When you calculate your retirement contribution %

[hesitantbride]

How do you go about doing it?  I add up my pre-tax contribution (for my 403b) and my post-tax contribution (for my Roth IRA) to get my percentage.

I get some sense on MM that some people separate these two out.  If you do this (consider them differently), why do you do this?  I also know my percentage with and without my company match.

And bonus question:  What percentage are you at?  What are you aiming for?

I'm at 13% without match and 18% with match, considering my two retirement accounts.  My salary is not the greatest, so I am no where near maxing my 403b, though I do max my Roth IRA.  

[chessie]

For us we look at myself and DH separately, we each put in 15% with whatever matches from our employers, but we don't include that since that can be dropped at any point. We aimed for 15% and now we are there.

[Deleted]

All of our 401(k) contributions are pre-tax, so I always think of it as a percentage of gross. Which I think is the right approach if you're going by "you should be putting away 10-15%" benchmarks?

I don't really think of it much in terms of income percentages though. We max out two 401(k)s (plus our employer matches/contributions get us another $15,000 or so) and max out two traditional IRAs. Retirement calculators tell us that that should be enough.

[spunkarella]

We think of it as a % of gross. Right now we are saving 12% and hope to increase to 15% in the next year.

[theintended]

% of gross

[Deleted]

I don't separate pretax and after tax. I do contribute to Roth401k. I just do a lazy calculation and total all contributions (pretax and after tax) and divide by gross.

[kadams767]

Sorry, ETA that we contribute just around 30% of our gross, and then have an employer match of an additional 4%.

[hesitantbride]

I just went back to check my numbers.  On my own, I am contributing 13%.  With my employer contribution, it is a total of 21.5%.  I have been and am immediately vested, so that match doesn't go away.  

DH is at about 24% total, with vested match.

[lemon]

Ours are all pre-tax, to reduce our taxable income. I'm doing 10% at the moment so we can pay down some debts. My employer matches another 10%, but I don't count that yet as I'm not fully vested.

[sillygoosegirl]

Traditional contributions should be calculated as a percentage of gross income because you haven't paid tax on them yet. Roth contributions should be calculated as a percentage of take home (or more precisely post tax) income, because you have already paid tax on them.

But that's just in general. It's hard for me to give a percentage right now. My income varies and I don't even know if I will be employed past March. It's around 75% at the moment, but I'll be done maxing out both DH's and my IRA's by April if I am still working, so if I keep working I'll save much less the rest of the year. DH saves a flat 20%.

[Deleted]

I put in 12% of pretax income, 3% post tax in a 401k/Roth 401k. I get 4.5% pretax match.

DH puts in 15% post tax and gets a 3% pretax match--Roth 401k/401k

[Deleted]

I lump pre and post tax contributions together, and compare that number to total gross income to determine %.

I also count the employer contributions, have never agreed with the logic not to.