The state of your future retirement?

SouthernDemocrat said:

First off, I am not going to make this a public poll so you don't have to worry about others knowing the state of your personal retirement planning.

I have listened to a couple of podcasts over the last few weeks for NPR shows that talked about how most people are not saving nearly enough for their retirements. So I am curious about the state of the typical debatepolitics member.

Also, this is a question about 401ks or IRAs, not the value of your home or other personal assets. I did not have enough options to include those in a defined benefit pension plan.

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I planned on having a target saved and invested at age 52. I hit that target. I retired at 52. My plan was to make more when we were retired than when we were working. The plan is working and we aren't dipping into our 401ks yet. She will retire next year. I am also collecting two govt retirement pensions. We have a little bit of everything in our plan.

SouthernDemocrat said:

I agree. Its amazing how many people don't even contribute up to the level of their employer match which is doing nothing but leaving free money on the table.

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Only once was this available to me. I went maxed out. Same as my wife did, when working for a bank for a short time.

KevinKohler said:

I have a similar story. I've had to start over twice.


The good news is, it's not too late. You're in your 30s, right? I didn't start my 401k till....shoot...5 years ago, I think? Each year, increase the amount you contribute by the amount of pay you increase. **** grows FAST.

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Had a fellow I knew do similar. We were both Military. Pay raise on reaching Corporal was significant, he saved that for many years, lived on what he had prior to the raise.

SouthernDemocrat said:

That is an amazing 401k plan your company has if they are matching up to 9.75%. Stay with them as long as you can.

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Yeah, it's pretty good. They match 75% of my pay up to 9% contribution, and I get another 3% on top of that in lieu of a pension. I could get a better salary working somewhere else, but the benefits here are great.

molten_dragon said:

Yeah, it's pretty good. They match 75% of my pay up to 9% contribution, and I get another 3% on top of that in lieu of a pension. I could get a better salary working somewhere else, but the benefits here are great.

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Benefits can be worth a huge difference in salary. For example the company contribution on a really good health plan can be an extra 1,200 or more on their part.

SouthernDemocrat said:

First off, I am not going to make this a public poll so you don't have to worry about others knowing the state of your personal retirement planning.

I have listened to a couple of podcasts over the last few weeks for NPR shows that talked about how most people are not saving nearly enough for their retirements. So I am curious about the state of the typical debatepolitics member.

Also, this is a question about 401ks or IRAs, not the value of your home or other personal assets. I did not have enough options to include those in a defined benefit pension plan.

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I don't store my investments in things like that. Not the way the world is going. I'm young, I've got a lot of chaos to live through before I get to an age where I could "retire," and being that practically all of that chaos is caused by deluded governments, I sure as hell am not going to trust them with huge amounts of my money.

So my 401K is $0, and I don't have an IRA. I don't want to be told how or when to spend my own money, and I don't want the government giving themselves a bunch of loop holes to take it from me or tell me I can't have it.

Because I forgo all the options that give me a hard number at any given time, I don't have an exact estimate; it's not 100% predictable what I'll wind up with if I were to cash everything in. And in some of my higher volatility investments, it's literally impossible to say.

My best estimate is that I do currently have over £20k with certainty, and the remaining uncertainty is... too uncertain for me to even give you a prediction. Could be £200k, could be nothing. Could even be more. I'm 27.

This is actually the lowest my investments have been in about 4 years. I had a lot more prior to immigrating. That hit me really hard. And it's still hitting me, in light of everything going on with Brexit. But you better believe I'm more motivated than ever to weather my last couple years of discretionary visas after what's happening State-side.

I don't necessarily view my nest egg as purely for retirement. Again, at this point in history, I have to worry about 5 years from now just as much as I do 50 years from now, if not even more so. That money is to make sure I am dead solid if stuff gets crazier. The dumbest thing I could do right now is just act like everything is smooth sailing and I'm just as likely to retire in peace as my grandparents did in the 90's. That is not going to happen, and I'm not going to be one of the clueless people who gets caught with my thumb up my ass when things don't go smoothly. This isn't the 90's.

That money has gone into buying me options for rolling with the international tide, and getting me a home that can't be taken from me. That's the best thing I could have done with it right now.

I'm resourceful and if I need more money, I'll find it. Easy come, easy go. I don't worry about that. I worry about making sure that whenever I get hit, and whatever I get hit with, it's going to do the least damage possible and I'm gonna be able to roll with it. That's my goal before I turn 30.

I'm close. But it's gonna be a crazy couple of years.

SouthernDemocrat said:

That is an amazing 401k plan your company has if they are matching up to 9.75%. Stay with them as long as you can.

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Lol, no doubt. I thought mine was pretty good. I get 100% match on the 1st 5%, then 60% for the next 5%.

I'm 33, and just under $200k. I haven't checked in awhile, so actually glad you made this thread because I need to make a few changes. I didn't realize the annual limit was bumped up, I thought 15k was still the annual limit so I need to raise my contributions.

EDIT: Just checked, was not as high as I originally believed.