Reply to Dual income families, what is your HHI?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am curious what people mean when they say they "max out" retirement.  When you say you max out 401ks, do you mean you contribute the absolute maximum that you can (I think for this year, it's $16.5K), or do you mean you contribute what you need to maximize your employer match?  To me, it would be the aboslute max.  And when you say you "max out" retirement, what does that mean in addition to your 401k contributions?  That you each have an IRA that you fully fund each year?  That's what it means to me, but again, I just want to know if that's what other people intend as well.

To the pp above with $250k HHI and a $5k mortgage, how are you making that work with such a large margin to not feel pinched?  I mean, I know the numbers work out, but you say you're also spending $10k a year on a house project, and have daycare costs.  I know when our mortgage was at $4k on about the same HHI, we felt a little pinched in terms of having much extra cash after committing to retirement and college savings (and we have no car payment or credit card debt, just a small student loan).  Do you think you are particularly frugal in terms of other household expenses?  [/quote]

I'm that same poster above ($250K HHI and $5K mortgage).  We mox out retirement at $16,500 each in 401(k)s.  I have some additional monies in an IRA from a now defunct pension plan.  We're both 35, and have just over $400K in our 401(k)s.

We've always saved, so the $10K for house project and $5K for vacations may have come from previous years of saving.  My DH's bonus fluctuates, but last year it was $15K (above the $250K HHI), so that goes straight into savings.  Ditto for any tax refunds or anything of the like.  And we funnel money away each paycheck right into savings.

I'm guessing others probably funnel more into college savings - right now, we're contributing $200/month, and we started with a few thousand in it from gifts.    We'll up those savings as daycare costs drop. But again, we're also not committed to paying 4 years of private school tuition.  We both went to private college, but got scholarships that made it cheaper than the state schools. We also assume that we'll have the ability to pay some tuition at the time of college enrollment.

Honestly, we don't really feel pinched.  We cut coupons, but still dine out at expensive restaurants from time to time.  We shop at mid-range stores - Giant and WF for groceries, Target for many household items, BR and Ann Taylor for clothing.  Much of DS' wardrobe and toys are bought by family.  [/quote]

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