Realistically, when do you think you can retire?

It really doesn’t matter at the end of the day. I don’t put a lot of weight in a 401k.
The majority of your retirement savings shouldn’t be in 401k only a portion.
There are better long term investments out there so split the investing into multiple areas to get the best return on investment.
A 401k plan doesn’t make or brake you. And you should not be an eggs all in one basket kind of guy.

The added post tax advantage of yours is great

A 50% match up to 6% sucks. I wouldn’t contribute for that.

 

I retired at 54. I max'd out my 401k every year since I became eligible to participate. My wife and I never overspent even though I made a nice 6 figure salary. I followed a simple investment strategy for many years following the S&P 500 that did very well. I read about another strategy based on the three-fund approach — a total-market U.S. stock-index fund (VTSMX) a total-market U.S bond-index fund (VBTLX) and a total-market international-stocks index fund (VGTSX). We are very comfortable and found that we spend way less than we thought we would since retired.

Best advice: start saving as much as you can as early as you can, find an investment strategy that works for you. Investing is a long term deal. I learned what I know from my parents who basically took the same approach. My dad is still alive at 92 and earns $80,000 in retirement income without touching his nest egg. He's still saving and investing.

 

3% is still 3%. @40k that's an extra 1200 bucks you are getting outta your employer each year. It's not a lot, but better than leaving in on the table.

 

my 3% isn't based on match since it's profit sharing and it does suck. but me giving 1200 a month means i'm way outside of any companies matching policy anyways.... at least at my income level.

 

Yeah, i'm lucky to be at a point I can take advantage of all that stuff. I have some co-workers who can't afford to tie up money in 401K and ESPP and such. Money is just too tight, especially those with children. Just do what you can. The fact you are thinking and talking about it means you are already better off than a LOT of people.

 

You have an alternative investment that immediately gives you a 50% no risk return? Tell us more!

 

Its not 3%, its 50%. There is a difference.

To get the full 3% it means I have to put at least 6% in that plan.
Well if its not a good plan my money is better off someplace else than being invested with my company.
I could be losing out on more than $1200 by not having an extra 6% of my income in a higher yeilding investment.

Your retirement is what you make it. Most companies don’t offer ground breaking retirement plans anymore.

Your personal investments are what you will be living on when you age so make sure you are weighing your companies returns competitively with the market.

Now that changes as one nears retirement. I’m young enough where I go away from the 401k (as the main investment pot) and lean more towards like a mutual fund. As you get close to retirement that will flip.


Another way to put it, if I only want to contribute X amount away per year in retirement and I want to divvy those up in investments. I don’t like a plan that necessarily forces me to put more in taking away from someplace else. I’d rather they do a 3% match.

 

So there are of course a wide variety of 401k implementations but most these days are primarily made up of mutual funds. So what exactly are you investing in outside the 401k that is different from what is available in most 401ks?

Or is it in your case that your employer has a unusually sucky 401k?

 

Don’t take offense to this question, its genuine.

54 is very young. What do you guys do in retirement to stay busy?

 

I invest all i can in roth, 1200, problem is I can't touch that for about 40 years.

So I've got to pay a lot of attention to my TDameritrade account and investments there, because that's what will fund an early retirement. I used to play very risky give you, with stocks daily bored at work and there wasn't a week that went by I didn't make an extra 300 a week day trading. AMD was my main day trader, i've just been too busy lately to do it.

Plus side work hustling on the weekend makes way more than my day job.

 

What do you do for both your hustles?

 

Not 54 yet, but this is essentially our path. Both of us maxed IRA/401k since eligible. We realize we are extremely fortunate to be able to have been able to do that. We both had longer education periods so no 401k availability early on but actually did do IRAs all through school. Also did pretty much pure SP500 until more diverse indexing choices ended up in our plans. (Let me tell you being 100% SP500 was quite the ride through 2008/9). Now essentially do the "three-fund" approach as between the various accounts we have decent indexing options to stand in for each of the three. Target retirement age is 56 as that is when we can kick the kiddo out of the house and into college. Baring unforeseen health or other financial calamity should be able to make that date.

Personally I'm "practicing" at retirement by reducing work hours. It is worth having a plan and thinking through what you will do lest you end up with 100,000 posts here on TW instead of doing something fulfilling with your time...

This. It feels like pissing into the ocean when you first start out. Do it long enough and eventually you look at balances and think "where the hell did this come from?". It takes a fair bit of time to get there which is why the earlier the start the better...

 

besides investments the only thing i do is garage door work.

garage door work put me through college given I graduated late I graduated without debt commuting.
it paid for my truck and tdi car. I'm living happily and debt free just not much time I'm not working.

plenty of times i've had to miss wheeling trips or dirt bike rides or other hobbies i enjoy to work, but when you can wake up at 5am and be back home at 8pm and make $1700 in a day you may lose friends. *this btw is not common.

I can generally clear a few hundred a saturday though.

 

Also credit cards are a great thing, i assume everyone looking at this thread is financially responsible.

I have 3 CC.
Samsclub Card - 5% back on fuel is the only time i use it and I use it every time
Costco Card - 3% back on dining out and travel, plus 2% back on costco
Citi Double Cash Card - 2% back on every purchase.

I pay these off every friday so i never pay interest. they increase my credit score, and i've got about 1300 in cash back i'm going to get around december.

everything and i mean everything i buy or spend money on is used with a CC, i no long have a debit and I only carry about $150 on me for emergency situations.

 

I busted my ass and admit, sacrificed a bit of my health to graduate with two degrees debt free and buy a Tacoma (debt free).


Hard work is worth it.

Its taught me a lot about myself and just how hard I’m willing to work for something and what my time means to me.

I’d rather work hard on the front end and enjoy it on the back end. A lot of people do it the opposite lol

 

I've always loved golf. I've worked at a local golf course (a very nice club) as a starter/ranger since I retired. I work 2 - 3 days week. The funny part is, I have enough money to join the club but my frugal side won't let me. I get all the free golf I can play for the two or three days a week I work. I can also play all the affiliate clubs (which I do quite often) for free. It also gets me out of the house and interacting with all types of people.

I consider myself a bit of a handyman and always find projects around the house. We just re-did our kitchen. I also do projects at my son's house. I've built him a new deck, done tile work, painting, etc. I enjoy it.

My wife volunteers helping with dementia patients.

 

My wife got some new Platinum card that if you spent 3K or more in the first 3 months they'd give you something like $500. The new card was also 2% on every purchase. So we bought our AT Habitat and got around 750 back!

 

Do you want to come to my house?
I’m redoing the master bath this weekend lol.

Building a whole home is a dream of mine. That might be a retirement dream of mine.

 

honestly besides taking a small credit hit being the only negataive, i've thought about opening several cards that offer those first 1000 to 3000 spent within 3 months of opening that offer huge cashback deals.

I could hit that super easily with buying doors.

what card is that?

 

also if anyone in your immediate family is military USAA has best CC with 2.5% cash back, but you have to bank with them.