You're ahead of 90% of people. use a different calculator.

House bought before bubble.. paid 300k. We've always maxed out our 401k's and have also done IRA's. College savings has a lot of appreciation too. We are like 90 plus percent stocks.

Still confused. You make 200k, are 40 with childcare expenses, have 1.4 million in savings, have paid 467k on your house, and have 250k in college saved up?

Please tell me how the hell you did that without inheritance?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh? Humblebrag...but okay. No, I can't say I've had that experience. We make about the same, but are younger and the calculators I was looking at this week said we shoul save about 2500/month.

Are you looking at the 90th percent confidence interval which is what they recommend? Also are you older? I bet the calculators work better the closer you are to retirement.

Sorry just saw you were younger.

Anonymous wrote:Well, paying off your house isn' that great of a saving strategy. It's a fine strategy to improve cash flow, don't get me wrong, but having so much of your wealth in an non-liquid investment isn't usually wise. At the very least open a HELOC on it.

It's my alternative to keeping more money in fixed income. I figure if we have a job loss, our fixed expenses will be lower once mortgage is paid off. It's the law that we could get our loan reamortized without fees and we've almost paid off a 30 year loan in 5 years ( last time we refinanced). I know we will be missing the tax deduction...but we did this post 2008 after we lost 1/2 our net worth in stocks. We didn't pull out of stocks but just didn't invest more in college savings accounts.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I have noticed this about those calculators too. Right now ours says we need to save $10 million for retirement and that we are off-track because at our current savings rate we'll have only $8 million. That just seems insane. I wonder if they assume that you won't make any changes in lifestyle???

I think that's exactly what they assume. I don't know about you, but is fully intend to live somewhere with a much lower cost of living when we're both retired.

Anonymous wrote:Huh? Humblebrag...but okay. No, I can't say I've had that experience. We make about the same, but are younger and the calculators I was looking at this week said we shoul save about 2500/month.

Are you looking at the 90th percent confidence interval which is what they recommend? Also are you older? I bet the calculators work better the closer you are to retirement.

Yeah, I have noticed this about those calculators too. Right now ours says we need to save $10 million for retirement and that we are off-track because at our current savings rate we'll have only $8 million. That just seems insane. I wonder if they assume that you won't make any changes in lifestyle???

Well, paying off your house isn' that great of a saving strategy. It's a fine strategy to improve cash flow, don't get me wrong, but having so much of your wealth in an non-liquid investment isn't usually wise. At the very least open a HELOC on it.

OP here no student loans, drive older cars, try to buy as much off craigslist as possible (furniture etc). We don't keep up with the Jones.

You also may be inputting data incorrectly.

Fidelity is in the saving business. They will always tell you to save more.

Huh? Humblebrag...but okay. No, I can't say I've had that experience. We make about the same, but are younger and the calculators I was looking at this week said we shoul save about 2500/month.

I'm just shocked that they would tell you that. I don't know how you have managed to be in such great shape? Can you share your secret?

Just made an extra house payment and we only owe 43k on our 500k house and I am thrilled. Some people will say we should have invested more in stocks this year given how well the market performed. We do max our retirement/saved enough our kids to attend in-state colleges (they are ten and under) but have little saved elsewhere. I think once our house is paid off, we will "feel"financially more free. We only make in the low 200's combined and we still spend a fortune on childcare so I think we are doing great. My question is why do all of the Fidelity financial calculators tell us we need to save more? We have 1.4M saved towards retirement but the Fidelity calculator recommends we save an additional 10k per month which is impossible given our income. The Fidelity calculator says we need another 160k so my kids can attend the same out of state public school that I have attended. We have saved 250k so far.

Other Good Savers do you feel these calculators make crazy assumptions too?