I am behind, took me a while to graduate and start working. I have just shy of $90K right now, I am investing conservatively. I am 39 and I am afraid that I'll never be able to retire. Things are expensive nowadays and you litereally need several millions to retire comfortably. I think I'll work until by body permits so.
42 replies (most recent on top)
@5ljc, you should seek a financial planner. Half a mil get's you about $20k per year in retirement. That's probably enough for housing if you plan on kicking off before you need assisted living.
You should be posting in the other thread. This one is for people between 35-45 as indicated in the subject line.
I’m 49.5 years old. Make 40k/yr, will start 401k soon.
Have 85k in student loan debt, 2 auto loans currently I owe 40k total on those, and then I also have 25k of cc debt.
Would you guys recommend I lease a new Lexus? I was at the dealership yesterday and a salesman there recommended it.
Nobody needs several million to retire. If you need several million to retire then you have some seriously expensive lifestyle issue. If you’re here in the Bay Area your house alone is enough to sell and move anywhere but CA, NYC or Boston and live a life of luxury. In most of the U.S. you need half a million for a single person and a million for a couple. Actually a couple may need more because they won’t always agree on decisions. For a single person half a mill is easy as you always agree with your own decisions.
44, I have 55k, been with Wells 16 years. They don't pay branch employees enough. Husband has 150 and started 3 years after me.
@4vhv, Obama is the one who presided over a lost decade. And speak for yourself, I'm 55 and have millions in my 401(k) and 50 grand in my HSA. Although, I'd also have a million dollar pension if commies didn't force me and my employers to put hundreds of thousands of dollars into a social Ponzi scheme that's going to get less than $30k a year.
Interesting ages you picked because anyone who was Bushed and in their 50s and 60s have no hope of ever retiring.
43 - got off to a late start due to life circumstances but about $240 spread between 401ks, HSA and taxable brokerage. Throwing in everything I can to catch up
Early 40’s- 400k in 401k + 2 rental properties with 6 years left to pay off.
45 - i was over $1.4mm before the crash. Afraid to look now but likely around $1.1mm
2nbo you aren't keeping your 401k in Wells Fargo stock, are you?? Move it out of there! Use the Empower tools and diversify!
I'm 55, have $900,000 in an IRA, $95,000 in 401k and been with Wells for 5 years.
No humble(or otherwise)brag. I’m in that range you posted, $850k give or take a bit depending on the day. Was over $1mm pre-Ukraine but what are ya gonna do. I’ll stay the course.
I'm 60 and got off to a late start. About 2M between my spouse and myself in 401k's and IRA's.
You younger people have a gold mine of an opportunity now. Don't think of it as "the market being down". Think of it as "stocks are now on sale".
Invest everything you can now. You have time on your side, and you're going to make out like a bandit with this us just now going into a bear market.
early 40's. over 200k in 401k.
44 - 177K down from 225ish. Had saved about 150K since 24 and blew on personal crisis post divorce at 38. Been saving for 6 years on max so it should be double. Stupid me. House equity 250K. At the end of the day I but don’t. I won’t be a retired person at 55. Was shooting for 60 until this nightmare economy. It is what it is.
- 22k from WF. 55 from previous job in ira. So about 80k total in retirement accounts. Empower says I’m at 109% of goal if I want to retire at 60 with near the same lifestyle now. But seeing all these huge number I’m feeling pretty behind lol.
42 - I have just over 100K. I have been participating in the 401k match since I started with Wells Fargo more than 15 years ago. To me it seems like there hasn’t been a lot of change in my 401k over the last 5-10 years. For those of you who have amounts in the 200+ range, is that coming from outside investments, or what are you doing to grow your WF 401k that much?
Who cares , no one work anymore, life is free now . You need to only worry about food, shelter and clothing.
Invest at least 6% to get the maximum company match; if you can invest enough to max the tax deferred percentage do so.
Don’t worry about market ups and downs…in fact hope for down markets occasionally so you can get a better return when the market rebounds (dollar cost averaging).
You’re young enough that you can be fairly aggressive in your investment selection and as you near retirement, take money off the table and reallocate into more conservative investment choices.
The sooner you begin retirement investing, the better. Time is your friend, my friend.
37 single - 640K in March Quarterly statement. I do not want to look at where it is now. Who are the 80 million that voted for this?
It usually makes sense to max out your HSA contributions before your 401(k) if you have to choose. Your HSA grows tax free AND is tax free to withdrawal if you use it for medical expenses which will likely be a large part of your expenses during retirement.
43 and down to about 397k from a peak of 517k before the bottom fell out. I'm about 4k from maxing the limit out every year, hoping to be there within the next year or two.
42, ~$200K
Heard of rule of 72? Calculation provides an estimate of how long before a sum doubles depending on rate of return. If earning 8%, it's about 9 yrs. Check it out. Helps one plan.
37- $450,000; single income investing since I started working at 18
I’m 39 and have about 450k. I felt I was behind for retirement so started to diversify and focused on buying rental properties, crypto, and mutual funds. This has helped to significantly increase my net worth in a fraction of time than it took me to get 450k in 401k. I looked at monthly investment allocation and contribution as a “debt” I have to pay each month.
$259,184 as of yesterday I'm 39
44, at about 145k down from 180k. I’m off to a late start with my retirement savings but have been maxing out savings the past couple years. Excited to be picking up shares on a dip in 2022!
35- started contributing to 401k 4 years ago and intermittently stopped and started contributions current value ~45k
43, also got a late start. Reading some of these responses makes me feel a little better.
$135k 401k + $35k HSA + $25k money market for $195k all in. I've managed to build that in less than 7 years after starting essentially from scratch at 37.
$25k in money market isn't generating anything really, but that's a highly liquid emergency fund that makes me feel comfortable.
HSA grows, invests and isn't touched. Like another poster mentioned, I've been fortunate enough to be able to pay all medical out of pocket.
401k is at the level of company match.
My wife starts working again this fall after being home with our kids for 12 years. 100% of her income will be invested. Hoping to be able to catch up with some others my age.
35yrs old- $7k
37, $80K - Somehow though, I feel like the world will be a very, very different place by the time I get to retirement age. Will my dollars be worth anything at all?
36, 220K
Ditto. Been hitting the IRS max since I made $16/hr.
33- $1000
Life, health, and dental happened. Anything I had is gone and have yet to start back over. It could be worse.
$130k at 36. I guess I'm poor
46, value has dropped to 600k
45, ~360k at the moment. I would have more but divorce took 1/3 of it a few years ago. I'm not too worried. The average stock market return will double it roughly 3x by the time I retire, without factoring in any additional contributions.
Unlike the others in this thread, I'm not worried about being able to live on that. It'll be roughly 100% of income for my expected (based on family history) lifetime after retirement.
I'm early 50s and my spouse is early 40s. Together we have about $2.1M in 401Ks. (Should say, "had" about that much. Afraid to look now.) As others posted, we've been contributing the max each year since we've been together. That's $20,500 each in 2022 before the company match. Slow and steady wins the race.
It sounds like we have a lot in our retirement accounts... until you start running the numbers. We're both paranoid that it's not nearly enough, especially if we want to retire early.
44, 1.2MM in my 401k, max out my 401k for the last many years. back during the downturn when our stock was single digits I put almost everything I had into it. even maxing out 401k every year it will not be enough plus we don't have any backdoor ira option at wells so have additional investments input extra cash flow in