Anonymous wrote:Me: 49, Saved about $280K, based on choosetosave.org, I have about 45% of what I need saved (I have a second part-time career post-retirement lined up)
Spouse: 54, Saved about double me (somewhere around $550K), according to choosetosave.org, this is fine and will be better by the time of actual retirement.

I didn't get good results using the ballpark calculator on that website. It told me I have about 35% of what I need saved and therefore I need to save a massive amount of my salary.

Me: 49, Saved about $280K, based on choosetosave.org, I have about 45% of what I need saved (I have a second part-time career post-retirement lined up)
Spouse: 54, Saved about double me (somewhere around $550K), according to choosetosave.org, this is fine and will be better by the time of actual retirement.

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/retirement/retirement-need/

Sweet. I'm saving 15% for retirement and it says I'm falling short by 3 million. Yikes. How much am I supposed to be saving? I thought I was saving a lot!

Both 28. Combined 140k in retirement accounts.

Me: 33, 150k
DH: 36, 450k

Anonymous wrote:THis threat makes me nervous.

me: 42, have saved 200k. Started my first 'real' job at 32, since I was in grad school, getting a phd and fellowships until then. Salary is under 100k.
DH: 49: has saved 250k. There is NO excuse for this, but poor planning on his part, since he's been working since 25. Salary now at 150k and I make him max and he will do 'catch up' once he hits 50.
We have 3 kids, who will be heading to college when we retire.
the only thing that helps me sleep at night is knowing that there's a trust that will probably cover three college tuitions and give them a bit of money for house downpayments, etc. But I worry about our own retirements, at this rate, although if I stay with this job (that I'm starting to hate) I'll have a small govt pension.

Isn't 550k good for mid 40s couple?

THis threat makes me nervous.

me: 42, have saved 200k. Started my first 'real' job at 32, since I was in grad school, getting a phd and fellowships until then. Salary is under 100k.
DH: 49: has saved 250k. There is NO excuse for this, but poor planning on his part, since he's been working since 25. Salary now at 150k and I make him max and he will do 'catch up' once he hits 50.
We have 3 kids, who will be heading to college when we retire.
the only thing that helps me sleep at night is knowing that there's a trust that will probably cover three college tuitions and give them a bit of money for house downpayments, etc. But I worry about our own retirements, at this rate, although if I stay with this job (that I'm starting to hate) I'll have a small govt pension.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Me, 45 have $380K in retirement, wife, 40, has $800K retirement (her smart parents contributed to her IRA since she earned her 1st dollar). 3 kids college funds in VA paid-off through VA Prepaid, and have about $200K total in VA529 Invest accounts. HHI varies between $500K and $1 Million, depending on our incomes / business - but trend is going down these day - but we could live off less than $200K if our situation changes. No debt, house and cars paid off. Most of our money is tied up in index fund ETFs outside of retirement accounts. We drive used or non luxury cars, public schools, modest house, don't spend money on fancy toys.

since you revived the thread ... how do you only have $380K in retirement savings if you've ever made $1mm in a single year? I made $700K last year (which blew my mind) and banked $300K in addition to $50K in retirements plans & 529s.

Our IRAs and 401Ks may not be as large as some others our age, but our overall wealth is nearing $5 million. Just don't necessarily designated our ETF portfolio as retirement, but I guess that is what it will be used for one day.

Me: 45, Income $106K
DH: 52, Income $140K
Combined retirement savings = $780K
College savings for 2 kids = 30K

I was a SAHM for 7 years and went back to FT work 3 yrs ago at which point we started saving for college and increasing retirement savings. $900K house will be paid off when I retire, although not likely by the time DH retires. I'm feeling behind on college savings but OK about our retirement position based on an analysis of our current savings trends and anticipate retirement needs.

I said $150K. Let's see - $60K in nanny, $15K in preschool right off the top.

When you factor in two maxed 401Ks, plus matches and sharing we are in excess of $200K saved for the year. We spend money because we can, but I sleep very comfortably on what we are saving.

Thanks for the advice but I really don't think we need to 'tighten it up' - I know exactly where we are on our plan. We are early 40s and could easily hang it up in 8-10 years if we want to. We aren't willing to live like monks now in order to have a bigger bag of money later.

Anonymous wrote:I was calling BS on this as well - I made a similar number last year and I am not a hyper saver, but there was no path to saving $350K plus maxing 401K, so $350K after tax. We saved around $150K after tax, and there is no chance we were saving another $12K a month. None.

Not a hyper saver is the understatement of the year. $125k out of $700k. You need to tighten it up. You have any idea how much wealth you're missing after a couple decades of compounding? You might not need it, but that's millions and millions of dollars.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Me, 45 have $380K in retirement, wife, 40, has $800K retirement (her smart parents contributed to her IRA since she earned her 1st dollar). 3 kids college funds in VA paid-off through VA Prepaid, and have about $200K total in VA529 Invest accounts. HHI varies between $500K and $1 Million, depending on our incomes / business - but trend is going down these day - but we could live off less than $200K if our situation changes. No debt, house and cars paid off. Most of our money is tied up in index fund ETFs outside of retirement accounts. We drive used or non luxury cars, public schools, modest house, don't spend money on fancy toys.

since you revived the thread ... how do you only have $380K in retirement savings if you've ever made $1mm in a single year? I made $700K last year (which blew my mind) and banked $300K in addition to $50K in retirements plans & 529s.

You saved 350K out of 700 -- How much did you pay in taxes?

I paid about $250k in taxes - a fair amount of my income is classified as dividends, but still that's a blended rate of 36%. So, I netted $450k. My employer added $30k of the 401k money, so that is above the $700k figure - if I thought it mattered, if have been more clear there.

So, from the $450k, I have housing costs of ~$36k ($12k deductible), I spend another $36k in food/utilities/entertainment, another ~$30k in random expenses (clothes, travel, etc). $17500 in personal 401k contributions. That leaves well over $300k excess. I could jack my housing to $72k per year and the picture wouldn't change much.

My kids are small, my wife is relatively frugal, and other than anonymous message boards we don't do anything that would flaunt our good fortune. It blows my mind that someone could make more than $500k annually and not accumulate major wealth in fairly short order. No wonder the country has absurdly low average savings rates.

Anonymous wrote:I was calling BS on this as well - I made a similar number last year and I am not a hyper saver, but there was no path to saving $350K plus maxing 401K, so $350K after tax. We saved around $150K after tax, and there is no chance we were saving another $12K a month. None.

We save ~90K per year on a salary of 320K after taxes with fully funded 401K (35K extra). If our salary suddenly bumped to 700K, I could see us saving close to that amount; I.e. we have the spending habits/costs of someone saving aggressively at ~300K salary and then another 150K-200K after taxes rolls in. It's possible IMO, but would require a lot of financial discipline and saving. I admit I would have issues doing that if I was pulling in that kind of cash.

I was calling BS on this as well - I made a similar number last year and I am not a hyper saver, but there was no path to saving $350K plus maxing 401K, so $350K after tax. We saved around $150K after tax, and there is no chance we were saving another $12K a month. None.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Me, 45 have $380K in retirement, wife, 40, has $800K retirement (her smart parents contributed to her IRA since she earned her 1st dollar). 3 kids college funds in VA paid-off through VA Prepaid, and have about $200K total in VA529 Invest accounts. HHI varies between $500K and $1 Million, depending on our incomes / business - but trend is going down these day - but we could live off less than $200K if our situation changes. No debt, house and cars paid off. Most of our money is tied up in index fund ETFs outside of retirement accounts. We drive used or non luxury cars, public schools, modest house, don't spend money on fancy toys.

since you revived the thread ... how do you only have $380K in retirement savings if you've ever made $1mm in a single year? I made $700K last year (which blew my mind) and banked $300K in addition to $50K in retirements plans & 529s.

You saved 350K out of 700 -- How much did you pay in taxes?