We got married at 22 and started saving for retirement with our first jobs out of college and 11 years later I SAH and my husband contributes aggressively to retirement since his company has a great matching program. We don't worry a lot about retirement but we do worry about college costs for our kids. We haven't opened savings accounts for them yet because we have been paying off student loans that are at 6%. We had a money chat last weekend and it looks like we can pay off the remainder of my undergrad and grad school loans in January and then open college funds.
I struggle with the idea of hoarding money for later and using it now to enjoy fun things while we can. I think in the back of my mind I imagine myself not living long enough or being in good enough health to wait and enjoy that stuff in retirement. My mom had to retire at 43 due to chronic illnesses and my dad is still working and is her full time caregiver too. He will retire soon but they won't be able to travel and live it up in retirement despite the fact that they are financially secure.
So I worry about that and my husband worries about college money.
By most calculators, I'm on track. I'm not worried about us. My parents and my ILs? They terrify me. They all made terrible financial choices and are expecting us to take care of them.
Sometimes...DH has 2x his salary in a 401k, I have three random accounts due to various regions that add up close to one year of my salary plus I have a pension plan. His goal is to live off my retirement money and use his for fun.
My parents also own a farm that I will inherit a quarter of that is irrigated and has good soil, but I won’t be able to sell it to anyone but my siblings and they won’t be able to afford market value (unless my brother’s wife’s family bankrolls it which might happen).
I don't really want to save more money. I like spending money.
I guess the solution is to make more money. LOL.
(Edit: This was with retirement at age 67 and no addition of social security.)
I decided to keep in social security not because I think it will be there but because it made my prediction much less tragic.
If I don't live very long we should be okay lol.
LOL! No! Don't die young!
My prediction was also at 90% of salary, which I suppose we probably don't need when we're old, but, if we're retired, we're just going to be spending money, right? I feel like I am just so good at spending. Hahahahaha.
What should I hope for? That my brother doesn't have kids and funds my children's higher education? That would help. LOL.
I tried that calculator and without SS it said my money would run out at 102 which seemed pretty good. Then I adjusted something somehow (on my phone so I can't see the whole thing all that well) and it told me it'd run out at 68 and I need $11m per year for income while retired. Which, seems kind of high even for a spender like me...
I decided to keep in social security not because I think it will be there but because it made my prediction much less tragic.
If I don't live very long we should be okay lol.
LOL! No! Don't die young!
My prediction was also at 90% of salary, which I suppose we probably don't need when we're old, but, if we're retired, we're just going to be spending money, right? I feel like I am just so good at spending. Hahahahaha.
What should I hope for? That my brother doesn't have kids and funds my children's higher education? That would help. LOL.
I tell my kids "BE NICE TO AUNT JENNY!" She isn't having kids and she and her H do very well, plus her H's parents are the type to give $50k at Christmas for no real reason. And say things like "I wanted to save so I could leave each of my kids millions in cash." And MH and I are like "we need new parents/in laws."
Then on my side, my brother is unmarried and may or may not have kids. He opened savings accounts for my kids and deposits money each month, as well as for birthdays and Christmas. And grades. I told them to be nice to him too.
Post by penguingrrl on Dec 6, 2017 16:03:47 GMT -5
We’re utterly and totally fucked. We are only really starting to save now, at 36 and 35. Until now H was in grad school and post doc and then we spent the first few years with a good income aggressively paying off debt we had accumulated in things like unexpected medical bills over those years.
I have no idea how much we’ll need, which scares me. The idea of stopping working and trying to plan for 20+ years without knowing what inflation will do, what healthcare costs may come our way, etc has left me thinking of retirement as a luxury for the 1%, not a realistic goal for anyone else. We’ve also seen mostly losses with our 401Ks. Last year was the first year we saw more than a 0.5% return, so I don’t trust having my retirement dependent on the stock market at all.
My mom has less than 5 figures saved for retirement due to life circumstances, and most of her career has been freelance so I’m not sure how that works with social security. I assume we’ll go from supporting kids to supporting her.
Post by sporklemotion on Dec 6, 2017 16:04:50 GMT -5
Like eclaires, I’m trying to plan like I don’t have a pension, even though I do. I have a decent-ish inheritance from my parents that puts me over the calculations for now, but I’m probably not adding enough through my 403b, and DH is not saving at all. And day care costs make upping the amount we save impossible. Having 2 kids after 40 didn’t help, either— I have no sense of what college will cost for them (I’m afraid to look). I doubt I’ll retire until DD2 is done (I’ll be 70 or so?), though I may be able to shift into a lower stress job and collect my pension. So I’m low-key panicked, but know I’m in a better boat than many.
This is another way I'm worried that the insane housing market in VHCOL/HCOL places will screw our generation. I don't expect to buy a house (barring some unexpected financial windfall), which means I don't expect to pay off a mortgage by 65 and have an inexpensive place to live during retirement. Which means my retirement calculations should also include rent. Which means I'm even further behind than I thought.
This right here.
Lack of equity will be our biggest problem as well.
Delayed home ownership along with things like 40 year mortgages is going to cause huge societal problems. Thirty years ago, my parents had a 20 year mortgage, and then refinanced to a 15 year mortgage. Who on earth gets those mortgages now? You can't because housing prices are insane. (Of course, they are probably insane because of the availability of 40 year mortgages, but that's another debate.)
Also a problem: homes are huge now. And because homes are so expensive, I've noticed many people find it more cost effective to renovate and build extensions on their houses as opposed to moving. The result is that tiny, elderly couple sized houses are farther and fewer between. This is less of a problem in HCOL, where there are tons of condos and suburban plots of land may be too small. But as my parents in rural Massachusetts think about downsizing, they are finding a huge shortage of small ranch style homes. That causes the ones on the market to be more expensive, and many people may be stuck in huge homes with higher heating and maintenance costs.
I do what I can on retirement, but I'm pretty sure society will be a shit hole by then because so many things are falling apart.
I used that calculator and I won't run out of money allegedly, so that's good. Now I just have to hope that I won't actually need to spend it all on healthcare.
I hate working so I have been focusing on stashing away as much money as humanely possible for retirement. Things went to shit since I had two kids but saving early has put our finances in a good position. We have a relatively low cost of living which will greatly help us in retirement. I also think looking at multiples of your income is sort of bullshit as we should be more concerned with hypothetical total expenses in retirement (which is not easy as I expect healthcare to be a huge albatross hanging around all of our necks).
We as a country are totally fucked. I really hope the Democrats can act on this shit tax bill and message how bad this is going to be for the average American.
This is another way I'm worried that the insane housing market in VHCOL/HCOL places will screw our generation. I don't expect to buy a house (barring some unexpected financial windfall), which means I don't expect to pay off a mortgage by 65 and have an inexpensive place to live during retirement. Which means my retirement calculations should also include rent. Which means I'm even further behind than I thought.
This right here.
Lack of equity will be our biggest problem as well.
Delayed home ownership along with things like 40 year mortgages is going to cause huge societal problems. Thirty years ago, my parents had a 20 year mortgage, and then refinanced to a 15 year mortgage. Who on earth gets those mortgages now? You can't because housing prices are insane. (Of course, they are probably insane because of the availability of 40 year mortgages, but that's another debate.)
Also a problem: homes are huge now. And because homes are so expensive, I've noticed many people find it more cost effective to renovate and build extensions on their houses as opposed to moving. The result is that tiny, elderly couple sized houses are farther and fewer between. This is less of a problem in HCOL, where there are tons of condos and suburban plots of land may be too small. But as my parents in rural Massachusetts think about downsizing, they are finding a huge shortage of small ranch style homes. That causes the ones on the market to be more expensive, and many people may be stuck in huge homes with higher heating and maintenance costs.
I do what I can on retirement, but I'm pretty sure society will be a shit hole by then because so many things are falling apart.
FWIW, in lcol areas, I know a lot of people who choose a 15y mortgage. With interest rates as they are right now I think they are really popular among people I know (where I live and in other areas). I've never even heard of a 40y mortgage. I didn't know that was a thing.
To your second point, my parents decided to build a small home once they sell their current house. Their mortgage is paid off so they will be able to build (they've already purchased the lot) the small house they want and come out pretty far ahead - BUT they bought in an old, old neighborhood with small houses and are tearing down an existing house that is in serious disrepair. I would guess in most areas it is hard to find reasonable land close to where you want to be that doesn't have a minimum sq footage requirement (if you're in a neighborhood which I think is what most would want because of lower maintenance lawn care/lawn size). Or somewhere where it's financially reasonable to do that (buying a property with existing house and tearing it down). It seems like a unique set of circumstances that my parents were able to make work so I do think this is likely going to be a big issue.
I'm so worried. I'm 30 with no retirement and going back to school for a bachelor's degree so I can have a career. H makes less than 30k a year as active duty and doesn't want to retire/make the military a career which leaves me panicking. H has no retirement either.
We're late bloomers and had no idea about planning for retirement since both our families didn't discuss money or finances.
I'm sure we're utterly fucked. I'd be less pessimistic if I thought there would be any chance of Social Security still being around, but LOL. We don't have kids, but my mother is practically indigent, so that's going to be fun (and expensive) when she can no longer live on her own.
Like some others, I kind of expect to not live a really long time and/or we'll completely destroy the earth in the not-to-distant future, so there's that.
Thank you for this. It says our retirement will run out at 102 and doesn’t include social security. It also doesn’t include our pensions.
It’s only because we save everything we can. DH is a natural saver and I got really good at living on a tiny budget in a VHCOL city when I was a single mom getting no alimony or child support (still don’t get those). Even though we can afford more now, we save it. People in our neighborhood think we are “poor” (in quotes because the median HHI in our city is over $100k which isn’t poor), because we don’t take multiple vacations each year or have the latest car or get $100 tennis shoes for the boys or spend $1000 on a 10 year old’s birthday.
It’s only because we save everything we can. DH is a natural saver and I got really good at living on a tiny budget in a VHCOL city when I was a single mom getting no alimony or child support (still don’t get those). Even though we can afford more now, we save it. People in our neighborhood think we are “poor” (in quotes because the median HHI in our city is over $100k which isn’t poor), because we don’t take multiple vacations each year or have the latest car or get $100 tennis shoes for the boys or spend $1000 on a 10 year old’s birthday.
I absolutely don't begrudge you at all! I would be in a better position if I didn't like spending money so much lol. In fact, while thinking about saving more for retirement I have also been browsing Disneyland deals on Expedia. Hopeless cause!
I worry, but I'm not freaking out. Including employer contributions, we save about 27% in various retirement vehicles (401k, IRA, employer defined contribution plan), and have about 2.5 times our gross salary saved at age 37 & 38. My student loans should be paid off next November, and we re-fi'd into a 15 year mortgage a couple of years ago, so should have the house paid off at just over age 50. We also just bought our first rental property earlier this year, and plan to sock all of the income from that plus savings from not having student loans into buying additional properties. We do have several things going for us, including not having children, living in a MCOL area, and always having jobs with fairly generous employer retirement contributions. And I am admittedly a miser by nature, which at times drives DH crazy, but has been beneficial in this arena.
Early on, we had very low paying jobs and we contributed much less, but as we have been promoted or had increases each of those went toward retirement until we both maxed our contributions. To us, we never missed that money because we never saw it anyways.
Now we are in our early 30s and are hopeful to retire early.
Post by Velar Fricative on Dec 6, 2017 17:19:57 GMT -5
DH and I are part of the state pension system so I bury my head in the sand and hope it’s still there. I feel a little worried with this tax bill though if it causes economic issues here. Otherwise we save what we can in our 403b accounts.
Post by whitemerlot on Dec 6, 2017 17:39:48 GMT -5
We are 38 and 43 and have just over 4x saved and the calculators say we are behind. I feel like we are saving as much as we can because we are also trying to save some for our kids for college.
I know we won't have enough for an amazing lifestyle, but we would have enough for a place to live, food, healthcare and transportation. I hope social security in some form exists so we can have some fun too. We'll see!
I worry about the need for everyone (including me) to keep working beyond 65. How many companies like to employ people in their mid-70s, let alone 80s? My FIL intended on having a career job for 10 more years, but couldn't find anything except inconsistent consulting gigs after he was let go.
Post by One Girl In All The World on Dec 6, 2017 19:54:55 GMT -5
Not overwhelmed because I basically just don't think about it. We will never be in a position to save what we are supposed to. I have a 401K that I should probably try to increase my contributions to, but H only just last year opened an IRA, and he's a few years older than me. We will either work until we die or I will be one of the lucky [sarcasm font] ones in my family who ends up with Alzheimers. :/