you and DH - same $$$ in your retirement funds?

[grey56]

I have $90K in my 401k (no Roth), DH has I think $50k in his.  Should I decrease my contributions so we can increase his?  Or should we rearrange things so we can keep mine and still increase his?  Do they even have to "match"? 

Speaking of matching, my company does but his does not.  So I would always at least contribute enough to get full matching.

Do your retirement funds match each other in terms of how much you have?   

[everam01]

I don't know what the recommendation is for this, but DH makes double what I do and easily has double in his retirement account.

[Deleted]

My husband earns less than I do, and he has about 1.5 times what I have. He started contributing 3 years earlier than I did (when he was working and I was in law school), and his investments have done better than mine (it doesn't help that due to investing restrictions with his old company, my 401(k) had to be in a cash position for a few years...). Ideally they would be even, but sometimes that isn't possible...

[lightbulbsun]

H has had a 401k since he graduated, and my first job didn't offer benefits, so he's been contributing for 3 years more than I have. He has about 4x as much as I do. His will probably always grow faster than mine because he makes a little more, and his company matches more than mine.

I guess I'll just have to keep him around so I can live off of his savings

[gt7301b]

Given the investment vehicles avaliable to us having equal amounts in each of our names isn't the best financial decision for my family. I max out my TSP and we both contribute to Roths. DH has a 403b through his work, but the fees charged are much more than my TSP, so we don't contribute to it. He doesn't get a match, so it isn't like we are leaving $$$ on the table.

So to answer your question, we aren't concerned if the $$$ isn't split individually.

[Deleted]

DH has more than 3x what I have in my retirement accounts. I stopped contributing for 3 years and it shows. Now that I make less than a quarter of what he does, we will never have equal amounts and we are not concerned.

[fences]

No, he has more than double.  But, he is 4 years older than me, has been working longer, and started saving earlier.  So, I'm fine with it.

I get a piddly match (like $20 max), but I do have a pension, and he gets no match and no pension.  We contribute most of our retirement via Roths, and I have thought about making our amounts match, but the easiest way for us to do it is to both contribute 10-15% of our salaries.  His salary is much higher than mine, but that's fine too.  I figure it will all work out in the end...we'll either share it in retirement, or settle it up during the divorce. 

[ssmjlm]

Nope, we don't. I have slightly more than DH, despite being 9 years younger. He has switched careers and for a couple years wasn't contributing at all, or the minimum for the match.

With my TSP and pension, we've both realized that I'll end up with more in retirement, but really even retirement money is still "our money" from our perspective. Also, with our age differences, DH is planning to work a bit later, until 65, since I should be able to retire btwn 55-57 since I'll already have the 30+ years of service.

[Susie]

We contribute equal amounts to each of our Roths, although mine has a bigger balance because it was opened earlier.

As far as my simple IRA and his deferred comp account through our respective employers, having them be even is not a goal of mine.  We each save a different %, we have different incomes, I started mine sooner... and in the end, who cares?  He's the beneficiary on mine and me on his, so neither of us would be left out in the cold.

[ellipses84]

No, I'm a little behind with almost a years salary and he is way behind. I know we could live off my salary, and the same would be true in retirement by our calculations, but it still makes me uncomfortable. Thanks to hanging out on MM, it is our goal to get our retirement savings where they should be and I nearly maxed my contributions last year, but he doesn't have a 401k option.

I think you should look at it from an individual standpoint based on age and current salary to gauge where you are.

[Deleted]

I have double what DH does. Currently we each contribute 15%. I make about 3x what DH does, so this trend will continue. Though a good part of his is Roth 401k and only a small part of mine is, so I will still owe taxes.

Eventually if we have a child, we would like DH to stay home, so we would need to do a spousal IRA for him so he still is getting something.

[Deleted]

We contribute the same amount. I was better about saving before marriage so I think I have more total saved although he makes a lot more than I do.

[smiley]

DH has like 10x more in his 401k account than I do. He is older and started contributing at like age 18 or 19. I started at age 21. He has like 4 years worth of contributions in his 401k that I do not. We do try to keep the same % going into both accounts. We are both around 3% of our pay right now but DH makes 2x what I do so he automatically has a larger contribution.

Do you contribute the same %? I would try to make that close to even so you aren't putting away 10% and he is only putting away 2%. However, I don't think the accounts will ever match because of factors like - company match, how you have your money invested etc.

[hideme]

We don't. I started saving 12 years ago when i started working and for much of that time i was maxing out my contribution. DH had only been contributing for the past 8 years and only does as much as his company max. This plus I make 50% more is why i have over 3x as much in my 401k.

[chessie]

DH's match is much lower then mine, so his is lower. We aren't too concerned though. We both max out where we can, when we can.

[Deleted]

We contribute the same amount even though I'm a SAHM and don't work. DH maxes out his 401k, we both max out regular IRAs, and then we set aside money in a brokerage account for "my" retirement. However, DH's company does employee matches and profit sharing which I obviously don't get so he has more money in his 401k. It doesn't bother me as we are intending to share all of this money in the end (and would split it in a divorce).

[Deleted]

I have a lot more bc H doesn't have an option for a 401k- we only have an IRA for him. I max my 401k and IRA.

[minzy]

Our retirement funds were almost exactly the same until I became a SAHM, as we entered the workforce at the same time (we are also very close in age).  Now my total is less than his since we can't contribute as much to my IRA as he can at work.  I am not too concerned about the disparity at this point, and we have other joint investments. 

[anna7602]

In an ideal world, both should max out the vehicles available to them, no? Who cares where you both were at a given point? 

[kaylie]

H has about five times what I do. Even though he makes considerably more, his take home is lower because we max out his employer match. I don't think it really matters who has what if it will all be shared eventually anyway.

[crashgizmo]

DH has probably 4 times what I do, but he is 9 years older. We are both maxing out now, but he has a 6% match and I have nothing, so it will probably always be this way. We look at it all the same though, although I figure I will probably work beyond 56 or so, so it will even out eventually.

[Deleted]

He has a lot more but he makes a lot more and has always had a generous match. I have a pension though.

[Deleted]

I am 7 years older, make more than H does and have a better company match as a result I have about twice as much as he does. We are both on target for where we should be at our ages.

[winnied]

No, H is a grad student and as of now has zero going into retirement. He just picked up a side job and once we finish building up our efund we'll start a Roth for him.

[Deleted]

DH has a 401k with match and pension. If I stay with the same company and go full time, I could have a pension. He also makes 2x as much as I do.

We do contribute more to my Roth because of it. Once we are able to Max roths, that will change, but I have about 2x the amount in the Roth that he does. (I also rolled over a good amount.)

[Deleted]

Ours are not equal at all. I have almost 5 years of 403b contributions at 12%, DH has barely anything since he got laid off his last job before he was vested and they took all of their employer contributions back out We just started contributing equal amounts to a Roth, and DH just became eligible at his new job to start contributing to a 401k. But I have about 30x more saved right now than he does. We're both behind.

We asked our financial advisor about this when setting up our Roths. He told us it didn't really matter that I had so much more. Presumably we'll be sharing it someday, and if we divorce I believe he'll be entitled to a good chunk of what I have in my account since it was almost all earned when we were married (and the year of earnings prior to marriage, we lived together and had joint finances so I wouldn't fight him on that). Basically if anything happens, good or bad, we split everything anyway.

However that wasn't legal advice so I guess it could also be incorrect?

[my4girls]

DH doesn't have a 401k and didn't start an IRA until I did for him when we got married in 06, so he'll pretty much never catch up to me. I have approximatly 5x what he does since we max my 401k each year (we also max his IRA)

[grey56]

Thanks for the replies...I was wondering if there was any reason why they would need to be the same, but it sounds like that is not the case. Good to know!

[Deleted]

DH has nearly 10x the amount of my retirement savings.
He is 6 years older and for several years before we met received large bonuses that allowed him to max his 401k and Roth IRA.
He started contributing to a Roth IRA when he was 18.
He makes nearly double what I do.
All I can contribute to is a Roth IRA, as I have nothing through my employer except a small profit-sharing plan.
I didn't start saving for retirement til I was 24 or 25 and I am now 28.

[Velvetshady]

I've been contributing to retirement for 17 years. DH has been contributing for ~6 1/2. My base salary is a bit more than 3/4s of his. We currently contribute close to the same % (so DH contributes more $). My retirement funds are still ~3x larger than his. And we are both still way behind the normal targets by age.

We had been increasing his by his yearly raise amount while in debt-reduction mode, but since he's a Fed, no raises recently.