Anonymous wrote:This thread is not normal for your avg person. I too max out my 401k and ira, but the vast majority of Americans can't do that. Count your lucky stars you are able to max. Just trying to keep things in perspective here. DCUM posters are vastly better off than large majority of the rest of the country.

Exactly! Not everyone is able to match the max each year! It is a lot of money for most people. I think people on this thread say, oh max out right when you start working but not everyone is able to do that. You’re lucky if you can. My husband was working on starting his own business and we just started contributing the max at 35...before then I was just doing the match.

TSP+IRAs:
age 30: $68,000
age 40: $270,000
age 50$ $1,080,000

BTW my wife I think has the most impressive 401K of anyone I every met. She worked from June 1986 to January 2001. Same company. She put 2k a year in the 401k. around 28k. Her current balance is $425,000. It shows power of compounding and match. She got matched the 2k. And some of her earlier money was when DJIA was between 2k and 4k in the late 80s and early 90s. It is 28k today. So a single 2k deposit in 1998 is worth around 55k today. She left her 401K with old company when she left in 2001 to be a SAHM. In 2036 when she starts using it there will be 50 years of compounding on first 401K deposit

I am 57. My balance just me is 1.2 million. Back at 40 was 2002 after Internet crash was only like 150K.

I only really started maxing out 401K at the age of 45 every year. And at 45 got a job with a better match. I then had 8 years of catch-up contributions from 2012 to 2019 when market was low.

My current contribution I put in 24K and company does 21K. So 45K a year and in all equities the last decade. I retire at 67 so hoping almost ten more years of this.

Want two to three million in my own 401K in retirement. My wife also has one. But that is hers.

This thread is not normal for your avg person. I too max out my 401k and ira, but the vast majority of Americans can't do that. Count your lucky stars you are able to max. Just trying to keep things in perspective here. DCUM posters are vastly better off than large majority of the rest of the country.

I am the one who posted $1.3 million in my 401k and, to the point made above, part of the reason I made such progress is that I became partner in my firm so have not been subject to typical contribution limits the last five years or so.

20: $10K
30: maybe $100K tops
40: $1.2M 401K and regular savings, $7-8M illiquid

I’m 51 and I honestly don’t remember what I had in there 10 years ago. I remember periods of staring a the balance and saying “why doesn’t this thing ever move?” I went through two recessions.

But here’s the thing. Compound interest really is that fabulous. In the last few years it seems to go up by $75-$100k a year. So I am over a million now. I always paid myself first, and it was maybe the first couple of years in my 20s that I didn’t max out. Sine it came out of my paycheck I always treated it like money I never had, so I never missed it. Made do in the rest of my life with what was left.

I’ll be 50 next month. I have $950k. Ten years ago, I had $264k. I have 15 years of data on a spreadsheet.

This doesn’t count any of DH’s investments, but they are comparable.

I am a total numbers/finance/spreadsheet geek.

1989: Graduated college/started contributing to retirement
1999: Me: $100K, Spouse: $50K
2009: Me: $220K, Spouse: $230K (I stopped work in 2007)
2019: Me: $550K, Spouse: $1.1M (I am still not working)

Notes:
1. I always contributed the max to my 401k and IRA.
2. Spouse started maxing 401k and IRA in 1999 and has a great match (~$9K per year)

Age 49 and been maxing out 401k since I started working. Next year I will be able to add even more with the catch-up contribution.

$1.13 million

Anonymous wrote:I think part of the reason it's "normal" is because you can only put so much in a 401(k)/403(b) each year. Even if you max out every since aged 21, you still won't have multiple millions in your 401k.

43 and between my 401k, rollover, and roth, I have $400K. DH started much later than me so only has $150K. I wish I had maxed out at a young age instead of only putting in what was matched.

THIS. This thread is only asking about retirement, not about overall net worth which can be held in brokerage accounts, property etc. Plus this thread is asking about the trajectory over 10 years. There is more to say about growth trajectory when you are the one putting in x% over the last decade than when you are just gifted money from family.

I think part of the reason it's "normal" is because you can only put so much in a 401(k)/403(b) each year. Even if you max out every since aged 21, you still won't have multiple millions in your 401k.

43 and between my 401k, rollover, and roth, I have $400K. DH started much later than me so only has $150K. I wish I had maxed out at a young age instead of only putting in what was matched.

Anonymous wrote:What numbers would need to be posted for this thread to longer be “normal” ?

By my quick skim of the posts only 1 person has $1 million in their 401k, that’s not common for a DCUM Money and Finance thread (even for posters under 50). Usually the posters under $1 million are in the minority.

Correction to the above: to *no* longer be “normal”