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

[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!

What field are you in? I have never heard of a match so generous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

What field are you in? I have never heard of a match so generous.

Finance. It's an 8 percent match. Then a 10 percent match into a pension. If you leave the pension sum can be rolled into a 401k.

The breakdown is:
18k - my 401k contribution
Approx 14k - employer contribution
Approx 18k - pension employer contribution

Is approx 50k.

[Anonymous]

age 38 - I have $140k. DW is 37 and has about $260k. we have another $150k or so in roth/taxable accounts and $25k or so in a 529 for our 2 year old.

I started out in 2012 with $0 in my 401k; I'm behind the eightball a bit but should be okay.

[Anonymous]

DH (age 37): $450k
Me (age 33): $175k

Feel like we're doing pretty well with the retirement accounts, but not much in terms of other savings

[Anonymous]

Had about $250K when I was 40. Had about $325K at 50. Consider myself pretty far behind. Fortunately, my wife's contributions to her TSP is much higher (for 10 years she was maxing out her contributions while I was paying for virtually all household expenses including mortgage, utilities, CCs, and finally daycare when we had kids), so we're doing okay on average.

I started a new job this year at age 51 with a substantial raise. I have not set it up to max out $24K funding (catch-up contributions) plus a 3% match by employer. Doing this, essentially eats up my raise, but it's worth it. Now I will max out my 401K contributions with catchup and my take-home is essentially the same as it was last year.

[Anonymous]

I know we are behind and I'm very frustrated by it.

DH is 49 and I'm 45. Combined we have about $500k in 401k and IRAs.

We have about $400k in equity in our house. We have $35k in regular savings.

DC is 4 y.o and we've only saved $10k in the 529 so far.

I'm hoping that we can put more into our IRAs/savings when DC enters kindergarten (and no more full-time preschool to pay for).

[Anonymous]

Me -33; DH - 37

401K - 130K
403(b) (husband is a professor) - 300K
Savings - 130K cash
529 - $5000 (DD is 1, we contribute $500 a month)

[Anonymous]

Both 35. About $400k total.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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!

What field are you in? I have never heard of a match so generous.

Finance. It's an 8 percent match. Then a 10 percent match into a pension. If you leave the pension sum can be rolled into a 401k.

The breakdown is:
18k - my 401k contribution
Approx 14k - employer contribution
Approx 18k - pension employer contribution

Is approx 50k.

I work as an in-house attorney for a corporation. We each get a match of 9 percent of our salary. So for the past few years, I've hit the IRS max of $54,000 per year in my 401(k). I haven't always worked here though and just worked part-time when my kids were younger, and so at age 47, my 401(k) is at $400,000.

For those of you in your 30's with low amounts, keep the faith. I start to notice a real snowball once you get a critical mass in your account (like $200,000). The compounding really starts to take off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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."

Don't think No 1 is the case - women have been shown to be savers more than men even at young ages. Though I do think disproportionately more men go into engineering and finance and start career jobs at 22, while more women get liberal arts degrees and start in lower paid office jobs as they find their career ladder; those yrs in your 20s matter. And then when there are babies - far more women can't or won't travel, need to be done work at 5 pm, and now more and more require 1-2 days of work from home per week. You just can't do that and expect your salary to grow as fast as men who will travel many days per month or week, can stay late or work a weekend anytime, and don't seek work from home situations. I think more 10-20 yrs that leads to DHs having bigger 401ks. I do know a few households where daycare bills fall on the wife -- it's seen as her expense so she can work, so then there's even less chance to max out while the DH leaves his contributions untouched.

I know multiple households where daycare is paid for by stopping the wife's contributions to her 401k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's a PRE NUMP
not a prenump

Oh brother. If you are going to correct, get it right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people building such large 401k balances for those ages given the annual contribution limits? Even with high market returns it doesn't seem to add up. Maybe it's generous employer match??

I started maxing out when I got married at 27. We lived off DH's income and mine went to savings. I also had a 15 percent employer contribution from the time I was 25 until 35.

Ha! I'm on the other side. I stopped maxing out my retirement when I married my wife and stopped contributing completely when the kids pushed me to the brink (financially). My current employer has no health or retirement program - not that I have $ to contribute. $300k at age 40 and about the same at age 50 (yep, been taking out money to pay medical bills!). Oh well, I didn't really want to retire anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How are people building such large 401k balances for those ages given the annual contribution limits? Even with high market returns it doesn't seem to add up. Maybe it's generous employer match??

I started maxing out when I got married at 27. We lived off DH's income and mine went to savings. I also had a 15 percent employer contribution from the time I was 25 until 35.

Ha! I'm on the other side. I stopped maxing out my retirement when I married my wife and stopped contributing completely when the kids pushed me to the brink (financially). My current employer has no health or retirement program - not that I have $ to contribute. $300k at age 40 and about the same at age 50 (yep, been taking out money to pay medical bills!). Oh well, I didn't really want to retire anyway.

PP, you should post this on the other threads where SAHM's are saying they want a third or fourth child. I feel for you.

[Anonymous]

We are 42/43 and have about 400k each in retirement accounts, 100k in investments, 80k in cash and 10k in a 529.

So 800k or so in retirement.

[Anonymous]

What is a backdoor Roth as opposed to a Roth? This is post-tax, and limit is $5,500/year?