DH h money automatically taken out for retirement each month, but that's all for dedicated savings. Everything else is just what we manage to not spend. I'm hoping, now that I'm working part time and the holiday money suck is over, to start dedicating more to our savings.
Around $1000. That's our pensions though. We have to do it. We aren't currently saving for college. That won't start until we stop having $1600 in childcare a month.
$1450 - but it goes into various accounts for things that we need to have planned spending for - my mat leave, property taxes, car and home maintenance etc. the real savings accounts would be for retirement, emergency fund, the education fund etc. it works out to be about $550 of the cumulative amount we set aside.
Is it a pension? Can you take any of your retirement funds with you if you leave for another job?
DH and I both have pensions in addition to our 403bs but we don't count that in our retirement planning since we'd have to be at our jobs a long time to be fully vested.
My former job and my current job both provide a cash balance account that vests in four years. Having been at my old job for seven years, I took it all. MUAHAHAHAHA.
When H took his current job, it worked out that he had been at his previous company for 5 years, 2 months. His employer contribution required 5 years to be fully vested. After all the shenanigans that went on there, it was a nice mic drop moment for H
I know you will do it! It sucks while you're in the middle of climbing out of debt, though; I remember all too well. Not having money for anything fun was my reality for a long time. It also is our way of life right now since we're saving for a house.
This board skews higher income than the real world; I try to remind myself of that. The US average HHI is around $70K a year. Most of the families I've met since we've moved to Maine make less than that. Saving is hard to do, and dependent on not having any mini-disasters. I'm trying to appreciate our relative affluence while I can since MIL is barely getting by on social security, and will eventually need to move in with us.
Post by underwaterrhymes on Mar 1, 2015 14:34:52 GMT -5
Gato - our income is higher than the average HHI by quite a bit, but our debt is astronomical. Really ridiculous. Once we can get on top of that, we will be so much better off.
Once upon a time I was able to save an entire paycheck each month. My current answer, however, is reflected above. lol
For about 2 years my ex and I saved my entire FT job paycheck and lived on his pay and my PT job pay. Those were the days! I look back at our savings balance from those days and get depressed lol.
I guess I am lucky that my retirement is almost entirely funded by my employer as long as I sell my soul to them for 30 years. I forget about that whenever we have this conversation, and it is a huge benefit.
Is it a pension? Can you take any of your retirement funds with you if you leave for another job?
DH and I both have pensions in addition to our 403bs but we don't count that in our retirement planning since we'd have to be at our jobs a long time to be fully vested.
Mine vested after 5 years and my contributions into it are refundable if I were to leave. When I started the county funded half of it (7%), but after years of budget cuts they stopped picking up any portion of contributions last year.
I save between 900-1100 a month but I only get paid for 10 months (teacher) so some of that may get used in July and August if I don't get enough supplemental income through little jobs I do (tutoring, mentoring, final exam writing). I also have state retirement and am fully vested at 20 years. On year 8 right now woo woo!
We are currently able to save half our monthly take home income. Three years ago we had a ton of credit card debt and student loans. DH got a new much better paying job. We worked through it/paid it all off and now that we don't have all those debt expenses we can save a LOT (until about a year ago we were saving less than $100 a month).
But we don't really take vacations. I work at a place that gives us a big discount on DH's main hobby. So while our current situation looks really good, it just so very recently got that way.
We're focusing on paying off debt so.... very little. We put a chunk in savings and have been throwing everything else at debt. So less than $100 + whatever my retirement savings are (which isn't a lot). H is still in school so things will hopefully get a lot better when he gets a job!
Once upon a time I was able to save an entire paycheck each month. My current answer, however, is reflected above. lol
For about 2 years my ex and I saved my entire FT job paycheck and lived on his pay and my PT job pay. Those were the days! I look back at our savings balance from those days and get depressed lol.
Yep! We lived off one of my checks, saved the other, and used H's paychecks for retirement savings and fun money. Those were our MM glory days!
Post by thebreakfastclub on Mar 1, 2015 15:18:29 GMT -5
I read recently that at 40 I should have x7 my salary saved for retirement. I recently got a raise and upped my 401k to 18%. I wont be close to x7 though and it worries me.
I honestly don't know about retirement--I know I'm doing whatever the max is to get the employer match but I don't remember percents or dollars. I also know we're really behind in retirement savings. However, we just paid off all our credit card debt within the last year so that's where most of our money has been going up until now.
$100/week goes into savings and we are hoping to build up to a down payment on a house. I don't know how quickly that will happen.
When dh had his last job, we saved 1800-2000 per month, including retirement savings. Not including lump sums sent to savings like bonuses or stock grants:
I read recently that at 40 I should have x7 my salary saved for retirement. I recently got a raise and upped my 401k to 18%. I wont be close to x7 though and it worries me.
Pfffffffffff hahahahaHAHAHAHAhaha.... Ha. Ha. Haaaaa. ::sniff:: weep.
I read recently that at 40 I should have x7 my salary saved for retirement. I recently got a raise and upped my 401k to 18%. I wont be close to x7 though and it worries me.
Ugh, I'm sorry it's so much. Do you have a date when it will all be paid off?
We have a plan to pay it off in two - three years.
That's excellent! You will be there before you know it. We just paid off H's student loans, finally, and our car will be paid off in July, and then we are treating ourselves somehow. Not putting the extra into retirement savings, nope. I need a vacation!
We need to meet with a financial planner so bad. I have no idea about anything retirement related. I know my pension is pretty baller, but I don't know what happens if I don't teach for 30 years. H has some in his retirement (no idea how much) but never set anything up with his new company so he's currently contributing $0. He does have some stock in his company that's worth a good chunk, but that's all I know.
I read recently that at 40 I should have x7 my salary saved for retirement. I recently got a raise and upped my 401k to 18%. I wont be close to x7 though and it worries me.
hmmm we have saved aggressively for retirement throughout our careers (at least 30% between 401k and Roths) and obviously it will depend on the market but I am not sure we will reach that.
We don't save nearly enough. The number in the poll is really fattened just because my husband has a pension and his employer contributes a nice amount per hour worked. I am definitely working on our emergency fund this year (that is my goal). I did put a nice chunk of our tax refund into our savings account. I NEED to get better at this, it just seems every month something needs to be paid or comes up - tuition, books, car repair, etc. Kids are expensive.
I read recently that at 40 I should have x7 my salary saved for retirement. I recently got a raise and upped my 401k to 18%. I wont be close to x7 though and it worries me.
Where the heck did you read that?
I'm trying to imagine a life (a house and a kid or two) and career that would make that possible.
I read recently that at 40 I should have x7 my salary saved for retirement. I recently got a raise and upped my 401k to 18%. I wont be close to x7 though and it worries me.
Where the heck did you read that?
I'm trying to imagine a life (a house and a kid or two) and career that would make that possible.
I'm not coming up with much.
I am finding 7 times at retirement age. Who knows how I came up with that, but I feel better now. Lol