Post by seeyalater52 on Dec 6, 2017 19:59:45 GMT -5
Yes. Definitely freaking out. We do contribute to retirement, but my wife isn’t able to save as much as she should be right now. We are only 30/31 so in theory we could catch up but I am not confident that we will.
It doesn’t help that neither of our sets of parents make enough to really save for retirement so it’s likely we will have to assist them once they are unable to work, which will further throw us off the trajectory.
Post by rupertpenny on Dec 6, 2017 20:32:03 GMT -5
We are way behind now, but should hopefully be able to catch up some when we finish paying our student loans in a few months.
The only reason we are not in terrible shape is because we don't live in the US. We spend a shit load on rent, but our childcare, healthcare, and transportation costs are negligible and our effective tax rate is low. Even with the same HHI in the US we would be much worse off.
Post by ohiopollworker on Dec 6, 2017 21:24:13 GMT -5
Just Work Forever is not a great solution. Of course we can all come up with anecdotes of people in their 70's and beyond who are sharp and still working. But by and large cognitive decline is happening. Let alone physical decline and ageism.
We will be fine as we started putting ~10% in 401K's as soon as we started working. It did fuck-all for a long time during the recession, but the stock market has been great for what, 7 years now? We should be ok with what we saved and whatever SS we get will be a safety net.
The biggest risk IMO is one spouse requiring nursing home care, while the other is still alive. If you spend down your $$$ to put one person in a nursing home, the remaining spouse can have very little left. My H is older and less healthy than I am so that is what worries me.
Is it sad that I am less freaked about my retirement now that I am divorcing than I was before? Because STBX has almost nothing saved for retirement in his mid 40s and has both grown kids and a mom with awful financial sense that would have been a drain on our savings?
I have been saving for retirement since I was a college grad. I currently have about 5x my salary in a Roth IRA in my late 40s. House will be paid off next year. And I still have about 20 years of time for it all to grow before I retire.
Though as pixy0stix was saying, I am also thinking that the world will be ending before this all ever becomes an issue.
I was more stressed when going through a divorce until he agreed that we would not include retirement / pension as part of marital assets.
My older co-workers were grandfathered into a pension and they think about their career and future so differently than my younger co-workers. Even though the pension was replaced with a very generous 401a contribution, it's really scary to depend on the stock market for something so important. I've also had a FT + PT job for the last 3 years, I work 58-60 hours a week with 1 day off. I would really like weekends again but the PT job also has an employer match. I'm 29 and have 33% of my salary saved, only thanks to those matches. DH has never had an employer with a retirement option so he has nothing. The Bankrate calculator says if I retire at 67 I won't run out of money until 87 even without social security, but my 401k provider calculator says I'll run out mid-70's - that makes more sense I feel stuck at both jobs because of the retirement benefits.
We bought a small (1000 sq ft) house earlier this year, 30 year mortgage. The idea was for it to be a starter house, have 1-2 kids, then buy a bigger house when they got to school age. But when I think seriously about the future, I think we'll need to stay in this 3 bed / 1 bath house forever. Then maybe we will actually get a retirement.
Way behind for both H and I. But I’m not really freaking out.
There are so many variables that I can’t control. It’s quite possible there won’t be anything left for my pension, stock market could take a dive and I’d lose my 401k and IRA, and social security could be completely gone by then.
Yeah I’m freaking out. I’m 40 years old with a single income in an area where I can barely afford rent. I won’t be able to buy a house anytime soon, if ever. I can’t save anything right now. Not sure what I’m going to do.
Glad I read the whole thread before I posted this link...
This is one of the two main calculators I use (the other is firecalc.com -- it's a little different in that it does a "fail/succeed" graph using historical returns and can take some getting use to, however, it really allows you to play with a ton of scenarios easily, like pension/no pension, other income, social security/no social security, how your investments are allocated, spending, etc).
Post by dragon's breath on Dec 7, 2017 4:33:21 GMT -5
I've always been a saver (starting with my first job, a paper route, in fifth grade), so the second I got a job with retirement at 21, I maxed it, even though I was going to school full time and only working part time. I kept it at max (a percentage at the time, rather than a dollar amount) through my divorce, refinance of my house, taking loans to finish school, appliances failing all around me (to the point I had an ice chest for a fridge and was having to wash my laundry in the bathtub), etc. All while getting spotty child support that didn't include medical insurance or childcare (a "computer glitch"). I'm not sure how I did it when I look back, but I'm glad I did.
Encourage your kids to start saving as soon as they can. Open a Roth as soon as they have earned income, etc.
Every calculator I do has me coming out fine. I have reduced my contribution to 6% (+5% match) this year, and next, so that I can help my son with college, along with trying to save more to build a house. Once I lose him as a deduction (and my "head of household" status), I'll need to put that back up to help reduce my taxes.
Currently, I have about 4.6 times my base income (I'm 38) in my TSP. I'm expecting a pension that will replace 36% of my income if I retire at 57, but when I do calculations, I run them with and without that pension, as well as what the pension would be if I get 1% raises or 2% raises. I also run the calculations with and without social security.
I was in a horrible work situation for years, so I was trying to do everything I could to set myself up to take advantage of an early out the moment I'd be eligible (age 46), if they were offered. The job situation is much better now, so I intend to go to my minimum age, but that extra heavy savings earlier really helped boost my accounts. I'd still take that early out if I could get it though...
If England continues to have the NHS, we should be fine. If they move toward the US system, which is what I am scared (and pretty sure) is happening, then it'll make life much more difficult. We spend quite freely but also have a good amount in savings and are building a decent retirement fund. We'll see.
I used to worry like crazy, because I've spent most of my career moving between different international contracts, which means that I don't have very many years in any single retirement plan (I have a small 401k from my days in the US, plus multiple pensions within the same company). To make up for this, I squirrel away as much as I can on my own.
However, I eventually got tired of worrying and decided that I should really just plan to retire here in Norway. So I've basically been planning for retirement American-style in a place with a livable (and well-funded) social security pension. Plus public healthcare, which will be a huge deal at that age. So yeah, I shouldn't worry...
If I could stay in my current job until 65-ish, I'd pretty much be set. But that's unlikely to happen. So instead I worry that I might get kicked out of the country if the immigration laws change. Or, much more likely, that I won't be able to work until retirement age. My biggest concern is that since the industry is in shambles, I'll get laid off and not be able to compete to find a new job against all the young whippersnappers with their more recent and technologically-relevant educations.
GilliC I know I said above that living abroad is making it easier to save, but it’s also making it harder. We save money, but nothing in traditional kinds of “retirement” accounts.
Will you be eligible for Norwegian citizenship at some point? The only reason I’m not super worried about my dad’s retirement is that I know he can probably just go back to Iceland where at least he will have healthcare.
I waffle between worried and not worried pretty regularly. I have trouble taking any calculator seriously that says we are behind. Because between DH and I, with employer contributions, we are saving a bit over $55k per year in designated retirement accounts right now, and if that isn't enough, well, I guess we are destined to be screwed as we can't really do more than that. But if you take total yearly earnings into account including bonuses when looking at those 1x, 2x, 3x tests, then we are behind. I'm grateful for decent salary increases and good bonuses over the past few years, but have found it hard to keep retirement tracking those numbers. We would have to save about every dollar we take home from those raises and bonuses to do so, which seems ludicrous just to keep up with a calculator.
We are ahead of the game. I have watched my long lived grandmother make everyone around her miserable because she gave away her money (yes, literally) at 65 for a “permanent” housing arrangement that didn’t work out. She has spent the last 25 years terrorizing my mother and making sure everyone around her know how unhappy she is. I started panic-hoarding retirement money straight out of college.
We need to see a financial advisor one of these days. We are ahead with just my 401k and that’s not taking DHs IRA and pensions into consideration. But I also don’t have a job as of 1/31, so it’s nice to have that cushion....
Post by cookiemdough on Dec 7, 2017 7:48:32 GMT -5
Why the 1x 2x etc calculations? Is it assuming one will have the same lifestyle in retirement? Because I have no intention of living in. HCOL area once my kids are out of the house...
Is it sad that I am less freaked about my retirement now that I am divorcing than I was before? Because STBX has almost nothing saved for retirement in his mid 40s and has both grown kids and a mom with awful financial sense that would have been a drain on our savings?
I have been saving for retirement since I was a college grad. I currently have about 5x my salary in a Roth IRA in my late 40s. House will be paid off next year. And I still have about 20 years of time for it all to grow before I retire.
Though as pixy0stix was saying, I am also thinking that the world will be ending before this all ever becomes an issue.
I was more stressed when going through a divorce until he agreed that we would not include retirement / pension as part of marital assets.
Thankfully we have a prenup with all that outlined as being separate marital property. His is his, and mine is mine. THANK GOD! Just another reason I am so glad we have a prenup.
We currently have 2X my salary and 4X DH salary (and he makes twice what I make) so hopefully we will be OK. Not having children has helped with this a lot. DH will get a small pension from a previous job, around $300 so that should cover a couple of bills. He's mostly worried about unknown healthcare costs. We hope to retire in 15 years, both houses will be paid off then. We'll sell our current home, and split time between north GA and the GA coast (my hometown).
Why the 1x 2x etc calculations? Is it assuming one will have the same lifestyle in retirement? Because I have no intention of living in. HCOL area once my kids are out of the house...
I don't really know, I think that is just kind of a standard thrown out there for reference to be honest. It's obviously not an exact science, but I always assumed the various calculators were based on some variation of these benchmarks, though. The calculators generally allow you to plug in a percentage of your current income that you want to replace in retirement though, so you can adjust if you know you will need less. I just use the 1x, 2x, etc. because they are easy round numbers, frankly.
GilliC I know I said above that living abroad is making it easier to save, but it’s also making it harder. We save money, but nothing in traditional kinds of “retirement” accounts.
Will you be eligible for Norwegian citizenship at some point? The only reason I’m not super worried about my dad’s retirement is that I know he can probably just go back to Iceland where at least he will have healthcare.
I can apply for Norwegian citizenship now if I pass the language and culture tests, but it currently requires renouncing your previous citizenship.
However, there are discussions in parliament at the moment to consider a vote on dual citizenship, and it has surprising support from the conservative coalition government. So I definitely plan to wait a bit to see how that plays out.
Of course if I do decide to retire here, renouncing US citizenship is practically a necessity for the tax implications anyway, unless the US finally switches to residency-based taxation by that point.
Post by leshoequeen on Dec 7, 2017 11:23:55 GMT -5
Well.
We both have pensions - (gov't. & teacher). I'll have social security. We have verrry minimal other savings.
If we were to cut anything out of our current spending to save for retirement and/or kids college, we wouldn't do shit. And frankly, so many people around me have died young that I can't even get on board with that line of thinking. We borrowed for college (I'm still paying, H is done) & our kids will too. My parents and H's parents both have a little college fund set up for each of our kids so they will have a little something to start with. Our house will be paid off around the time we retire.
That calculator defaulted to having 90% of your salary in retirement. If you're saving for retirement you probably are already living off of 90% or less of your income right now. Plus you won't be funding kids activities, childcare, presumably your mortgage and student loans would be paid off, etc. Health care is the big question mark of course, but in general I think your expenses in retirement would be a lot lower than they are now.
I'm very worried. I had to use my old job 401K to live after my XH and I split up. Now I'm so behind. I'm in my late 40s and can't afford to sink so much into my current one.
I just figure since my kids will be grown when I can retire (if I'm able) that I'll have more $$$ to use.
Post by picksthemusic on Dec 7, 2017 12:15:08 GMT -5
DH recently got a new job (in July) that has a pension (PERS2). I'm saving for retirement in a 401(k) through work (I put away 4%, which is matched). We have an IRA with over $100k in it (basically transferred his previous 401(k) to an IRA after he got laid off from his previous job). FIL has started an investment account for each of his children (so DH and both BILs) that has over $100k in it. We should be okay.