Retirement savings goals for 31 YO

[rhetoricalphd]

I am not good at gauging where I should be with my retirement or making any special efforts to save for retirement. I would like some advice on where I currently am (if I am in a good place) and if I should de doing anything special to increase retirement savings?

Right now I have $40,463.30 in my defined contribution plan
I put in approximately 6% a month - 330 dollars a month
My company contributes 8% a month - 560 dollars a month

I have a traditional IRA and a roth IRA with Capital 360 but I do not put anything in those (I have about 1000 dollars in the traditional IRA right now)

I save for the following each month:

betterment portfolio - 500 dollars (total 9k)
Capital 360 savings acct – 200 dollars (total 2600)
Way2save – 300 dollars (total 3400k)

Have a tradeking acct with about 1000 dollars in it but I don't contribute to it

Should I be funneling more money to my retirement funds? if so, how much more? Is my defined contribution plan on track?

Any suggestions or advice would be lovely!

[97guns]

my only input is that i dont like "retirement" plans that dictate when i can draw on them

[rhetoricalphd]

Ahhh, what other options/ alternatives would you suggest that don't apply penalties or have restrictions on when I can take money out for retirement?

[Petunia 100]

Definitely max out your Roth before funding your taxable. Your Roth contributions can be withdrawn at any time for any reason, with no tax or penalty. Why pass up the tax-free growth?

As to gauging where you "should be", it all depends. What are your goals?

[97guns]

Ahhh, what other options/ alternatives would you suggest that don't apply penalties or have restrictions on when I can take money out for retirement?

i dont know, maybe your own brokerage acct. i dont like them telling me when i can retire, 59 1/2 or whatever it is.

[sblatner]

I think:

company retirement to get the match
Roth IRA
go back to the company retirement if you want

or fund non-retirement

Because we don't have a pension, we are trying to do a four pronged approach - social security, pre-tax retirement, post tax retirement (the Roth) and then savings outside of retirement.

We don't want all the money we live on in retirement to be pre-tax because then you have to withdraw more to cover the taxes.

[snafu]

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/retirement/retirement-plan-income-calculator.aspx

bankrate.com offers opportunity to plug in figures for different scenarios.

[rennigade]

i dont know, maybe your own brokerage acct. i dont like them telling me when i can retire, 59 1/2 or whatever it is.

Retirement accounts do not dictate when you can retire...they simply tell you when you can touch the money. Ive been maxing mine for years and I dont plan on "working" after the age of 52...hopefully 50. You can also start to fund index funds or mutual funds. That way you can access your money at any time...although like any investment there is a risk of money going up/money going down. Check out the boglehead 3 fund portfolio.


97guns...Out of curiosity...do you have health insurance? If so...what do you have an how much a month?

[97guns]

97guns...Out of curiosity...do you have health insurance? If so...what do you have an how much a month?

i have health insurance with kaiser, $306/mo.

[feh]

Should I be funneling more money to my retirement funds? if so, how much more? Is my defined contribution plan on track?

Any suggestions or advice would be lovely!

My general advice is get your personal finances (monthly budget) in order, then move on to investing.

For advice on personal finance, click on the link in my signature. For investing, start here:

http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Bogleheads%C2%AE_investing_start-up_kit

I suggest you spend some time (it only takes a few hours) learning the basics. Educate yourself, and then make your own decisions.

[autoxer]

Should I be funneling more money to my retirement funds? if so, how much more? Is my defined contribution plan on track?

When do you want to retire and how much do you want to spend in retirement? It's not an easy thing to answer, but if there is no defined goal then it's really tough to plan the path on how to get there. If you need a place to start, then figure out what your current yearly spending is and multiply that by 25. That number will be how much you need to provide your current spending from a portfolio with a safe withdrawal rate of 4%.

$40k plus $890/month, growing @ 5%/year would end up being $919k after 30 years. $919k could theoretically provide $3k/month at a 4% 'safe withdrawal rate'

If you wanted to get up to $919k in 25 years instead of 30, then you would need to contribute $1,300/month instead of $890/month.

If your goal is 1.2M to provide $4k/month in retirement, then you would need to contribute $1,230/month for 30 years or $1,770/month for 25 years.

I am making gross assumptions about investment return and inflation, but they are just the guidelines that I started using to chart my own path.

[jIM_Ohio]

I am not good at gauging where I should be with my retirement or making any special efforts to save for retirement. I would like some advice on where I currently am (if I am in a good place) and if I should de doing anything special to increase retirement savings?

Right now I have $40,463.30 in my defined contribution plan
I put in approximately 6% a month - 330 dollars a month
My company contributes 8% a month - 560 dollars a month

I have a traditional IRA and a roth IRA with Capital 360 but I do not put anything in those (I have about 1000 dollars in the traditional IRA right now)

I save for the following each month:

betterment portfolio - 500 dollars (total 9k)
Capital 360 savings acct – 200 dollars (total 2600)
Way2save – 300 dollars (total 3400k)

Have a tradeking acct with about 1000 dollars in it but I don't contribute to it

Should I be funneling more money to my retirement funds? if so, how much more? Is my defined contribution plan on track?

Any suggestions or advice would be lovely!

Focus on having good habits. In order I would make sure you account for the following:

1) Research all decisions. Asking on a forum is only a start, you should double check all info you learn here independently. Even Abraham Lincoln didn't trust the civil war reports he read on the internet.

2) Save regularly. I suggest 20% of gross pay into savings, you are only saving 6% plus the IRAs. Make sure the total is 20% of gross. If you make $60k that means 20%=$12,000 per year. Some goes into 401k some to IRA, some to savings.

3) As far as metrics, I would measure your good habits more than you measure the account balances. The account balances change every day, the habits should NEVER change unless you improve them.

3a) If you have 12X your expenses in retirement accounts, you have done really well. If you make $60k and spend $45k per year, 12X $45k=$540k. Change the math as you need to, if a person can get to 12X expenses, waiting 10 years will get you to 25X you need in retirement accounts to retire.