Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How does your 401K compare to your age-group's average?

It's pretty much the same everywhere I've been. I work with folks who spend 1/6th of their daily wage on coffee and lunch every single work day. They get a raise, and go out and buy a new car on credit, and end up broker than they were before.

I think the key to retiring is spending money on things that don't depreciate much.

Up until about 6 years ago I was being pretty much an idiot with my paycheck. Did at least pay in max to a small 401k account but very bad at saving anything, actually racked up a little credit card bill.

Wasted years worth of pay on rent, gambling, partying, eating, no kids, no worries...

Bought a few guns and they are the one thing that is still worth money.


Finally dawned on me that you gotta be smarter than that long-term.

I think a person has to strike a comfortable balance between retirement planning and living. According to the chart, I am above average but at the same time I look at what happened with my father. My dad started working at 18 and worked until he was 60. We grew up living quite conservatively, no new vehicles and a house that was paid for within 10 years after being purchased. We didn't spend money on many vacations but spent time at a cabin in northern Michigan. Within a year after my father retired, we found out he had terminal cancer and passed away 6 months later never able to draw social security. My mom is living a comfortable life but at the same time I wish my father had had a chance to experience some of the hunts that I have been on. The time that I brought a 10 point buck for him to see brought a shine to his eyes since he had not let himself do that.

According to that article, I'm above average and will stay above average to retirement. That is only 401K, and that should not be your only basket. If the market crashes and you lose half, what are you going to do? I also have two pensions that hopefully will be there when I retire, plus I plan to go into retirement with few bills.

I spend 10% or more of my income yearly on hunting and other hobbies. I'm not working now just to retire some day. What's the point if I'm not enjoying life along the way?

Sam,
One word.





Lotto.



We catch up in one day......
and we are smoking Marlboros and swingin' in a hammock.
Nice.

This reminds me when a VA loan rep came to our barracks
to get people to sign up for a VA home loan.
Myself and 2 other Marines signed up out of 150 in our unit !!!

My company matches 5% in the 401K and ALOT refuse to participate.

I am below average but like I told my wife, no plane, no boat no Harleys. My toys go bang and they don't cost a lot to feed.
Modest home, simple tastes/hobbies work for me.

Another thing to do is to figure out what your income will be in retirement and then live on that for the several years before you retire. If you don't, it'll be hard to cut back and you'll go through your savings faster than you plan.

Dude, that's exactly what I've been doing.


Dumping all my extra money into Powerball and Megamillions!

But Stevens pointed out, "A voluntary retirement system has allowed Americans to accumulate more than $24 trillion in retirement savings."

He added that the ICI strongly opposes mandates on employers, "including any in the administration's 'auto-IRA' proposal." He was referring to the budget proposal that would set aside nearly $6.5 million for state-based automatic enrollment IRAs or 401(k)-type programs.

Thats what the Brown Clown and his cohorts want end of story. They might do a Cypress on us one of these days.


I know a female manager who I work with , she is 49 years old and concerned about her retirement. She went to her advisor Edward Jones I believe and asked how much she needed for retirement. Guy comes back with 2.4 million, she went into shock. I bet she has close to 1 Mil or more already saved but it still shocked her.

I too believe you have to live a bit or more before retirement. My dad was a head of average when he passed at 58. Still had lots on his want to do list. Likewise, some of the stuff I want to do in life isn't all that possible or fun when I'm retirement age.

There are a number of retirement modeling tools available and I believe everyone should go run a few scenarios. Shock? Yup.

A little above average here. I really don't think I will ever be able to afford to retire fully.

Wife and I are both retired and have fixed pensions with very good benefits. We also waited on SS because we were both still working at age 62
Those 2 pensions and 2 SS give us a very comfortable income.
Having the house, cars, and camper all paid for helps to.
Our 401K is over twice what is shown and we have no need to tap into it, it's there for our kids.
All this happened through a investment plan we started when we were both in our 20's. Even with the crash it's worked out OK
I can't recommend strong enough how important an investment plan is when you're young, thinking you'll start it when your older only makes catching up more difficult.
There is a certain amount of luck that makes for a good investment portfolio at retirement, health, job security and a strong marriage are just some.

The coming retirement crisis will be extremely painful for most. The decline in the defined benefit pension - from companies more profitable than ever - is just one of many lost battles in the war on the middle class started by Reagan and continued by his progeny such as Scott Walker.

I'm fortunate; in my mid 40's, I have paid cash for my house, have a real pension, and live below my means with zero debt, other than some student loan. I want a Blaser and an Anschutz, I'll settle for my SHR 970 and CZ 452.

Always amazing that those who support the Right the strongest have been the most victimized by it.

With 13 trillion$ presently (last I heard) tucked away in IRA's, 401k's, etc., the Gov't is looking hard at how to tap that resource as previously alluded to by Pelosi, Schumer and Reid. Hillary, as I recall, also had some sage comments, too.

In talking to 2 financial advisors and to my CPA we discussed how they Gov't would "access" these acct's for their present and ongoing use. A lot of bad schittt came from those discussions but the, so called, favored means might be something along the lines of having to buy Gov't debt (bonds) or be taxed exponentially on those funds redeemed as they are drawn down. Another scenario might would involve some "tuning" to the Roth IRA protections by, say, splitting the differences on taxes paid then to what taxes would be without Roth protections and invoking that difference on a sliding scale. Another would be to simply raise the RMD factor of life expectancy #'s.

That's, in the main, what shook out of those discussions and would be interested to see what some of your takes would be on it.

Avoid paper dollars, when the crunch happens, likely worth ten cents on the dollar. Invest in income producing land or something similar. My mother always stated that she lost her money when the bank busted in the early thirties. I asked her how much and she stated everything $28.13. Broke her of trusting others with her money and made a cautious saver of her. Best I remember they survived that winter by feeding themselves and their livestock by planting a few acres of turnips. Gw

Wouldn't seem to work too well for city folk. jus sayin.

I have a "real" pension (for now) and a 401 that is NOT matched (since I get the pension).

While I love the idea of a defined benefit pension plan, and the selfish part of me wants it to stay, I realize that it is not sustainable financially unless the employer requires me to work several more years than currently required before drawing said pension.

It isn't a war against the middle class to realize that paying a firefighter 150k a year for the rest of their life after they work 25 years is not sustainable forever, even in the public sector where they print their own money to pay that pension.

goalie, since 1998, and upon severance from a company, you can roll your accrued pension into your 401k. If that matters.

It's not been performing as well as I'd like recently, but based on the OP's link I'm well ahead. I don't max out my 401 but but between my contributions and my employer's I'm putting away ~20% of my salary every year.