How much do you have saved?

jhd815 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 04:26 PM

Elsewhere on this board is the topic "how much in debt are you?".

I thought it might be interesting to see the other side of the coin - how much do you have saved?

Here's mine:

$2k+ in savings at bank (through automatic transfer from checking acct)
$1k in savings at credit union (through automatic payroll deduction)
$23k company pension plan (company pays)
$3k personal retirement savings plan which I started 9/03

PRICEPLUS · #2 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 04:29 PM

Not nearly enough. I have 10k in the emergency fund now and I will be putting 100 a month into it. I need more money into the DD school fund and a whole lot more into retirement funds!

meaghanchan · #3 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 04:42 PM

I'm 23 and just got serious about money this year. Was very lucky to have no credit card debt or student loans, thanks to my wonderful parents, and working summers and during the school year.

What I saved this year:

$4800 for taxes (don't get deducted from paycheck)- Not actual savings, but last year I didn't and had to spend Jan, Feb, and March saving up for it.

$5000ish for emergency fund

$1300 to retirement

Optsol · #4 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 05:38 PM

Just found the site today, but I've already signed up for an ING account ($25), and a free sampler of coffee

DivaJen · #5 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 06:25 PM

College savings are around $20k.
Retirement savings are around $120k (current 401k, STRS and two 403b's from our teaching days).
Personal savings are around $18k.

fiffer010 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-02-2006, 07:10 PM

-age 19-
Roth IRA- 4,050
INGdirect emergency fund- 1700
checking- 1000

PrincessPerky · #7 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 07:28 AM

almost 200 in ing, and it is only there cause we need it to stay for the bonus, otherwise we owuld have sent it to debt.

also some in a 401K, employer used to put money there, soon as we pay off the CC it will start going up again.

Ima saver · #8 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 07:36 AM

Well, I have
1K in ING
101K in a local savings acct paying 4.14%
200K in a local money market paying 3.59%
303K in roths, iras and mututal funds
Plus my house is valued at 500K and is paid for and I just paid 65K for a lot to put a spec house on.

flash · #9 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 09:14 AM

Since 1993, total over 7 figures, plus $500K house paid for. Before that we were just in survival mode.

Ima saver · #10 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 09:37 AM

Flash you have done well in a short time!! I started getting really serious about saving about 1987, wish I had started sooner. I opened my first mutual fund that year.

Tree0164 · #11 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 10:19 AM

$75k in retirement funds
$10k non retirement mutual funds
$10k kids 529 plans
$5k emergency savings

PennyPincher · #12 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 10:34 AM

I am curious how old some of you are that have been able to accumulate such impressive savings. Kudos to you!

I'm 30...

$50K in personal savings (Emigrant/ING, etc.)
$8K in retirement savings
$30K in other investments (stocks, etc.)

My retirement savings are not substantial, but I am hoping my rental property will go toward that.

flash · #13 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 10:57 AM

I'm 45, hubby 46. We retired at 40, still work but not as significant income.

I grew up dirt poor, and learned HOW to spend wisely and be frugal from my parents. When I was a child, we were below poverty line. When my parents retired 20 years later, they were quite comfortable. Hubby grew up wealthy, but his mother is a true wizard with saving and taking advantage of all the tricks, and taught him well.

Off the topic, but I've written in my journal about how my brother plays commodities and other things looking for a get rich quick fix. We never did that. No windfalls, no magic bullets. We just worked at it. We did have setbacks, crises, mistakes. We kept at it. I was actually STUNNED when my husband announced it was time to retire.

I hope to encourage or help anyone that is trying to save that you CAN do it!

34saving · #14 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 11:56 AM

Hey Flash -- what's your plan for current/future medical insurance/medical payments? (Probably the biggest thing stopping dh and me from retiring anytime real soon . . . )

Ima saver · #15 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 01:15 PM

Flash, you need to tell us how you did that. penny to have almost 100K by age 30 is great. We moved to the mountains and lived on our savings for a year. So I started off in my 4o-s with almost no money, but a paid for house.
I got a job at McDonald's making $3.15 an hour and my husband built houses for $7.50. I finally bought a financial magazine and started reading about mutual funds. (our library had NO books on financial matters) I finally took the plunge in mutual funds when I was 44. I put 10% of what we earned in mutual funds every month. Boy I wish I had started earlier!

I am now 61 and my husband is almost 55. If I had started at age 20, we would be retired now too. (well I have not worked in 15 years)

Russell · #16 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 01:56 PM

Yes Flash, pls share

Ima Saver, congratulations on doing so well even with a late start, you should be proud because we all know its not easy. I recently opened an account with ShareBuilder.com to buy stocks/mutual funds but I don't know where to begin. Any tips on selecting the mutual funds, there're millions out there and it makes my head spin everytime I want to go buy some.

I'll be 31 in a few days

- 401K is about $80k
- ROTH is about $7k
- Personal savings is about $50k
- No house but we have some money saved up for it. Its just barely enough for the 20% downpayment but even with 20% down we can't afford the monthly mortgages

Ima saver · #17 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 02:34 PM

Russell, I really like the Vanguard mutual funds because they are no load and have about the lowest fees of all the funds. They have a lot to choose from, but my favorite is the Index 500 fund. It buys stock in all the 500 biggest stocks in the market. You get a lot of diversification. Do you have to pay to have sharebuilder.com buy stocks or mutual funds for you? Because you can just buy Vanguard directly over the phone or by mail. There is a $3000 minimum for each fund. They also have a total stock market fund. This is not the first fund I started with, but I now have the bulk of my IRA's in Vanguard Index 500.

Snoopy2645 · #18 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 03:26 PM

Well myself right now I have 5500 saved I just put most of my savings towards paying off our home. For my kids all 3 I would say I have 4k saved for them. I am 29 & have 3 kids so it has been hard to save right now but the good thing is our house will be paid for soon so we have alot of equity in that if ever we really really had an emergency.

Russell · #19 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 04:05 PM

Ima Saver, I'll look into VFINX, thank you.

I think sharebuilder charges a small fee per trade. However, if they can be purchased directly from Vanguard I guess I'll go that route.

Ima saver · #20 (**permalink**) 01-04-2006, 08:01 AM

Most no load mutual funds can be purchased directly from the fund with no cost to you. Vanguard has lots of good funds. Money magazine is always reccommending them because they are so low cost and well run.