At what age did you hit 15% to retirement? Is that enough?

[guppy]

I had always heard if you hit 15% to retirement by 30 or 35 you were in decent shape and it was a benchmark I was always trying to hit. Around 6 months ago my husband and I hit that between my pension, 403b, his 401k and 401k match. We are 35 and 37 so I guess it was a little later than I was hoping. Of course now I'm looking for more :P but I'm wondering how long it took all of you?

[disneysteve]

I'm honestly not sure off the top of my head. I believe I have this info at home so I'll check later.

One comment I would make is that I don't think 401k match should count in that 15%. Here's why. Part of the point is that if you are saving 15% of your gross, you are living on the other 85% so you are used to living below your means. When you retire, you need a smaller nest egg to replace that income. If instead, you are only really saving 10% because you counted the match, you're used to living on 90% of your income and you need more saved to replace that figure.

[cypher1]

I think i was around 33 or 34 (almost 39 now) with 401K contribution around 10% and then Roth was around 5%. Everyone has different situations or priorities to factor in for contribution rates. I'm about 5-6% behind on maxing out my 401K, which will probably be my next goal.

[Fishindude77]

Throughout my working career I typically contributed 10-12% plus picked up the company match, I think that maxed out at 4%.
We usually did year end bonuses, so used those at year end to max 401k when it worked out. Being self employed we could occasionally take significant owner distributions. I made sure those occasions were used to wipe out debt or sock it away into good investments and things that would pay dividends in the future.

[kork13]

I dug through my archived budget spreadsheets, looks like I've had roughly 15-20% going into retirement since I graduated college (22 y/o). I owe that fact largely to some good advice I received from an advisor who randomly pulled me & some friends into his office one evening & talked through personal finances with us. Funny enough, I'm now almost 34, and I'm now having to consciously force myself to ONLY send 15% to retirement (down from maxing 2x Roth IRAs & 2x TSPs at ~20%) so that we can make better progress on other goals.

[james.hendrickson]

I dug through my archived budget spreadsheets, looks like I've had roughly 15-20% going into retirement since I graduated college (22 y/o). I owe that fact largely to some good advice I received from an advisor who randomly pulled me & some friends into his office one evening & talked through personal finances with us. Funny enough, I'm now almost 34, and I'm having to consciously force myself to ONLY send 15% to retirement (down from ~21%) so that I can make better progress on other goals.

Its great you're archiving the spreadsheets. I really like tracking my net-worth personally. Its motivating for me.

[rennigade]

I was around 27 and wife was around 28 I believe...but we also contributed much more than 15%. My goal always was and still is to retire early...so hopefully things work out. Luckily, wife also wants to retire early, so we're both on the same page.

[Thrif-t]

When I started working I contributed 6% to get the match then upped it 1% every year when I got a raise. I didn't keep a spreadsheet so I'm guess that I hit 15%(including the 6% match I got to get to 15%)at 27.

I've been working 30 years now and I'm up to 30% with 6% match to 36% of my pay. I never stopped raising it 1% a year.

[Jluke]

No clue.

I was always able to save in various accounts and manage debt.

to the advanced saver, the goal should be maxing retirement accounts (if possible, if feasible).

[disneysteve]

I looked back at my old records. It looks like we got to 16% of gross somewhere around 2005 so I was about 40 (Though my records are fuzzy about if that was based on just my gross or included DW's. I have a note that suggests we were actually at 23% counting her numbers). I know that sounds late but keep in mind that as a doctor, I didn't finish my education and actually start working until I was 29. I then spent 12 years focused on paying off 6-figure student loan debt.

From that point on, though, we didn't stop at 15% because I knew we had a lot of catching up to do. We went up about 1%/year from 2005-2011 when we got to 23%. Last year we were at just over 38% so we just keep socking it away especially now that our kid is done college and our house is paid off.

[MonkeyMama]

I had always heard if you hit 15% to retirement by 30 or 35 you were in decent shape

That's pretty generic. & also completely misses the point of starting younger and the power of compounding.
It also depends if you even have access to work retirement plans, how much you have saved already at 30 or 35, etc. Certainly 15% may not be enough if you saved nothing for retirement until age 35.

To answer your question, we have always socked away 10% minimum for retirement (post college). Since age 25 we have averaged 14% into retirement funds. Some years 12%, some years 21%+. Most years we did not have work retirement plans; that was the difference between higher and lower years. (We were doing 15%+ in mid 20s because I did have a work retirement plan at that time).

By age 38, income was starting to bump up a bit and so we started setting aside retirement funds in taxable investments (not included in my percentages above).

Last year (age 41) I changed jobs and am back into a work retirement plan, BUT I also took a substantial pay cut so am only interested in contributing up to the match. My contribution completely offset taxes (leaving my take-home more reasonable) and then the employer match was a bonus. So last year we put 20% into retirement funds. We both do (& have always done) minimum for match (9% total) and also max out our IRAs. (I do personally include employer match in my figures).

Because retirement has been our primary financial focus for past 20 years, we do not have goals to increase retirement contributions. (We are about 90% done saving for retirement). Our bigger focus is getting our kids through college and getting our house paid off, our last hurdles before retirement. If we had a significant jump in income and/or decrease in expenses, we'd choose to work less versus saving more. That was the whole point of saving so much for retirement in our 20s/30s.

& of course, there is more to "preparing for retirement" than just retirement contributions. Having a paid-off home and getting our kids self sufficient will remove two of our biggest lifetime expenses and put us in a much better financial position to retire.

[ua_guy]

15% of what? Are you talking about percentage of your pay that you save in retirement? If it's that, then I agree with what Steve says about the match. Consider that a bonus and try to put in 15% of your income before match.

Or are you talking about the value of your anticipated nest egg once you reach retirement? First and most important step is coming up with that number--that's the hardest to do is come up with a goal for when, and how much.

A good napkin math indicator I've heard is to try to have twice your salary in retirement savings somewhere around 35. You and your other half are younger than 40; still plenty of time to catch up.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It's hard to say but i'm pretty sure we always did 20% from the moment we could have access to 401k. Before then we didn't have much and I didn't have the wisdom to have an Roth IRA. Well I had one but I didn't have enough to fund it more than $5k in the years of 2000-2005. But at the same time we were paying off college loans, car payments, bought a condo that doubled in value and turned our $15k into $150k in 2 years. So I think we did better buying a place than investing in Roth IRA during that particular time. After that we go access to a 401k and did both maxing out. Plus we saved more. Even now we tend to save more than 15%. More like 30% of gross.

[Jluke]

It's hard to say but i'm pretty sure we always did 20% from the moment we could have access to 401k. Before then we didn't have much and I didn't have the wisdom to have an Roth IRA. Well I had one but I didn't have enough to fund it more than $5k in the years of 2000-2005..

Just a reminder of the contribution limits:
2000: $2000
2001: $2000
2002: $3000
2003: $3000
2004: $3000
2005: $4000

[creditcardfree]

Definitely were above 15% by mid thirties, probably slightly before that. We were at 10% from the moment we had full time jobs. We are now closer to 18% of gross and expect a pension when my husband reaches military retirement in four years. We may not retire then, but it will be there.