I work in the nonprofit world and many aren't saving much or anything for retirement. Granted, most have truly modest incomes (45k to 80k) and very few are contributing to their 403b. Not even to get the meager match.

The person I know who forgoes savings rents three properties and a car. I'm not kidding. He rents an apartment, ski house and beach house. But he has student loans. Doesn't own any property. Makes around 400k a year.

When I was in biglaw we talked about it (probably because our salaries were pretty obvious through the associate level). Almost everyone maxed out 401(k)s, had 529s for the kids, etc, but about 15% of people just spent everything. It was nuts.

I also find work associates more open than regular friends. But its still pretty vague. Based on who I speak with, I don't know any under 40s who max out their retirement contribution- including myself. Most of them still discuss increasing 401k contributions when we get our annual raise. That being said, the people I am talking with all make under 80k a year. And I have no clue about their spouses and/or other investments/savings.

I have one friend I know is not saving any money for their children's college education. They say the kids will do Military or pay for it themselves.

I have no idea what my friends' and acquaintances' finances look like.

Why would I?

SMH

Anonymous wrote:I know some people like this. One is a junior partner in biglaw (so making well over $300K) with a SAHM wife and 2 kids, and they basically live paycheck to paycheck. They are up to their eyeballs in debt - 6 figures in student loans (even after more than a decade making biglaw money), car payments, a mortgage they can barely afford, periodic credit card debt. He talks about it a lot, and acts like there's nothing he can do about it. But it's very much the result of their keeping up with the Joneses mentality. Fancy vacations, expensive nights out, lots of household help, expensive clothes for their young children. It's insane.

You don't know what the home life is like - lots of stay home wives of junior partners demand many fancy vacations, date nights, and household help under the complaint of - you're never home, we need to spend time together and I'm not going to do all childcare so I'm hiring a nanny . . . . I know junior partners who consider these the costs of holding the marriage together. Hope your guy is a business generating junior partner; a friend of mine was a junior partner with no business acting as a de facto senior associate with this lifestyle, you can imagine how that went . . . .

Anonymous wrote:I know some people like this. One is a junior partner in biglaw (so making well over $300K) with a SAHM wife and 2 kids, and they basically live paycheck to paycheck. They are up to their eyeballs in debt - 6 figures in student loans (even after more than a decade making biglaw money), car payments, a mortgage they can barely afford, periodic credit card debt. He talks about it a lot, and acts like there's nothing he can do about it. But it's very much the result of their keeping up with the Joneses mentality. Fancy vacations, expensive nights out, lots of household help, expensive clothes for their young children. It's insane.

+1. I know couples like this as well. They all have household help and still have student loans.

I know some people like this. One is a junior partner in biglaw (so making well over $300K) with a SAHM wife and 2 kids, and they basically live paycheck to paycheck. They are up to their eyeballs in debt - 6 figures in student loans (even after more than a decade making biglaw money), car payments, a mortgage they can barely afford, periodic credit card debt. He talks about it a lot, and acts like there's nothing he can do about it. But it's very much the result of their keeping up with the Joneses mentality. Fancy vacations, expensive nights out, lots of household help, expensive clothes for their young children. It's insane.

google the stats for retirement savings in America. They're abysmal. And not just because people are too poor to save. There are a lot of MC and higher people who just aren't saving either.

Don't talk about finances with the vast majority of my friends and even family members so I would not know...

Both my wife and I max and that is all that matters to us.

My friends don't discuss it, so I have no idea. Oddly though people discuss money/finances at work. I don't participate, but coworkers have no problem saying what % they're putting into their 401k or not, if they have/haven't saved for a down payment. I'm not entirely sure why, but I almost think it's bc we are not friends, we are just acquaintances so it's more "comfortable" to say that to someone you don't socialize with, who doesn't know your spouse etc.

My friends don't discuss it, so I have no idea. Oddly though people discuss money/finances at work. I don't participate, but coworkers have no problem saying what % they're putting into their 401k or not, if they have/haven't saved for a down payment. I'm not entirely sure why, but I almost think it's bc we are not friends, we are just acquaintances so it's more "comfortable" to say that to someone you don't socialize with, who doesn't know your spouse etc.

None of my friend circles discuss money. I don't know anything about my friends' savings or retirement funds. Among the people I know, the visible "stuff" of their lives - houses, cars, vacations, etc - tracks generally with what they do for a living. But I would never know who is overextended, who is frugal, who has no savings. I don't know anyone's precise salary. My physician friend lives in a bigger house than my accountant friend, things like that, are the extent of my "insight" into someone's financial picture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like those NYC folks you all know are really enjoying life and not waiting until they're 70 to enjoy themselves. Nothing wrong with that. I doubt these people will be living solely off SS and Medicare in retirement.

No but they are going to be paying a lot in rent in their 70s! The rent increases in NY aren't a joke.

There's a LOT more rent control than you realize - not everyone has rent increasing $500-1k/yr. And, a lot of them will move, even if they say their won't. It happens in every generation. Somewhere around age 50 it occurs to them that it'll be tough to stay in Manhattan post retirement bc they haven't bought and can't save up a Manhattan down payment then. But they start saving and by 65 it's enough to buy a house someplace else -- it's a big part of why the Hudson Valley became so popular, in addition to the "regular" towns near the Hamptons. Now those are popular and it's hard to buy there - but I know more than one couple that has ended up retiring to Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina -- buying new homes nearly in cash; I know a couple currently looking hard at Arizona as well.

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like those NYC folks you all know are really enjoying life and not waiting until they're 70 to enjoy themselves. Nothing wrong with that. I doubt these people will be living solely off SS and Medicare in retirement.

No but they are going to be paying a lot in rent in their 70s! The rent increases in NY aren't a joke.