People with "regular incomes" what are your savings?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I did not start saving for retirement until I was 28. I started small and increased when I could. I was also a crappy investor (use index funds people!) I'm old now, almost 52 and I have just shy of a million in my various retirement accounts. I'll never be rich, but I should be fine.

My point here is this. Start now, and don't stop. Increase contributions when you can. You'll be able to see real progress and you'll lower your stress level.

Good luck!

1M for just you or you and your spouse?
Good job either way.

[Anonymous]

35, never married mom of an elem school kid, 85K income. No child support. I have 235K in retirement. I started with $50/month at 23 and making 30K. I'm a Fed, so will have a pension.

I have aLOT of debt though. I reduced retirement savings to the match recently to pay off consumer debt sooner. Have $800 remaining in student loan debt and a small mortgage.

[Anonymous]

I make $75K, DH makes $104K, and we have rental income and a side hustle that brings our total HHI to $197K. We're 46 and 47.

We have $24K in an emergency fund and @ $12K in sinking funds. I have @ $350K in retirement savings (across 403b, 457, IRAs, and pension contributions). DH has $100K. We don't have any employer match. I have two pensions and DH has one, but his will be larger and is a government pension (mine are smaller and only one is a government pension). His will be $50k/year and mine will total $41K/year. We also have @ $1M equity in our house (bought at the bottom of the last RE crash) and we rent out the top floor; we could sell it and downsize to a condo (we don't want to leave our area for retirement).

I started saving for retirement when I was 25 or so, stopped at 28, and then picked back up when I was in my mid-30s. DH didn't start until his mid-30s (thanks to my prompting). I don't want us to totally reply on our pensions, so I as of this year I am maxing out my 403b ($18,500), my Roth IRA ($5500), and adding to my 457 ($4500), and DH (who is more risk averse) is putting $18K in his work annuity (guaranteed 7%). We've gotten serious over the past 2 years about saving for retirement. (We also save $3k per kid per year in their 529s, and save for home maintenance projects/repairs.)

OP, my advice would be to save as much as you can now. Don;t wait until you make more, until there's more space in your budget, whatever. Make the space. We are saving until it hurts (but we still eat out and go on vacation). Just increase your contributions one percent at a time, month by month, until your budget cries uncle.Your DH may be inspired by what you're doing and at least get his to 6%. And if you guys have a HSA available, fund that, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I make $75K, DH makes $104K, and we have rental income and a side hustle that brings our total HHI to $197K. We're 46 and 47.

We have $24K in an emergency fund and @ $12K in sinking funds. I have @ $350K in retirement savings (across 403b, 457, IRAs, and pension contributions). DH has $100K. We don't have any employer match. I have two pensions and DH has one, but his will be larger and is a government pension (mine are smaller and only one is a government pension). His will be $50k/year and mine will total $41K/year. We also have @ $1M equity in our house (bought at the bottom of the last RE crash) and we rent out the top floor; we could sell it and downsize to a condo (we don't want to leave our area for retirement).

I started saving for retirement when I was 25 or so, stopped at 28, and then picked back up when I was in my mid-30s. DH didn't start until his mid-30s (thanks to my prompting). I don't want us to totally reply on our pensions, so I as of this year I am maxing out my 403b ($18,500), my Roth IRA ($5500), and adding to my 457 ($4500), and DH (who is more risk averse) is putting $18K in his work annuity (guaranteed 7%). We've gotten serious over the past 2 years about saving for retirement. (We also save $3k per kid per year in their 529s, and save for home maintenance projects/repairs.)

OP, my advice would be to save as much as you can now. Don;t wait until you make more, until there's more space in your budget, whatever. Make the space. We are saving until it hurts (but we still eat out and go on vacation). Just increase your contributions one percent at a time, month by month, until your budget cries uncle.Your DH may be inspired by what you're doing and at least get his to 6%. And if you guys have a HSA available, fund that, too.

That’s a huge amount of retirement income.

[Anonymous]

Husband is 50, I am 42. We make about 180,000 combined HHI. Combined retirement and other savings/investments are at about $800,000. Husband will have a significant pension with COLA raises. We are trying hard to save more, but it is hard with teenage kids in lots of activities. Definitely no early retirements. We have about $200,000 worth of debt (mortgage and car). At one point I had the fantasy of paying off our home, by the time kids started college. Decided to do private high school so that will not happen. Plan is to retire to lower cost of living area and come out with some profit on house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:37 and 41 - HHI - $235,000 - combined $800,000 retirement funds. Total net worth about $1.3 mil . Two kids in daycare.

how did you manage to save as much as you did?

Well for one, this PP does not have a “regular” income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are so behind I hesitate to post.
I was on page 1 of the other thread.

+100

Same rules apply. Save what you can, when you can. Don’t get discouraged by the comparisons. Everyone starts somewhere and nothing is ever guaranteed. Just start adding in good financial habits and your landscape will change over time. You’ll have to hustle, and maybe you won’t become a billionaire, but you can secure your financial future for the last phase of your life with commitment, knowledge, and discipline.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP. I did not start saving for retirement until I was 28. I started small and increased when I could. I was also a crappy investor (use index funds people!) I'm old now, almost 52 and I have just shy of a million in my various retirement accounts. I'll never be rich, but I should be fine.

My point here is this. Start now, and don't stop. Increase contributions when you can. You'll be able to see real progress and you'll lower your stress level.

Good luck!

1M for just you or you and your spouse?
Good job either way.

It's just me and a couple of tweens, I've never been married.

And, really, it wasn't a great job, I made good money for a single in my 30's, and I blew a lot of it - but every month had its deduction, automatically, increasing when I could. And that's what I want people to know - if they just start, and don't stop, they will be in so much better shape and it really reduces life stress. I had to cut back my contributions when my kids were babies, which coincided with the great recession - what crappy timing! But, again, I contributed what I could, and increased every time they got to the next cheaper level of care.

So start with as much as you can, and increase it when you can.

[Anonymous]

I am stunned by the OP...
How can you NOT save for retirement? That is like betting 100% of the goodness of others, or, geez, the gov't helping you.
The OP should start first w life insurance, which, I doubt they have. Then, start any and all 401(k)s possible. The fact that is causes the OP anxiety is proof enough that their current efforts are no where sufficient.

[Anonymous]

33, make $95k with $80k in 401K, but I have about $60k in student loan debt (interest rate 3.25%).

DH is 40, makes $150k, has $600k+ in retirement. No debt.

We have about $200k in equity in our home, but only $25k in emergency savings. We have an infant in daycare, so it's hard to save liquid cash right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Husband is 50, I am 42. We make about 180,000 combined HHI. Combined retirement and other savings/investments are at about $800,000. Husband will have a significant pension with COLA raises. We are trying hard to save more, but it is hard with teenage kids in lots of activities. Definitely no early retirements. We have about $200,000 worth of debt (mortgage and car). At one point I had the fantasy of paying off our home, by the time kids started college. Decided to do private high school so that will not happen. Plan is to retire to lower cost of living area and come out with some profit on house.

That's fantastic especially at age 42. Does the 800K include college savings?

[Anonymous]

On 9/6/98...
I made $30K
had $17K in savings
$9K in a 401K
and $8K of debt
for a net worth of 18k

Fast forward to 9/6/18
I make $160k
have $70K in savings,
$590K in a 401K
$122K in taxable investments
$51K in tax free investments
$147K in 529 funds for a college sophomore and a high school junior
I own a house with a $400K of equity
my spouse has another $722K in 401K,IRA and savings
and pulls in $70K part time.
$160k of debt on the house
for a net worth of $2.18M

You need to invest your money in the market now in a diversified way and let time work for you. Get the match at a minimum and build from there.

[Anonymous]

Why are so many people with HHIs north of $200k posting on this thread?

[Anonymous]

DH 38yo and DW 32yo, DW doesn’t work - and we have $700k in retirement/savings; DH salary $100k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH 38yo and DW 32yo, DW doesn’t work - and we have $700k in retirement/savings; DH salary $100k

How was this accomplished?