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

[Anonymous]

When I was 40 (in 2008) DW and I had $210,000

Weathered the storm of the financial crisis, kept contributing, and am now at $540,000.

I'm a fed,so this was all in TSP. I've never been able to max out, but I've always contributed at least 5% to get the 5% max.

I may not be doing as well as some people here, but I'm on target to hit $1 million at age 57 and $1.35 million by age 60. With that, plus my fed pension, i should be good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting how in most cases here - the DHs have a lot more than the DWs. Are the DHs earning that much more? Or are the DHs maxing out while the DWs are responsible for additional bills like childcare?

My theories would be:

1) Maybe the men get started saving earlier while the women party on in their 20s?
2) Women take time out from work to care for children -- opportunity cost.
3) Yes, salary disparity.

I doubt it's "additional bills."

I agree with the items above as the main reason. In order to have 400K or so in your 401K by age 40 you would have had to start contributing in your early 20s and put in a good amount of money, if not the max contribution, each year. You also can't contribute to a 401K unless you are working and have income, so SAH moms can't contribute, and you won't be able to contribute much if you are in school or have a low paying job early in your career (non-profit, school teacher, law school student, secretarial type position, etc). Due to the power of compounding over time, investing early is a huge benefit in the amount of you have in 401K by age 40.

In my case, my wife and I both max out our 401Ks each year, but since she went to law school and I started working immediately after undergrad (tech degree), I had a 3 year head start on her 401K wise and this money advantage just compounds every year even if we invest in the same funds. That said she makes way more money than I do, so just looking at the 401K balances is pretty misleading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

Near identical with a tad more in retirement $650k, $170k in 529s (3 kids), $320k in other investments, and even a rental property (though we may sell ours at college time for the kids). We are 37 & 40 and will have a $40k pension starting in a few years. HHI is $230k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In order to have 400K or so in your 401K by age 40 you would have had to start contributing in your early 20s and put in a good amount of money, if not the max contribution, each year.

yes and no. I have more than double that in my 401k and didn't start making meaningful contributions until I was about 30. However, my employer has a profit sharing plan that kicks into the same plan so I end up (with maxing) putting in about 40-50k a year. Self-employed can do even more and cap out at $54k/yr in 2017 (higher if you are old enough for catch up contributions). With those numbers you can hit 400k pretty quickly given the recent performance of the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I was 40 (in 2008) DW and I had $210,000

Weathered the storm of the financial crisis, kept contributing, and am now at $540,000.

I'm a fed,so this was all in TSP. I've never been able to max out, but I've always contributed at least 5% to get the 5% max.

I may not be doing as well as some people here, but I'm on target to hit $1 million at age 57 and $1.35 million by age 60. With that, plus my fed pension, i should be good.

Still a respectable amount, PP.

[Anonymous]

I'm 40 and I have about $2500 in cash savings and about $12k in a 401k. I'd have closer to 100k but I had to cash out my 401k about 5 years ago when I got divorced and XH wasn't contributing anything. I make about $120k now but was only making about $75k when we separated.

[Anonymous]

At 40, I had $292,000 in my 401(k) and about $58K in my traditional IRA. I had about $20K saved in 529 plans for my two kids. With my husband, our net worth was just under $1.7 million.

[Anonymous]

I just turned 30 and feel like we are way behind.

I have 25k in mine, no employer match. DH has about 50k. 12k cash in savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just turned 30 and feel like we are way behind.

I have 25k in mine, no employer match. DH has about 50k. 12k cash in savings.

PP, I'm the poster from above who had just over $200K at 40 and now have over $500K. When I was 30, my wife and I had about $30,000 total saved between us. So don't panic - but start saving now and you will still be in good shape later on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just turned 30 and feel like we are way behind.

I have 25k in mine, no employer match. DH has about 50k. 12k cash in savings.

PP, I'm the poster from above who had just over $200K at 40 and now have over $500K. When I was 30, my wife and I had about $30,000 total saved between us. So don't panic - but start saving now and you will still be in good shape later on.

Come up with a plan. You're still young, but need to be more proactive. You'll be surprised how much a difference once you're actively saving. Get DH on board. If he's anything like mine, I had to reiterate the importance of saving, budgeting, etc. more than a few times before he finally got it.

[Anonymous]

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 should have been maxing out your tax deferred investments. No way in hell you max'ed out if you have that much in cash. Lower your tax base.

[Anonymous]

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 should have been maxing out your tax deferred investments. No way in hell you max'ed out if you have that much in cash. Lower your tax base.

+1. You are actually losing money slowly every day by holding on to that cash since there is nothing you can have it in that can keep up with inflation. I'd max out 401k, backdoor Roth, HSA and then open a taxable Vanguard and throw all that into a simple 3 fund portfolio except for what you keep aside as an emergency fund (6-12 months of expenses in cash).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just turned 30 and feel like we are way behind.

I have 25k in mine, no employer match. DH has about 50k. 12k cash in savings.

Do not worry! I went from $300K in my 401(k) to a cool million in just a few months more than 10 years. You have plenty of time if you start now and stick to the plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just turned 30 and feel like we are way behind.

I have 25k in mine, no employer match. DH has about 50k. 12k cash in savings.

Do not worry! I went from $300K in my 401(k) to a cool million in just a few months more than 10 years. You have plenty of time if you start now and stick to the plan.

Another post here. This makes me feel better. I'm 33 with around 280k in 401ks. I feel behind for my salary (175k). However, between my contributions and my employer's I'll be contributing 50k a year going forward. I'm hoping that by 40 I'll be caught up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just turned 30 and feel like we are way behind.

I have 25k in mine, no employer match. DH has about 50k. 12k cash in savings.

Do not worry! I went from $300K in my 401(k) to a cool million in just a few months more than 10 years. You have plenty of time if you start now and stick to the plan.

Another post here. This makes me feel better. I'm 33 with around 280k in 401ks. I feel behind for my salary (175k). However, between my contributions and my employer's I'll be contributing 50k a year going forward. I'm hoping that by 40 I'll be caught up!

You will be fine by 40 or 45. 33 is very young yet.