Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Did you have kids? Many of the people who are in their 50s have either paid or are paying for their kids' colleges after daycares, schools, all the extra stuff of kids.

Personally I have zero need for the more than 2.5M we have accumulated so far in retirement. What's the point of saving/investing more than you need? And if you're surprised by the "low" amounts you read here, you should look at the data! You'll really feel superior then.

Yes, I have kids. And I had an unheard of 70k debt from college in 1999 because my parents refused to pay and I took out private loans (because with their income, I could not get much federal aid at all). I paid about 250k in childcare costs for 6 years as well. I have almost always had two jobs. I will feel comfortable at 3 million in retirement, but I should get to 4 million by age 66 (If I was still married we would have 10 million at retirement...we kept our own retirements in our divorce). My grandmother is 96. My mom has Parkinsons. I am afraid of both outliving my money AND having major healthcare costs. So, yeah, I have all the extra stuff to pay for, plus I had a huge student loan debt I paid off while saving for retirement. I generally think people don't save enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Did you have kids? Many of the people who are in their 50s have either paid or are paying for their kids' colleges after daycares, schools, all the extra stuff of kids.

Personally I have zero need for the more than 2.5M we have accumulated so far in retirement. What's the point of saving/investing more than you need? And if you're surprised by the "low" amounts you read here, you should look at the data! You'll really feel superior then.

Most gains in stock market came in last 13 years. And matches got better and salaries higher.

Back in 1990 I earned 30k a year and did six percent with a 3 percent match. So 2,700 a year.

In 2017 I had an 8 percent with a 8 percent match and earned. 300k 48k a year. Was over 50.

Also 401k limits were way smaller in 1980s and a lot of companies did not offer them and matched less

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I totally love this thread OP. But I am surprised the folks have as much as the 35-45 do. So 8 am guessing they are into tech or medial sales and law. Compared to this crowd where I see a lot of pension listed so fed type jobs.

I'm not OP, but I would guess that people are learning a whole lot more about investing younger than the older crowd. And, as you said, you've got a bunch of people here who are in high income jobs.

Agreed with all of this. We didn't learn about investing until later. And the younger crowd can be 100% aggressive in the stock market, so what they do have can grow much faster. We have 5.2 in non-real estate investments. If we had been able to risk more of that in high growth stocks it would have been work 7MM today. Alas, we couldn't take that level of risk this late in income earning years.

About $4mil combined - this is for both me and my spouse.

Net worth is zero.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, DCUM always surprises me, no idea how it relates to the real average and reality.

DH is 56, I am 44. Our HHI is $400k and our NW about $5m, probably $3m in retirement, $500k in equity and the rest in other assets, including 529s for 2 kids. College tuition is already paid for them both.

We do 6% of HHI into retirement every year which, with life insurance seems to be plenty for old age according to our projections, but I guess there could always be more.

I am surprised only 6%. I am 44 (and single). I have always had 20% of my HHI go into retirement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Wages were smaller and the retirement savings vehicles came to pass after they started working. When I started working in 1987, I earned $19k. I could put money into an IRA but no Roth and no 401k. You must make a decent salary.

Oh, and interest rates for cars and houses was close to 10%.

I am the 44-year-old PP. I did not own a car until I was 26. I started saving for retirement at 21.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Wages were smaller and the retirement savings vehicles came to pass after they started working. When I started working in 1987, I earned $19k. I could put money into an IRA but no Roth and no 401k. You must make a decent salary.

I made 26k in 1999 when I started working. I stopped eating meat so I could max my retirement. I did not do a Roth. I did a regular IRA. I also only took jobs where I was vested 100% immediately or not take the job. I do okay. Not amazing but not terrible either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Wages were smaller and the retirement savings vehicles came to pass after they started working. When I started working in 1987, I earned $19k. I could put money into an IRA but no Roth and no 401k. You must make a decent salary.

Oh, and interest rates for cars and houses was close to 10%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Wages were smaller and the retirement savings vehicles came to pass after they started working. When I started working in 1987, I earned $19k. I could put money into an IRA but no Roth and no 401k. You must make a decent salary.

Wow, DCUM always surprises me, no idea how it relates to the real average and reality.

DH is 56, I am 44. Our HHI is $400k and our NW about $5m, probably $3m in retirement, $500k in equity and the rest in other assets, including 529s for 2 kids. College tuition is already paid for them both.

We do 6% of HHI into retirement every year which, with life insurance seems to be plenty for old age according to our projections, but I guess there could always be more.

Anonymous wrote:Some of the numbers on this thread are incredibly high. Congratulations to the folks who have $1million plus in their retirement accounts by age 55.

Single woman here. Will have that alone by age 50 (and I am a nonprofit worker...I have maxed my entire career). A couple should have much more than $1 million by age 55 in the DC area.

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

7.2M