What % to retirement? POLL

[TBH]

What percentage of your gross income are you saving for retirement?

Do you think it's enough?

How much would you like to be saving?

(reposted for MonkeyMama)

[tinapbeana]

currently DH saves 6% in a 401k & receives a half match from his company. i have an old 401k from my last job, and since this one doesn't offer a 401k i'm stashing 6% of gross for a roth.

unfortunately, i'm almost certain this is in no way nearly enough. i'm working on ways to make it better, though

[myself]

We're putting about 12% of my paycheck away for retirement. It ain't easy (with a spouse who stays at home, and 4 young kids). But we're hoping to increase that over the next year up to 16%+.

[creditcardfree]

15% of gross. I'm starting to think it should be more. We may try bumping it up 1% at a time. That 20/20 show said to divide your age in half and that is the percentage one should be saving for retirement. DH is 37, I'm 34. So we are short by almost 4%.

[Lonewolf]

I didn't really think about it when I answered the poll, but I didn't include company match. If so I would need to bump my response up a category

Wolf

[myself]

Originally Posted by creditcardfree

15% of gross. I'm starting to think it should be more. We may try bumping it up 1% at a time. That 20/20 show said to divide your age in half and that is the percentage one should be saving for retirement. DH is 37, I'm 34. So we are short by almost 4%.

This is probably true.
I'm just wondering how possible it is to save 25% of one's income at the age of 50, if they have children preparing for college.
Seriously though, I think anything is better than nothing, and I often suggest to my older nephew to save at least 10% of whatever he receives. The 10% that he needs to save is based on the full amount (i.e. gross income).
And I also suggest that he takes what would be the taxes (10%) out of the amount and puts that into savings (for future investments) as well.
Perhaps one day, he'll actually do it.
I guess buying a PSP game now is a little more important than trying to save the money to buy a PSP game every month, for the rest of his life (if he wants to).
In all honesty, that is exactly how I was when I was a child too.
I hope to instill into our children the proper use of money (i.e. asset based debt is better than non-asset based debt).

[MonkeyMama]

Thank you SO much TBH. Phew.

I was just curious. Saving 20% for now (10% us, 10% fully vested as of this year my job - which is a big factor because I Would save more if that was not there).

For the long-term would prefer to save 25% - 50% specifically for retirement (not sure how long 10% match will last). On 2-incomes that is really our goal.

25% at 50? I don't know - we plan to pay off our mortgage before the kids start college so I think we could continue to save. Too many what-ifs to think that far ahead though really... IT seems to me overall as we age and move up the career ladder and pay down our big mortgage it should be easier to save. So far health insurance is kicking our butt and not making this so, and I don't see that getting any better, so who knows. Our mortgage has actually gone down over time, my wage up. But health insurance is eating the difference. I like to think for the long term savings will get easier though...

We got our house and got the kids birthed (which took a lot of money away from retirement - LOL) so going forward I Am looking at 10% bare minimum. No more short-term goals in the way. Looking back that is about how much we had put in on average last few years anyway. Hoping to start inching it up.

[ren]

I imagine it's more possible to save 25% at 50, even with kids going off to school, if it's only a 1% bump over what you put in two years ago at 48. That probably would barely be noticed, actually, esp if one timed it so that the increase was right after a raise.

However, if one either hasn't been saving or has been undersaving (say, just 5% for a company match), hooooo boy, that's going to hurt.

Also, I didn't include my employer's match either. It doesn't become 'my' money until I'm vested next year, so it doesn't seem right to count on it when I could lose it at any time.

[MonkeyMama]

I hear you. I vest this year and haven't really thought much about my match before now. Suddenly it is getting quite significant though, and helps cushion us on the 1-income thing - giving us an extra 10% - it is nice. though not relying on that for too long.

[debtfreeme]

i am doing 10% right now with a goal that by the end of the year it will be raised at least 2% and really aiming toward 4%. I want to get to 20% where i won't even feel it and then it would just about be the max i can put away in that area each year. I plan to do the 1% a quarter thing so my next bump up is in March pay check.

[Gruntina]

I am doing 10% but it ended up being a little more than that going in due to my cip bonus, Christmas bonus and other performance bonus also goes to my 401K.

I would like to put more in but not so sure at this time. I am kind of starting everything late. A new home (fiancé’s home) to worry about and we plan to have children within 2-3 years hopefully. It seems a few generations ago, people had homes and children at a much younger age where it’s starting to be very common for women in the Bay Area to have children in their 40's. I wonder how this affect retirement and so on.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

we got about 40% saved this year. Last year 2005 was pretty much 5%. Our income grew a lot, we unfortunately have the opportunity income till later in the year, so all we did was Roth IRAs and some 401k. This year we maxed out both and then more.

[mbell97]

man I wish I could have a matching program, state employees only get 403b but I will take it I guess, I make a point to buy blue chip stocks and high paying yield stocks such as REITS. Hopefully the div. will pay enough in time to help pay the bills.

[meaghanchan]

I am saving 15% towards retirement, within an IRA. (no 401(k) available at work, so no match). With my other savings, though, my budget is very tight, and once I start paying for health insurance, it's likely that the amount I can save will be going down.

[veronak]

Sorry to admit, but I am putting away less than 5%, but I am doing much better than before. At one point I would make a deposit today and not for 2 to 3 months. Now I am depositing every two weeks. Once the raise kick in I will boost my contributions as well, I guess something is better than . actually now that I think of it I have made a deposit to my IRA for one year straight, twice a month I am proud of myself that was a huge step. Matter fact my part time job matches so I will sign up tomorrow and post everything her for help. Thanks for the reminder

[aurielle]

Right now 9% of my gross is going into my pension. Soon as I get my EF fully funded I'll be putting 10 - 11% extra into my Roth since I have no options for adding to my pension.

[nanamom]

We had very little due to some major debt DH was in so we lost most of what he had. We are adding as fast as we can but it's hard with a little one around too. We raise our 401K contribution by 2.5 % every 6 months. We plan on stopping eventually but not this year!! Right now we are at 12.5% as of January. July goes up to hopefully 15%.

[PRICEPLUS]

Usually 15 to 20 percent but sometimes more and sometimes less. It all depends on how much is comig in and what bills there are!

[myself]

MonkeyMama,
We too have a short term mortgage (13.5 years left on a 15 year), which puts me at about 56 when the mortgage is paid off. Coincidentally, our oldest 2 will be Juniors in college we hope.
I have this question in the back of my mind if we should simply refinance to a 20 year, simply so that if or when our children have to try for scholarships, we can show a need for them to receive a scholarship, as opposed to paying entirely out of pocket for their education (although we'll only do this if we feel our retirement is funded properly).
And FWIW, I'd love to save everything aside from what we pay in taxes, but we're already past the point where that is a possibility.

[Elgin526]

If you count my employers contribution, 17% of my gross income, but only 6% of our combined (DH and I) gross income. DH has a pension plan at his company, but that's due to go bankrupt around the same time he retires, so we plan on starting a Roth for him, hopefully this year. I hope to get us up to 10% of combined gross income by the end of 2007.

I think 10% is the minimum we need to save. I'd like it to be more eventually, but 10% is the least we can get away with. I'm 30 and DH is almost 35, so we do have time on our side.