How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

[sixone]

Not nearly enough. I need to win the lottery. I'll probably end up on Medicaid, instead.

 

[Jeffg010]

:thumbsup: I think taxes and savings contributions are things commonly overlooked as well as how much a mortgage payment eats into your income. People think see their spending on 80k a year and think 'Man - I don't have enough to retire and still get 80k from my savings'. What they don't realize is 80k pre-retirement with mortgage could easily = 50k post retirement no mortgage. Just for a reference - For the 4% SWR it results in a reduction of 'required' retirement from $2M down to $1.2M

The one thing you forgot is inflation that is why the calculator amount seems so high. Just look at gas and how much it gone up. The cost of living will go up and put a real dent in the amount you need.

The SSA says it can pay full benefits until 2033 and 75% of benefits from there until 2086 under current laws. Do you not agree with them?

I don't trust the government and if I get SS then it will be all gravy. My retirement is based on not getting SS.

 

[NAC]

38 years old
*1.5 of our income in retirement savings,
Another *0.5 in regular savings and kids college accounts.
Another *0.7 or so in home equity

I used to consider myself frugal and a good saver. As my income has steadily risen and I've gotten older, I've reduced in those traits. So we are saving a much higher dollar amount but a lower percentage now than in the past. I do think I enjoy life more as a result. Part of the increase in spending is just that my kids are more expensive as they get older, and part is that we are fixing up our house.

I feel that I might have strayed a little too far from the frugal and savings path, so I hope to save a bit higher percentage next year.

 

[Charlie98]

47, $0 I cashed out my and my wife's 401K's and plowed it into my business.

I also have a IRA, but it has lost about 94% of it's value in the past 2 years (thank you, Congress and President Obama.)

 

[jlarsson]

29 years old
3x (2x in 401k, 1x in company stock)

 

[Engineer]

I also have a IRA, but it has lost about 94% of it's value in the past 2 years (thank you, Congress and President Obama.)

If you lost 94% in the last 2 years, it's because you were in individual investments that weren't worth a shit.

 

[gorcorps]

I've not found much things to do that are fun that cost a lot money. Most everything I enjoy is either free or minimal costs. So what am I missing by not pissing away my dollars?

I know it's a rhetorical question, but still... be glad you're happy with cheap hobbies. Most of mine are pretty expensive. Target shooting was pricey before the ammo prices shot up, and now it's just not worth doing so I've stopped. I play golf a decent amount and that's not cheap either. In lieu of shooting I've taken up archery, which requires some up front capital but is pretty low cost from then on. PC games is probably my cheapest hobby right now and that's not even that cheap.

 

[NoCreativity]

I don't trust the government and if I get SS then it will be all gravy. My retirement is based on not getting SS.

My bet is that those of us who save for retirement will get significantly less than what we are told we will get.

 

[Svnla]

I should just have lot of kids. I know a guy with 9 other siblings. His dad is in his seventies. He makes all his 10 kids give him $1,000 each month for spending allowance. So this 70 something man lives the good life while some of his kids suffer.

Are you serious? How could he make them? And what the heck he did with the $10K/month allowance?

I save about 1/2 of my take home pay after the the bills are paid and I have a nice little stack for the raining days. I don't owe anyone anything (no car note, no credit card leftover, etc.) and I am happy.

 

[Gunslinger08]

My bet is that those of us who save for retirement will get significantly less than what we are told we will get.

I wouldn't be shocked by that. SS benefits will probably eventually be affected by withdrawals from Qualified Plans, if it's needed to keep SS solvent. Basically, another way for the responsible to pay for the irresponsible.

 

[Exterous]

The one thing you forgot is inflation

My example was not intended to be 30 years down the road and the 4% SWR factors in inflation so this was not 'forgotten'. This was just an attempt to show a likely large numerical difference between pre-retirement needed income and post retirement needed income and the difficulty in using a xIncome vs a xExpenses model

I don't trust the government and if I get SS then it will be all gravy. My retirement is based on not getting SS.

Nor does mine - however I do think the power AARP has along with the higher voting % of older Americans plus the sad state of retirement accounts makes it pretty likely that SS will still be around.

I would be far more concerned over medical care/coverage costs esp Long Term Care Insurance than with SS being around

 

[shadow9d9]

I know it's a rhetorical question, but still... be glad you're happy with cheap hobbies. Most of mine are pretty expensive. Target shooting was pricey before the ammo prices shot up, and now it's just not worth doing so I've stopped. I play golf a decent amount and that's not cheap either. In lieu of shooting I've taken up archery, which requires some up front capital but is pretty low cost from then on. PC games is probably my cheapest hobby right now and that's not even that cheap.

PC gaming is insanely cheap considering all the humble bundles around, steam sales, amazon sales, and gog.com...

 

[shadow9d9]

Also, may I ask why the question is how much of your salary vs just raw numbers? Someone making 400k a year putting away 1x is much more in terms of retirement than 1x 30k...

 

[Corporate Thug]

$0...I'm gonna get a government job and retire at 85% of my salary at 55 though so it's all good.

 

[Mxylplyx]

But it's so important to start early.

That line of thinking doesn't really apply to those of us in our late 20's, early 30's. The market performance over our working careers has pretty much been a wash. I didn't save much for retirement during most of my 20's, but it really doesn't matter in hindsight.

 

[Gunslinger08]

Also, may I ask why the question is how much of your salary vs just raw numbers? Someone making 400k a year putting away 1x is much more in terms of retirement than 1x 30k...

Generally, people who make more spend more. $400k in retirement for someone who makes $50k a year will pay for many more years of expenses vs. someone who makes $400k a year and is used to the lifestyle that provides.

 

[overst33r]

$0...I'm gonna get a government job and retire at 85% of my salary at 55 though so it's all good.

+1

 

[Gunslinger08]

That line of thinking doesn't really apply to those of us in our late 20's, early 30's. The market performance over our working careers has pretty much been a wash. I didn't save much for retirement during most of my 20's, but it really doesn't matter in hindsight.

At least for 401k matching, starting early makes a big difference. I always have to shake my head at the people that don't at least save enough to get the match. You're pretty much throwing away a 25% to 100% instant return on your investment.

 

[gorcorps]

At least for 401k matching, starting early makes a big difference. I always have to shake my head at the people that don't at least save enough to get the match. You're pretty much throwing away a 25% to 100% instant return on your investment.

Yup. Plus with the default "higher risk" fund I got tossed into, I've still made a 15% return on the money I put in. So I got the match bonus plus 15% growth. No I can't touch that money now but it's hard to beat that return for how little was actually done to get it.

 

[Legios]

35, and wife is 34.

We have about $450,000 in our accounts, $35,000 of which is liquid. We have kids but havent set up anything different for them at this time. We comfortably pay over 20K a year in Daycare so I think we can handle college once we can save that daycare money when they age out of it.

 

[lokiju]

32 (33 in April) x0.2

 

[josh0099]

1.25x 27 year old about, 2/3rds of that is roth 401k

Also have a cash balance pension plan that I am vested in...

 

[gorcorps]

PC gaming is insanely cheap considering all the humble bundles around, steam sales, amazon sales, and gog.com...

Depends how into it you get, and how close to release you want to play those games. I dropped ~$1800 to get my gaming PC 2 years back. Since then I've also upgraded the monitor (~$200), memory ($100), hard drives ($150), keyboard ($100) and headset ($100). My graphics card played nearly everything on max at first but as time goes on you have to make a few sacrifices in detail to keep framerates up. By the end of this year I might be looking at SLI or a whole new card.

Then I spent a lot on games both on sale and ones I wanted on release. You can wait for single player games, but you can't argue that there's an advantage to playing with the launch crowd on multiplayer games.

 

[Drekce]

33. 2x my household annual income.

 

[shadow9d9]

Depends how into it you get, and how close to release you want to play those games. I dropped ~$1800 to get my gaming PC 2 years back. Since then I've also upgraded the monitor (~$200), memory ($100), hard drives ($150), keyboard ($100) and headset ($100). My graphics card played nearly everything on max at first but as time goes on you have to make a few sacrifices in detail to keep framerates up. By the end of this year I might be looking at SLI or a whole new card.

Then I spent a lot on games both on sale and ones I wanted on release. You can wait for single player games, but you can't argue that there's an advantage to playing with the launch crowd on multiplayer games.

You got ripped off on that pc. Build it yourself and don't go for the highest of the high. You also overpaid for memory, keyboard, headset, etc. You simply like to spend.. that isn't indicative of the hobby. Why on earth would you need to spend 200 on memory after blowing an insane amount on a pc just 2 years ago? For gaming it simply isn't necessary... I game comfortably on a 2 yr old pc that I bought/built for 900 and I use a 24 inch monitor. Additionally graphic cards have barely improved over the last 2 years... SSDs aren't useful for gaming... why would you spend 150 more after blowing an insane amount on a pc? Again, your wasteful spending and inefficiency is not indicative of the hobby. You don't need to upgrade/buy new pcs for at least 3+ years nowadays.

Even getting games on release can be cheap. I got guild wars 2 on release for 40, 35 for xcom, etc.