in aftertax retirement accounts such as 401k aftertax and IRA's.

The sad thing is we don't even feel financially secure but we know we are in a better position then most. Can't wait until we get to $2M. Hopefully, we will be there in 5 years.

Well done. Did you and DH always make this level of income for the last 15 years (I mean similar - obviously lower in early years)?
For a couple who makes $200K now, but in previous years had much lower level salaries, the 3 x income saved goal by 45 (or whatever advice it is) does not work - makes one feel very behind.

When I started working I made 28k per year and husband somewhere in the mid 30's. I don't remember how we got from from there to where we are now. In the late 1990's and mid 2000's we did get good raises. It wasn't like we started in fields where salary doesn't change much over career. We worked hard. We don't have maids or fancy cars. I bought a whole bunch of clothes at a yard sale yesterday for the kids only because they were high quality. We think differently than most people.


Poster who says they are similiar to me. Do you find yourself to be different than most of your peers? Do you feel people look down on you because they take nicer vacations? While my friends stay at the Disney Grand Floridian, we stay at the All Stars.

Pp poster who said I was similar. Yea, we find some people look down at us, but mostly because I don't work for some senator or some stupid shit like that. As for vacations, we don't take many - family houses etc are the norm. Saving $100k a year on $200k income means we live rather lean. No cable, just hulu. No maid. No lawn service. Etc. I have a lot of very highly levered friends - one couple with no kids is in a $1.5M 5 bedroom town home. I don't get it. I have another friend who makes about $700K between him and his wife - and they live in a dumpy 1 bedroom condo. To say his net worth is growing by $500k a year is probably conservative. By the time he hits 40 he can retire (and that's his plan). To each their own I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We make ~$210K per year (two income) and have saved $1.2M for retirement (excludes house equity ($400K) and college savings ($200K)) and our two kids go to private school. We are 43 years old.

How have we done this? We have always lived below our means. We buy things off Craigslist/Yard Sales wherever possible but we do not feel deprived. We have save 25% + of our income for at least the last 15 years maybe more. We save in aftertax retirement accounts such as 401k aftertax and IRA's.

The sad thing is we don't even feel financially secure but we know we are in a better position then most. Can't wait until we get to $2M. Hopefully, we will be there in 5 years.

Well done. Did you and DH always make this level of income for the last 15 years (I mean similar - obviously lower in early years)?
For a couple who makes $200K now, but in previous years had much lower level salaries, the 3 x income saved goal by 45 (or whatever advice it is) does not work - makes one feel very behind.

When I started working I made 28k per year and husband somewhere in the mid 30's. I don't remember how we got from from there to where we are now. In the late 1990's and mid 2000's we did get good raises. It wasn't like we started in fields where salary doesn't change much over career. We worked hard. We don't have maids or fancy cars. I bought a whole bunch of clothes at a yard sale yesterday for the kids only because they were high quality. We think differently than most people.


Poster who says they are similiar to me. Do you find yourself to be different than most of your peers? Do you feel people look down on you because they take nicer vacations? While my friends stay at the Disney Grand Floridian, we stay at the All Stars.

What I find is interesting is that you choose to send your kids to private school. That is a huge expense, and really unnecessary in this area. Plus your kids are exposed to people who have a lot more money then as well.

I would agree with you if we were sending our kids to private school for status but we are not. We might switch to the public at a later point (i.e. if my kids are able to get into a magnet). We reevaluate every year but for now we feel like the private school is worth the cost as it offers superior education to our public school.