How much do you have saved for retirement (2019 edition)

[Kodos]

It's time once again to ask FOFC: "How much do you individually have saved for retirement?" Here are the previous polls on this topic that started in 2016 and 2013.

How much do you have saved for retirement? (2016) - Front Office Football Central

How much do you have saved for retirement? (2013) - Front Office Football Central

[Kodos]

Retirement in America | Out of Reach for Most Americans? – National Institute on Retirement Security

Help Is Almost Here for Retirement Savers

[Edward64]

I like the idea of allowing annuities to be selected if desired under the assumption there is a certain level of "government guarantee" in case the annuity company goes bust or there is a recessionary period.

Does this include House? Is it your net worth or what you have in Cash/401k/IRA etc.?

[spleen1015]

I feel like I started taking this seriously a little too late in life. The good thing is though I have 20 years before I need to consider retiring.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I
Does this include House? Is it your net worth or what you have in Cash/401k/IRA etc.?

It's aimed mostly at what you have in your 401(k), IRAs, and that kind of stuff.

[Lathum]

We are doing really well. Mid 40's and have a plan to retire when my youngest goes to college in 12 years or so. We are debt free and save a decent amount. My wife has worked really hard and worked her way up to be a VP/GM for a Warren Buffet owner company. This has allowed me to be a stay at home dad. We had a decent amount in savings just in cash, but just moved and bought a house we are doing a lot of renovations on.

Overall though we couldn't be happier about our situation.

[HerRealName]

Does anyone else have a pension plan through their employer? I know they are getting pretty rare but I'm glad I stuck around and have that in my hip pocket now.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by HerRealName

Does anyone else have a pension plan through their employer? I know they are getting pretty rare but I'm glad I stuck around and have that in my hip pocket now.

I believe I have a small pension plan (US Government - I want to say 30% of my high 3 if I stay until I'm 67) along with my 401(k). In the previous retirement Plan (changed in the mid 80s, I think) the pension was a substantial amount (and no 401k).

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by HerRealName

Does anyone else have a pension plan through their employer? I know they are getting pretty rare but I'm glad I stuck around and have that in my hip pocket now.

I do. I pay 14.5% per pay check that is matched by my employer. If I make 30 years I get 80% of the average of my best 3 years salary. If I make the rule of 80 (years of service plus age equals 80) I get 70%

[HerRealName]

That 14.5% is a big chunk but the years of service requirements are pretty decent. I think mine is similar to Issi's but way more confusing with age a big factor.

I'm hoping to retire in 11 years but having a special needs 10 year old at home adds some uncertainty.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by HerRealName

Does anyone else have a pension plan through their employer? I know they are getting pretty rare but I'm glad I stuck around and have that in my hip pocket now.

Yep. My current employer is the first employer I've had that offered this. In general, my company has great benefits (pension, 403(b) with some matching, free healthcare, tuition assistance for kids). I plan to stay here until I retire.

[Radii]

Every time this poll comes up its a great reminder of how freaking far behind I am. around 2006 - Age 30, divorce, dad's cancer, and a job change that made me hate where I worked all happened around the same time. Cash out retirement to pay off debts, quit job, move home to take care of dad. Expect that to last 2 years, it lasts 9 instead. Age 39, 0 retirement, 0 savings because I was hardly working in my 30s, total restart. I've got a good job with good benefits, I just hit $50k again in retirement at age 42, but yeah I don't honestly ever actually expect to retire, and any small bump in the road at this point could completely fuck me.

[HerRealName]

Wow, you hit the motherlode of good benefits there!

[Kodos]

Yep. Thanks to the union where I work. I'm pretty lucky.

[tarcone]

I need to work when i retire. The COBRA plan means I will pay about $850 a month in health insurance. Sad.

[Drake]

I got divorced in April. Managed to trade my 403b for my share in my ex-wife's childhood home (which I wouldn't have kept, but it made for some handy leverage). I'm feeling pretty good about that. She had $0 saved for retirement.

I can survive on mine when retirement rolls around, but I was already worrying about how I was going to spread it to cover both of us.

[Kodos]

Sorry to hear about the divorce, but glad you came out okay in it.

[AnalBumCover]

Still not as much as I think I should have at this point in my life, but I'm happy that I moved up two notches from the last time I took this poll.

[molson]

Originally Posted by HerRealName

Does anyone else have a pension plan through their employer? I know they are getting pretty rare but I'm glad I stuck around and have that in my hip pocket now.

Yup, still plugging along with the government pension. I'm trying not be too complacent, and tying not to rely on it too exclusively. It does create a modest ceiling and floor if I manage to stick around until I retire (and the nice thing is its transferable to other government employment).

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Kodos

It's aimed mostly at what you have in your 401(k), IRAs, and that kind of stuff.

Voted but I purposely removed estimated $ budget for kids' college fund.

[thesloppy]

Wow, tarcone your pension terms are pretty impressive!

I looked into being an electrician a few years ago and I remember their pension being abysmal, something like $150 a month.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Voted but I purposely removed estimated $ budget for kids' college fund.

Yeah, I excluded that money too.

[Kodos]

The new math of saving for retirement may boil down to this one, absurdly simple rule - MarketWatch

[Kodos]

1 in 3 Americans Has No Retirement Savings | Money

            Median            Savings 	 
Age	Income            Benchmark       %OnTrack     %Behind
24 	$34,605 	Started 	   48% 	           52%
30 	$54,243 	$16,272.90 	   33% 	           67%
40 	$66,693 	$100,039.50 	   20% 	           80%
50 	$70,832 	$212,496.00 	   22% 	           78%
60 	$60,580 	$260,494.00 	   26% 	           74%

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Kodos

1 in 3 Americans Has No Retirement Savings | Money

Most of my friends these days are artists and musicians who are chasing a passion and living month to month/commission to commission, living extremely cheaply, working "real jobs" only when necessary but doing whatever they can to dedicate as much of their time as possible to creating.

In that circle this thread goes VERY differently.

[sabotai]

First time I didn't have to answer in the $1-$10,000 bracket. I'm in the $10k-$25k range. At 41. Woohoo!

Yeah, I'm going to be working 'til I die.

[Kodos]

At least you are moving in the right direction. Baby steps!

[NobodyHere]

It's nice to move up a couple brackets.

Even though I don't earn much, I'm trying to subscribe to the FIRE movement and I'm saving a very a good portion of my income. I'm hoping to make work optional in about 5-10 years.

FIRE movement - Wikipedia

[PilotMan]

I'm pretty close to the next bracket, but not there yet. I am in a good position that I both make good money, have a good outlook to make considerably more money in the future, and have good benefits. Having said that, I am and have been the sole source of income for 16 years and have supported 5 people the entire time. My youngest two are at the end of their education and we have $0 saved for college. I always said that I'm young, but I have the financial obligations of a much older person, and that's still true. We've made good financial decisions, but without my current job, we'd be deep in a hole with a deeper dig on the horizon. As of now, we can afford to give our kids a decent life, help with education and take on some debt as they hit college, but only because the outlook for future gains is there. The perfect example was my broken ankle last summer and the loss of income for 3 months. We were able to weather that hit, but I wouldn't want to do it for a long, long time.

[Sublime 2]

Right at the $125,000 mark at 34, not including my wife's teacher's pension. Pretty happy with where we're at.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Sublime 2

Right at the $125,000 mark at 34, not including my wife's teacher's pension. Pretty happy with where we're at.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

My wife has a pension too which we are looking forward to supplementing savings and SS.

I can't figure out a clear answers on how teacher's/state pension and SS will work. I know double dipping has been reduced/eliminated but say during retirement I am expecting SS = $20,000, a non-working wife would get half of that SS = $10,000. But if she also gets a teacher's/state pension of $5,000 or $15,000 what would happen?

Any financial planners here that know the answer?

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Edward64

My wife has a pension too which we are looking forward to supplementing savings and SS.

I can't figure out a clear answers on how teacher's/state pension and SS will work. I know double dipping has been reduced/eliminated but say during retirement I am expecting SS = $20,000, a non-working wife would get half of that SS = $10,000. But if she also gets a teacher's/state pension of $5,000 or $15,000 what would happen?

Any financial planners here that know the answer?

Does your wife pay into SS? In my state, they have pensions for the very reason that they don't have SS withheld and are not earning SS credits.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Does your wife pay into SS? In my state, they have pensions for the very reason that they don't have SS withheld and are not earning SS credits.

Before she was a teacher, she did pay some into SS but not enough for 10 years or necessary credits. Now as a teacher, no SS.

If she was not a teacher and did not have enough for 10 years, she would still be eligible for half of my SS (I think). So if I got $20K and she would get $10K and that would be our SS at retirement.

As a teacher with a pension ...

If her pension = $5K, would that mean she just got $10K total (e.g. half of mine) and therefore her teacher pension doesn't factor in since its less than what she would be getting as my spouse?

If her pension = $15K, would this mean she get $10K (e.g. half of mine) and $5K of her teacher pension for a total of $15K?

Just not sure how this work.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Even though I don't earn much, I'm trying to subscribe to the FIRE movement and I'm saving a very a good portion of my income. I'm hoping to make work optional in about 5-10 years.

Wish you all the best here. Definitely worthwhile goal, wish I had that mindset early on. I have started talking to my college age son about this goal.

I've read blogs and reddit posts about FIRE. I get folks retiring early when they are 55-60 but some of those posts about folks in 30-40's retiring don't apply to me.

1) Many say think about your retirement first before kids college. I'm of the mindset that I have an obligation to send my kids through college and not have them graduate with crushing debt. I will help out as much as I can (but if they want a graduate degree, its on them)

2) Even if you can retire at age 40, should you? You are missing out on an additional 10-20 years of making money, adding to the kitty, having a much easier retirement, and possibly leaving a larger legacy for your kids

3) I find myself relatively cash poor. The majority of my $ is in 401k/IRAs which I can't/won't touch before 59.5. Ideally I will also wait another 6-7 years for full retirement age to give an opportunity for the $ to near-double assuming historical averages. So even if I have saved up enough total $ to supposedly retire early, I don't actually have enough cash on hand to do early retirement (unless I go live in Asia, Mexico etc.)

Its to the point where I've seriously thought about stopping 401k contributions and just putting the $ into a eTrade account to grow available cash. But the tax benefits of 401k can't be beat.

4) Definitely worried about recessions and stock market crashes. We had 2 big recessions in the oughts. They stunted my savings contribution and also saving growth. I feel "behind" from where I need to be, its like a lost decade and feel the need to "catch-up". Having a recession/crash early into FIRE would not be good unless you really had reliable multiple sources of income

FWIW, this is what I read and motivated me before the recent FIRE craze. It really changed my perspective and would encourage you to read it if you haven't already.

Millionaire Next Door
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[Kamsser]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Does your wife pay into SS? In my state, they have pensions for the very reason that they don't have SS withheld and are not earning SS credits.

Same as here.

[PilotMan]

Is anyone utilizing a Roth 401k?

[Kodos]

I split my contributions about 60/40 between traditional 401(k) and the Roth 401(k) in my plan. Although it ends up being more like 70/30 when you factor in employer matching contributions.

[Edward64]

I did contribute to Roth 401k over traditional 401k when my previous employer had that option. My current employer only has traditional.

There were tax benefits of traditional over Roth but Roth provided a lot more flexibility re: withdrawal and also no need for minimum distribution.

[lungs]

Zero. My investments turned into nothing fast. Should've been diversified!

[Capital]

Roth vs. Traditional - depends on your situation. If you are young and in a lower tax brackets - then the Roth works very well - pay taxes now when your bracket is lower.

Otherwise, the traditional 401k works because you are lowering your AGI now when your tax bracket is likely higher than in retirement.

So, it depends...

[Edward64]

Looks like we are doing okay as a group vs national average. Probably need the age dimension to really know but the poll is encouraging.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Radii

Every time this poll comes up its a great reminder of how freaking far behind I am. around 2006 - Age 30, divorce, dad's cancer, and a job change that made me hate where I worked all happened around the same time. Cash out retirement to pay off debts, quit job, move home to take care of dad. Expect that to last 2 years, it lasts 9 instead. Age 39, 0 retirement, 0 savings because I was hardly working in my 30s, total restart. I've got a good job with good benefits, I just hit $50k again in retirement at age 42, but yeah I don't honestly ever actually expect to retire, and any small bump in the road at this point could completely fuck me.

I didn't check my retirement accounts for pretty much all of 2020, and just did a yearly check-in today. I'm up over 100k at age 44 finally. Of course we'll see if there are market corrections and blah blah, but its nice to see progress regardless.

~$9500 of that has come from a company 401k match since I went back full time at my job after about a decade of being a contractor.

[sabotai]

Let me check my accounts to see how I'm doing!

*checks*

Yup, still working 'til I die.

Jokes aside, I'm close to moving up to that 3rd bracket of $25k-$50k.

But I'm also only including what's in my Roth IRA (I can only deposit $6k per year). If I were to include money that's in savings and investing that I don't plan to ever touch unless I absolutely have to, that would double it to ~$50k.

[Drake]

I topped $300k this year (at 49). I'm behind where I want to be, but feel better about it than I did two years ago when I was married and my (ex) wife hadn't worked for most of our marriage and had no savings beyond mine.

(I traded the house for a hands-off retirement agreement in the divorce. She signed it because we'd bought her childhood home after her dad died. I didn't have any interest in taking it from her or forcing a sale. At the time, it was probably a 50/50 split in terms of real value.)

It feels a bit mercenary as I tip my toe into dating pool again, but potential retirement income is part of the equation when I think about relationships going forward. You don't have to be rich, but you'd better have something -- or at least a plan -- if you want me to take you seriously.

[Edward64]

Up 25+% net worth (not counting house because I can't trust Zillow). Continuing our 401k contributions during the crash helped, and got lucky with AAPL & tech heavy funds.

2020 was a pretty good year market wise for us. Hoping for the same in 2021.

(Is it time for a new poll?)

[BYU 14]

Same for us, I increased contributions and it paid off after the initial nosedive my portfolio took. Still on track for retirement at 62 which is now coming up on 4 years away!

[Lathum]

We are approaching the top tier if you factor in the equity in our house and a few other random accounts. Also putting away enough to send the kids to college, unless its some crazy Ivy League school. Couldn't be happier.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Same for us, I increased contributions and it paid off after the initial nosedive my portfolio took. Still on track for retirement at 62 which is now coming up on 4 years away!

That's awesome, so close.

[molson]

There's a big battle going on in a few states about re-negotiating pensions. One of the advantages living in a conservative state is that doesn't seem to be a concern here, at least at the moment, the pension and state budget situation are very strong. If that changes, I'm kind of screwed, but if it doesn't, I'm pretty good, I'll probably be, if I retire at 60, around 70% of my last salary as a guarantee for my life and then a beneficiary's life if I die first (with cost of living adjustments). I've just started aggressively investing in a side Roth IRA the last few years as a supplement, but there's only so much I can put in when the pension takes so much.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by molson

There's a big battle going on in a few states about re-negotiating pensions. One of the advantages living in a conservative state is that doesn't seem to be a concern here, at least at the moment, the pension and state budget situation are very strong. If that changes, I'm kind of screwed, but if it doesn't, I'm pretty good, I'll probably be, if I retire at 60, around 70% of my last salary as a guarantee for my life and then a beneficiary's life if I die first (with cost of living adjustments). I've just started aggressively investing in a side Roth IRA the last few years as a supplement, but there's only so much I can put in when the pension takes so much.

Because you have a state pension, does that mean you don't get social security also? I assume you get pretty good subsidized health insurance also after you retire at age 60 (but before medicare).