Is saving for retirement ever too much?

[Deleted]

H and I save about 24% of our gross income in our 401Ks and Roth IRA accounts. At what point do you say that is enough? The limits went up this year and I'm trying to determine if we should continue to max them out. We are on track for our ages, but when do you start saving more non retirement vs retirement? Are there any advantages to doing one vs the other?

[Deleted]

My feeling is you can never save too much. We max out our retirement (tax advantaged) options and then save more that we ear mark for retirement in regular investment accounts. I figure we can always cut back but I prefer to save as much as possible now so we can retire early!

[Deleted]

I don't think so unless it is seriously impacting your quality of life. Do you find yourself not being able to do certain things/take trips/buy what you want within reason? If not, you're probably fine.

[winnied]

Jan 9, 2013 12:57:15 GMT -5 @lcap said:

I don't think so unless it is seriously impacting your quality of life. Do you find yourself not being able to do certain things/take trips/buy what you want within reason? If not, you're probably fine.

I think this is true. You can always retire early if you have the money for it.

[limey]

I'm in the "it's never too much" camp. I've saved aggressively in the past and have been very glad that I was able and willing to do so.

[makingithappen]

If the option is saving non retirement or saving retirement, I'd save retirement. I'm guessing you have an adequate efund for emergencies. You can always cut back on retirement contributions if something happens and you need to divert the money elsewhere, but retirement savings can grow tax free.

[raangoli]

Jan 9, 2013 12:53:03 GMT -5 @lilly said:

My feeling is you can never save too much. We max out our retirement (tax advantaged) options and then save more that we ear mark for retirement in regular investment accounts. I figure we can always cut back but I prefer to save as much as possible now so we can retire early!

I agree with this.

[Deleted]

I think there is a such thing as saving too much for retirement if it impacts your quality of life. Like if you have the money, but don't travel or have other experiences because you are contributing the max to retirement. You only live once and you never know what may happen.

[SJ]

I will agree that one could theoretically be saving too much for retirement, but it is very very rare.

[sillygoosegirl]

I think it depends on your goals. When do you want to retire? How much do you want to spend in your retirement? When did you start saving for retirement? What else do you want to spend your money on before retirement and how much will it cost? Do you always intend/expect to be able to save so much for retirement?

I definitely think it is possible to save too much for retirement, but how much is too much is a very personal question. We saved between 20% and 35% of our income for most of our 20s and I love the flexibility that gives us to save less now that we are thinking about children (I want to be a SAHM and we want to retire early), but if we weren't having kids, I'm not sure it would feel like such a great use of our money. OTOH, I have no idea what our financial goals would be if we were planning to remain childfree, aside from probably very different.

[wanderlustmom]

Yes we are like many others, we prioritize retirement and save a lot.

[imojoebunny]

I guess you could over save, but few people do. I saved a lot in my 20's. I did not travel much, and when I did, I did longer trips on buddy passes where I had friends to save. Still great trips, but for example, two weeks in England, staying with a friend, for $800 is a lot more fun for me than 2 weeks in 8 countries on a whirl wind tour. I am glad I saved so much when I was young. We continue to save at a high rate, and live below our means, but we have a nice retirement and can spludge more now, whereas, a lot of my 40 year old friends are just getting started at the very time their children's expenses are ramping up.

I don't regret the things I "gave up" in my 20's, the clothes, meals, ect. Would be long gone, I don't feel like I gave up much. I still did a lot of fun stuff, just more camping and Chili parties, than Ritz Carltoning.

[Deleted]

One could over save if all the IFs come true. What IFs? If yearly ROI is 6% (or whatever %)... If I continue to contribute X amount... etc.

It's easy to plug in numbers in a retirement/savings calculator, but that does not mean the number it spits out is actually what you'll have at the end. There's so many things that can affect your ROI or the amount you can save in the future. At one point, we hit a savings of 50% of gross. When we have 2 in daycare starting this year, I'll be happy with 20%.