At what HHI did you start fully funding your 401k?
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Anonymous
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We fund two Roth IRAs but only the company match of one 401k.
DH is not a great saver and thinks we are fine. Have been doing in for 10 years. 2 kids, one in private with FA, renters. I am trying to figure out an action plan for us that is realistic. Please no answers in the tune of "after I was gifted my great aunts 2 bedroom, I could fully fund my retirement accounts..." It's not in our cards. Thank you! |
Anonymous
| $58k, single. $18k into TSP + $5,500 into a Roth IRA. Along with lots of oatmeal, rice, and peanut butter sandwiches. |
Anonymous
| Since about $80k. |
Anonymous
| From the very first paycheck after college. (And no rich relatives and yes we had school debt.) |
Anonymous
| Fully funding as in the IRS maximum (18k per person currently)? At $160k combined income. |
Anonymous
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OP here, to the ones who successfully funded early on, did ever scale back in funding due to kids entering the picture? How do you keep motivated?
After 10 years I am at a point where it gets old. |
Anonymous
| It really helps that the money comes out before we get paid. I don't even think of that money. All I have to work with is what I am paid. However things are tighter with kids. But the tax deduction is also very nice. |
Anonymous
Thanks, that's a good target number and seems where we are headed. |
Anonymous
| We've been fully funding them since around $150K. Before kids. Part of the reason is for the tax break - there's not many other ways to shelter than much from taxes other than real estate. |
Anonymous
This. I don't think I have ever looked at what it "could be" - I somehow trained myself to think of it as a unavoidable tax. |
Anonymous
When you bite the bullet and max out contributions early, the hard part is already over with. Every raise going forward is all yours. Your family budget grows along with the raise, as the saving has long since been taken care of. If I'm ever satisfied with what's accumulated I'd drop down to just contribute enough to get the match...but I don't see that happening. Motivation? Looking at a giant pile of money while knowing that I can retire very comfortably sometime in my early 50s while my kids are still in their pre-teens is pretty motivating. |
Anonymous
In nearly 15 years of working, this is the first year we will not have fully funded two 401ks, due to a layoff and huge salary decrease. But once we are back at dual income (which I think will be about $200k), we will go back to fully funding. I find that watching the money grow is pretty motivating. Once you have a few hundred thousand, watching those dividends get reinvested and whatever other growth you get it motivating, IMO. But OP, I think you might get more accurate data points for your purposes if you reversed your query - i.e., "If you make [relevant HHI range for you], and have kids, do you fully fund your 401k? If not, what percentage do you fund?" I say this because it's been pretty easy for us to fully fund our 401ks because our HHIs have been so high, so we "started" as soon as we started working. There was no getting up to a certain income before we started funding them to the max. |
Anonymous
Yes to both of these. Having maxed out for 10 or so years now, you actually see your raises (when not eaten up by health insurance...). And once I hit $300K or so, the account really started taking off. As someone who did not come from money, and do not invest much outside of a 401(k), it's nice to know that I have a really nice nest egg tucked aside. |
Anonymous
| I started fully funding after I paid off student loans. Prior to that, I was VERY aggressive in paying off loans, so paid off about $150K in less than 5 years. My starting salary was $50K with $10K increases each year for four years. When DH and I married we put a lot of his salary towards my loans until they were gone and lived simply. Obviously that was huge, though I don't think it is the same as inheriting a 2 bedroom from the aunts. Even while paying off loans I always got the employer match of 5% (free money). The disagreement DH and I have is DH wants to scale back savings for 1-2 years to finish getting that robust 30-35% downpayment for a home so we can have a mortgage and other living expenses we could cover with only 1 salary, if it ever came to it. We could buy a home now, but then would NEED both salaries. We both plan to continue working, but want the lower mortgage as a sort of safety net. For me it just comes down to my gut telling me that we can always scale back savings in the future if/when life throws us a curve ball (job loss, unanticipated medical needs, parents needing support, kids with unanticipated and expenseive needs), but we will NEVER be able to go back in time and catch up if we don't save the max now. We haven't started saving for college, so that could be one thing we divert savings to in 16 years or so. HHI $230 FWIW |
Anonymous
| It's not just the match you'd be missing out on but it is the fact it is pre-taxmoney. If you're not even maxing out retirement you should shoot for a 20 percent downpayment on a house you can afford with one salary |