Zero for me the last 2 years. Prior to that 15% for 10 years plus a company match so a total of 21%. Started a biz 2 years ago so just focused debt. Wife still contributes 15 tho. Ill be back on it after my house is paid off in a year or so.

50 years old. I have a pension i am eligible for right now if i choose to retire. I put a little in a 457(5%) and I have been putting some in my 401k(7%) for about $160K total. I am glad I didn't put in more in my 401k as my now exwife didn't want my chump change.

I’ve got some investments that I throw extra cash into several times a year. At my last job I was at 12% in the 401k and the current job I think I’m at 8%. My wife is over 10% but not sure exactly how much. Only debt we have is her vehicle and we don’t live extravagantly so I think we’re doing quite well. Due to family history I plan to retire a little early. I’d rather not be working up to lunch on the day of my funeral. If my wife remains healthy (and the medical history of the women in her family points to her living well into her 80s) she’ll be working for several years after I retire. That’s 20 years into the future though and we all know how well plans survive first contact with the enemy. *shrug* Hoping for a comfortable future and mostly investing so she’ll be set when I punch out.

As a retired person, I’m past the “how much to put away” question. I’ll just opine that here in San Diego, I think $1M, with no significant debt, and free and clear home ownership, is the minimum required for full retirement at age 70. More for earlier retirement.

5% currently.

But I'll be eligible to retire from my current agency and start drawing a full pension at only 49 years old. So I plan to sock away most of the money I receive between my first official retirement at age 49 and whenever I'm ready to fully quit the workforce however many years later.

Like many, wife and I didn't put as much away when we were younger. Life got in the way. That's not to say we didn't save, we did. But at the time, max cont to IRA was $2k/yr. We also fully funded two kids through college; they have no student loan debt.

We're both 57 now and are saving fools. Plan is to retire at 65. We'll be comfortable enough, but in retrospect, I could have done better.

quote:

Originally posted by mjlennon:
Like many, wife and I didn't put as much away when we were younger. Life got in the way. That's not to say we didn't save, we did. But at the time, max cont to IRA was $2k/yr. We also fully funded two kids through college; they have no student loan debt.

We're both 57 now and are saving fools. Plan is to retire at 65. We'll be comfortable enough, but in retrospect, I could have done better.

we are the opposite -- saved a bunch when we were younger but now with the older kids -- cars, tuition, travel, insurance, etc... we don't save as much as I'd like

luckily the money from our 20-40s has done pretty well.

no matter how much you save - it always could have been more

------------------------------------------

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:
Zero for me the last 2 years. Prior to that 15% for 10 years plus a company match so a total of 21%. Started a biz 2 years ago so just focused debt. Wife still contributes 15 tho. Ill be back on it after my house is paid off in a year or so.

Taking a break is fine, it's starting early with some sort of contribution that is key. It's hard to make up for years of interest, even if you have the means later to contribute large amounts.

I have a state pension I’ll be retiring on but I also have a 401K of my own that I put 10% of my gross income into each month.
Everything we own is paid off except the motorhome. The house was paid off in 2008 after 9yrs of mortgage payments.

Earliest retirement date per my statement from PERS is August 1, 2022.
But I figure I’ll just go till I’m sick of it.
My wife also has a pension from teaching & her own 401k as well so we’re not sweating retirement.
We scrimped, saved & lived on 50% of our income so we could pay everything off before we had 20yrs on the job.
Now we’re just marking time till the State says we can leave.

I retired from a city with a police and fire pension at 50 years old. I went to work for a hospital police department and put a way 12%,with the hospital matching 3‰ for a total of 15‰. My pension pays my 1300 house payment and puts a second house payment away and makes my car payments. My "retirement job is putting away another 15 percent into another retirement plan for me. I hope to have my 250,000 home paid off in the next 5 years. I think I can then retire for good once my wife retires in 5 years and be good. Medical is the unknown right now. Ohio police and fire stopped offering insurance. My wife works for the school and might have an option there in a few years.

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:

quote:

Originally posted by Deqlyn:
Zero for me the last 2 years. Prior to that 15% for 10 years plus a company match so a total of 21%. Started a biz 2 years ago so just focused debt. Wife still contributes 15 tho. Ill be back on it after my house is paid off in a year or so.

Taking a break is fine, it's starting early with some sort of contribution that is key. It's hard to make up for years of interest, even if you have the means later to contribute large amounts.

100% correct. At 35, Im in the 5% range. Be mortgage free in a year or too as well! I figured what I am not making in interest I am saving by saving by not paying 60k in mortgage interest or car payments.

Edit this picture is huge for the forum.
https://earlyretirementdude.co...ment-infographic.jpg

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
As a retired person, I’m past the “how much to put away” question. I’ll just opine that here in San Diego, I think $1M, with no significant debt, and free and clear home ownership, is the minimum required for full retirement at age 70. More for earlier retirement.

Id clarify 1M today. in 20 to 30 years which is my timeline more like 2.5-5 million based on inflation and healthcare.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
5% currently.

But I'll be eligible to retire from my current agency and start drawing a full pension at only 49 years old. So I plan to sock away most of the money I receive between my first official retirement at age 49 and whenever I'm ready to fully quit the workforce however many years later.

I'm in a similar boat. I can retire with a partial pension at 42. When I pull the plug I plan to get another job. I'll live off of either my pension or the new job and put the other away for when I call it quits for good.

My municipal employer requires 7% toward pension (city matches 2/1 with 5 year vesting) and 2% towards a supplemental social security program since we don't pay into federal SS. I already have enough credits for federal SS. We can retire at any age after 20 years of service but I'm told the "sweet spot" is around 27 years. I currently have 18 years of service. I'm considering contributing to a 457 plan in the near future. I dabble in stocks here and there with a current value of around 30k. I have no plans of touching this until retirement.

I started my 401k a little late (I was 28). For years, I maxed out my contribution and learned to live with less money. Within the last year, I dropped down to 15% with my company matching 10% of my yearly income. My contribution takes advantage of both a traditional 401k and a Roth 401k.

I also have a traditional IRA that I’ve put money in over the years when I needed an additional tax break. I haven’t contributed to that in a few years. This was to function as my gambling account where I tried to beat the market. *Spoiler Alert* I didn’t beat the market.

Lastly, I have a Healthcare Savings Account that I’ve maxed out for the last three years. I hope to continue on with that rate of saving. I have the option of investing that money in the same funds that are available with my 401k. This account makes up for the lackluster health insurance that my employer provides.

I am now 42 years old and finally feel like I’m on track.

I have been saving since I was 16. I have been maxing out my 401(k) since 1995. I am now 47. I have had a fee-based financial planner now for 4 years (I wish I had gone to him much sooner).

As it stands, I put 14% into the Roth 401(k) with my employer matching 3%, then another 16% annually into an investment account that is diversified with low fee, high dividend paying stocks and funds.

The men on my side of the family tend to die before they are 70. So, the plan for much of my adult life has been to retire at 55 so that I have some years to enjoy before I get called home.

I have a wife that works and our combined income is very good considering where we live. We have no kids.

Our current projections are that we will have enough to retire at 55 with money to pay cash on a home in the area of $450K (we want to move into our last "forever home" in the next 2 years). The projections also indicate that we have enough cash, based on our projected living expenses (including health insurance) until we are 92/91 (my wife is a year younger). Those projections are as of 10 minutes ago (the financial planner provides a website that contains my financial data real-time). This is down a few years because of the market results from the last month. This projection goes up beyond 100 if we account for selling our home late in life and selling some of my toys.

If I have to extend my professional work until 56 or 57 to account for a major correction in the market, I can and will.

My plan does not require that I work in retirement, but I do plan on working at the local gun shop for play money (I have already been told I have a job whenever I am ready).

If the government does not raid our 401(k)'s, raise capital gains or other taxes, then I am prepared for an enjoyable and long retirement.

My company matched up to 5% but I did 10% it was hard but now that my wife and myself retired she gets a state pension and will soon be 65: I retired at 62 and due to kidney failure I am on disability. So with both of us retired we have a large nest egg that should be enough to keep us covered for the rest of our lives

I'll share my technique for financial security.

Some of you may object to it or write it off but the question was raised and I am sharing this with sincerity and my actual results to back it up.

While still in the Navy after a year in college, I was all about "success." One of the books I read talked about how mormons contribute 10% to their church and still has higher per capita wealth than the average american. The take away was you can save 10% and not feel it. So I did.

I'm a numbers guy, I am an Excel guru, and I've used Quicken since it first came out. I would still have all that data except it was first on floppies and lastly on zip drives so I had to keep trimming the data. My current data goes back to 1997 but I do need to cull it because of errors in the securities transactions over the years as I upgraded version. But that's not my technique for financial security; it's a backdrop to show I have my feet on the ground despite how my technique may sound like mumbo jumbo. And if you can't swallow the very next sentence, just move on past to the next post then.

Here's my technique for financial security: Put God first.

Maybe 4 years into my Navy service, I "found" God. That was in '79. Shortly after getting out in '82, I found a church and have been going to church ever since. I gave 10% of my gross to whichever church I was attending and I saved 10% in savings. This was even after getting married in '86, my wife and I made less than $35,000 living in San Francisco. Our special eat out was sharing a $5 seafood clay pot dish at a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant on Taraval St. For dates, we would walk down the aisles of Walgreens in West Lake Shopping Center.

So 10% to the church, 10% to savings. Then I picked up additional charities that changed over the years, salvation army, some orphanage in South America, etc. Now, it's Pacific Gardens Mission in Chicago - a homeless ministry (as a sailor, they gave me a clean bed and breakfast during weekends so I can set my money on getting drunk) and a local bay area rescue mission. No more than $30 a month to each.

You can see how my technique puts a cramp in our budget. Often the numbers didn't add up in that we'd be going deeper in the hole but we somehow survived.

Over the years, our retirement funds have crashed and burned in the 2000's dot com meltdown and the 2008 when our 401k became 201k. But after quitting an asshole boss over two years ago, I found my retirement fund could support us with me having been the only worker since 2000. I figured the increase in our retirement funds were more than the money we gave to the church and charities over the years. Additionally, during the last two years, I lived off the savings I had outside of my retirement. Putting God first worked for my financial security.

And. no, we weren't stuck having to do cheap dates. Over the years, we've managed to increase our discretionary spending to enjoy a big house in CA, Lexuses in the driveway bought without loans, fairly pricey restaurants, etc. Certainly not an opulent lifestyle but comfortable and financially worry-free.

Would I have been better off not giving the 10% to church and just adding it to the 10% I was saving? I don't think so.

The challenge had always been to find someone who put God first financially and regret it. I can say I haven't regretted it.

My current job has excellent benefits and provided I put at least 6% of my salary (which is pretty darn good), they put in 12% (that's the top limit). So I'm saving 20% total of my salary, for about the last 3 years. Before that, for the 25+ years of working, I'd say my contribution plus match has averaged about 8% per year (so decent but not great). I'm hoping to retire at 63 or so with about 1.5M saved, no debt, and free and clear home.

My wife will be a retired Fairfax County, VA schoolteacher (30+ years) with about a $80k per year for life in 3 years, plus part-time work so she might actually make more than she does at the apex of her teacher salary.

We also stand to inherit a significant amount from her parents as she's the youngest of 5 and her Dad has been a savvy and active investor his whole life.

Unfortunately, my (we thought) fit-as-fiddle Dad died suddenly in Dec 2015 and my Mom's health has been poorly for years, so their modest savings and net wealth will be shared with my two brothers, (likely) probably FAR sooner than it should have been. I truly thought my Dad would live to be in his 90s, not 73...

I max out the Roth 401k every year. I think that is 19k this year.