How much do you put into your 401k/403b/TSP

[sadlebred]

I'm curious as to what everyone puts into their 401K/403b/TSP. From some other discussions it seems like we have a lot of people that are able to max theirs out.

As a single income I would love to max out my 401K, but I still have to eat. I do up to my company match, and I contribute a little to my ROTH IRA when I can.

[dcn]

H and I both max plus we max ROTHs.

We don’t have health insurance expenses, and he gets a housing allowance. That all helps immensely so we’re taking advantage while we can.

[mcsangel2]

There are numbers between 15% and maxing out. If I were to max at my company (I don't), I'd be contributing 43%.

[janegold]

H and I both max.  Some is split between a traditional 401k and Roth 401k.  We haven't been contributing to our IRAs lately, though.  

[kadams767]

DH and I both contribute the max to each of our 401(k)s ($18k) while we can. We are fortunate to be in a good place financially right now where we can do so, but it hasn't always been like this and I don't anticipate it lasting forever either. So we are trying hard to save as much as possible while we have a high HHI.

We also contribute the max ($5,500) to one backdoor Roth IRA. 

[sandandsea]

We max ours and Are looking into backdoor Roths but haven’t done it yet.

[sacattack]

I max out my 401k and then contribute after tax. 14% of my salary goes in.

[Susie]

Special Snowflake: I have a SIMPLE IRA instead of a 401k. I max it out, but it has a lower contribution limit ($12,500).

Our firm is moving to offering a 401k for 2018, which I am happy about. I plan to try to max it out, although I'm not kidding myself that it will be easy with competing financial obligations including daycare tuition, mortgage, SLs, my partnership buy-in, etc.

[noodleoo]

The one smart financial thing I did was up our contributions to the max when H and I were DINKs. And I did that mainly because of MM back on TN (thx guys!). We can’t do that anymore since I’m part time with a lower salary and daycare to pay for. H is pretty close to the max and I think I’m putting on like 10% of my salary. I should double check and see where we are. But I didn’t have a 401k for the first 5 years of my career and H was only putting in like 4% so we have been working on catching up as much as we can.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t do the max. The goal is to save as much as you reasonably can. In fact, a lot of places advise only putting up to your employer match, then funding a Roth IRA (where you can pull out your contributions without penalty if needed) and then going back to the 401k if you have more savings available. I think that’s what Suze Orman suggested (I miss her show so much!). So you are on the right track!

one nice thing that my company does is they increase your 401k contributions by 1% every year. You can opt out of it or change it at any time, but this is nice because as you get raises, it helps employees contribute more without even feeling it. Maybe try to increase your 401k a little bit each year as your income grows. 

[janegold]

Nov 14, 2017 17:47:15 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Maybe try to increase your 401k a little bit each year as your income grows. 

Totally!  That's what I did.  Every time I got an increase, I would up my contributions by a percent or two until I hit the max.  It means that I basically haven't increased my take home pay in years but I feel good that the money is going somewhere safe.

[ewall]

I max. I got a substantial raise several years ago which I put directly toward reaching the max.

[bostonmichelle]

We max DH’s and I try to max a Roth IRA for me but we are basically in one income since I barely make anything.

[chimera]

20% to TSP (+5% match) 4.4% to fers
I’m not sure what DH is currently putting in, he switched companies last year and is at a startup they’ve just changed their provider and added matching

[boston340]

I save $7,800 per year in my 401K and max out my Roth. That's as much as I can manage.

[steamboat185]

We max it out anything we can take advantage of we do.

[scm1011]

I'll pipe it to keep it real. Since we had DS (12 months), we've lowered our contributions greatly. Right now I'm contributing 6% to my Roth 401K and DH is contributing the mandatory 8% to his 403b. Its not forever, but right now we're in a tough spot with daycare costs and this gives us some breathing room. Prior we contributed 15%, and we'll get back there over the next few years.

[jwright]

Special snowflake - employer does not offer retirement, but I put $5,500 in a backdoor Roth every year.

[covergirl82]

I contribute 6% of my income and get 4% from my employer. DH contributes 6% from his employer and gets 6% from his employer, plus profit sharing. I would like to contribute a little more, but it hasn't been possible yet.

[shamrockshake]

I was able to max out one year. Never again, damn kids. Right now i think I'm at like 9%. Dh doesn't have one, we max an ira for him

[Velar Fricative]

I just switched jobs, which came with a $30k/year paycut but I'm back in the state pension system, so I'm contributing 3% to my 403b right now (no employer match) plus another 3% to the pension system (the latter contribution is required until 10 years of service, and right now I have 8 years in). We're in the middle of two daycare tuitions too, so alas, I'll try to increase next fall when DD1 starts kindergarten. I had generous 403b employer contributions with the last job that I took advantage of so I have a decent amount in the 403b. We have never been able to contribute the max but we're comfortable with our current situation (both DH and I are eligible for solid pensions).

[welly01]

I voted SS because DH and I have both stopped 401k contributions to focus on debt. (I know, contrary to normal financial advice, but we are doing Dave Ramsey). Usually we both contribute between 6-10%. As soon as we are debt free, I'm planning to contribute enough to my 401k to get my employer match, then max out Roth IRA and then max out 401k. I'm not sure we'll ever be at that level but that's my plan at the current moment.

[brooke77]

I max, but I feel like I’m still behind on retirement savings. I didn’t get my first professional job until I was late 20s. My employer doesn’t match either.

[k3am]

We max them out.

Silly question - does it matter at what point in the year you max them out? We both have our contributions set high enough (from back in the days that we need it that high to reach the max) that we max out mid-year and then it feels like a "raise" at the end of the year. I'm not sure if this is a bad idea to let it continue or something we should correct.

[ssmjlm]

I put in 15% to my TSP. The govt matches 5%. I don't even pay attention to FERS and think of it as my vacay fund in retirement.

I think DH is at 20% total between employee and employer (it's some weird percentage employer match equation).

Even with those high percentages we are not maxing, but we're comfortable with our balances and where we are. We've slowly increased them over time as we've gotten raises here.

[mrsd2006]

DH maxes his 401K out, I put in 30% but haven't maxed in previous years (I might this year though)

[lightbulbsun]

I put in 20%, but that doesn't max it out.

[Cheerio]

Nov 15, 2017 11:03:04 GMT -5 k3am said:

We max them out.

Silly question - does it matter at what point in the year you max them out? We both have our contributions set high enough (from back in the days that we need it that high to reach the max) that we max out mid-year and then it feels like a "raise" at the end of the year. I'm not sure if this is a bad idea to let it continue or something we should correct.

Do you have an employer match? If so, do they do a true-up to ensure you get the full match at the end of the year or the beginning of the next year? This is the only thing I know of that would matter.

[k3am]

Nov 15, 2017 11:18:17 GMT -5 Cheerio said:

Nov 15, 2017 11:03:04 GMT -5 k3am said:

We max them out.

Silly question - does it matter at what point in the year you max them out? We both have our contributions set high enough (from back in the days that we need it that high to reach the max) that we max out mid-year and then it feels like a "raise" at the end of the year. I'm not sure if this is a bad idea to let it continue or something we should correct.

Do you have an employer match? If so, do they do a true-up to ensure you get the full match at the end of the year or the beginning of the next year? This is the only thing I know of that would matter.

We have an employer match, but it's not much - $2k. 

[insominac]

Nov 15, 2017 11:03:04 GMT -5 k3am said:

We max them out.

Silly question - does it matter at what point in the year you max them out? We both have our contributions set high enough (from back in the days that we need it that high to reach the max) that we max out mid-year and then it feels like a "raise" at the end of the year. I'm not sure if this is a bad idea to let it continue or something we should correct.

I️ maxed mine out at mid year because I️ didn’t think I️ would still be here. Lol next year I’m going to max it out as soon as I can.

[countthestars]

I max, H has a SEP so we don't contribute anything directly, but his company puts in a lump sum once yearly. I think we could also each do a backdoor roth, but we haven't set that up.