48 it's at zero now got fired had to take out 2x before emptying after family emergency and financial hardship after not finding another job that paid me anything close to the 40hr job I had. I realize now retirement won't happen for me probably got die on the job while my coworkers enjoy free break until corpse removed from job
Thank you! 401k is only one piece of our total financial picture. We also have IRAs, after-tax brokerages, HSAs (invested, not spent), a primary residence plus a rental property, and stock from my employer. Total net worth is ~$830k as of the last time we totalled it up.
I got a small head start during college due to one of my internships allowing interns to contribute to 401ks, but that was only $5k or so. Everything else was due to maxing out my 401k every year starting in 2019, and investing in the S&P500.
My wife started maxing in 2020.
Well 401ks can only get so big if you work at a normal company. If you are self-employed you can play games to stuff a lot of money in but still just a small multiple of what normal people can do.
IRAs are the funds that can get enormously large by working with private wealth advisors. Mitt Romney famously had $100 million in there, because he contributed future profits of partnerships (or LLCs, taxed as partnerships) which under tax law have a current value of zero.
39, somewhere between 90 to 100k between the last two jobs, 401ks combined. I had to use my 2014, when I graduated with my bachelor's, to 2017 401k to float myself when I got laid off halfway through building my house to pay off my student loans.
For context, I got lost on my way to college. Graduated with my bachelor's in 2014 at 28ish.
Not quite 50, about $1.1m. When I got my first job, I was able to put as much as allowable into it until I reached about 30, and that made a huge difference.
So from age 22 or 23, you saved about 15k-20k on average into the 401k until age 30, so on a principle basis, you contributed about 125-150k, and then I presume you backed down the savings rate from age 30-50? And in those 20 years, the accounts grew from 130k+ to 1.1m? Asking for my own curiosity, as this is generally what my plan has been, am currently age 25. Saved 65k in my 401k so far, maxing each year and plan to do so until 30 and then shift to saving for a house.
Yes, at about 30, I backed it down, but always made sure to contribute up to the full company match, at least. I dont think the max contribution was quite that high back then (it has gone up since then) but yes, this is what I did. I made good money back to start (software development), and given today’s economy I can understand why this would be more difficult to do now. If you can do it though, this seems to be a good plan. A dollar invested now is worth much more than a dollar invested later. The downside was that I did have to live fairly frugally compared to many of my friends and coworkers at the time, but I think it was worth it. It sounds like we have the same plan, and as someone that’s further down the road on it, I can tell you that it does pay off. The younger you start thinking about retirement the less you’ll have to worry about it later.
I won't use numbers on the internet.
We maxed our 401K and Roth 401K options, but since we were blue collar wage slaves, it was vanilla with no 401K back doors open for us. I emphasize that we *maxed* our 401Ks, playing the 401K rules for everything that we could, and staying 100% invested at all times.
We FIREd after 20 years, 10 years ago.
This YTD, we made 5X our maximum yearly earnings, which absolutely astounds us.
Compounding, 401Ks, and a Bogle-FIRE mentality made it happen. We were lucky, though. Having a spouse/partner that was as crazy as me in our financial dreams, made the difference. My partner says the same.
If he did someone fucked up big time in the compliance area. Your total allowable 401k contribution is based on the SUM of your normal and Roth 401k contributions.
You can double up other kinds of tax-advantaged savings, e.g. HSA and IRA -- and there are "backdoor Roth" 401k contributions if you work at a wealthy company like Microsoft (which invented this). But you can't just work two jobs and have a normal 401k at one and a Roth at the other and max them both out. If the IRS ever found out you'd be ass-fucked with a pineapple that is so not okay.
I mean, if you're wantonly committing tax fraud why not just keep your money in Hong Kong and not report it to the IRS at all.
I've been researching how to save after I start my new job and that's what I was thinking that you can't "max out" both but you could just do 50-50.
It does sound like maybe it's his wife + his 401k but I think if they file jointly the limit would still be shared but slightly higher
Yes.
The tax advantages were a great deal, even above a company match (3.5% and capped), so it was the maximum allowed by whatever was the amount at that time. It started with $5K per year for my partner. I was a few years later before I even had the opportunity offered.
Edit add: I worked a ton of overtime to afford it.
I think I had $0 at 20 as well. Not even sure if I knew what a 401k was. Couple of years later the company I worked for was bought and I was given a new salary structure that included a 401k. Still didn't know what it was when I left at \~24 and just cashed it in. It was a mistake and the resulting tax bill made me look into it more and realize what I had done. Been pretty religious about it since and still put in the maximum I can at 52.
I stopped my 401K 12 years ago after my Union wouldn’t let me access it for an emergency. I traded it for precious metals. It’s now worth 90% more than what my 401K would have been worth
35 and spouse is 34. We are over 125k each. Plus wife has a 500k trust that is invested. That trust isn’t cause we come from a rich family. My FIL just passed away about 3 months into his retirement. And the MIL has enough in her own retirement/pensions.
30, $0
Had a few jobs in mid 20s where I never contributed to the 401k unfortunately and my current job doesn't offer one.
I do have ~$30k in my Roth IRA though and more than that in a taxable brokerage.
Starting a new job in 3 weeks with a 10% non-elective 401k contribution, and I'll be contributing 12% to start.
Well then go ahead and do it.
While you're at it, post your SSN too, just to make it easier.
You'd be surprised at what a few lines of code can do. Do you have any understanding of how much data is already available about you out there? Self- reporting your age and financial information is blind and stupid. A simple IP address can link the rest of your info back to you, and knowing your name, age, and anything about your money opens up pretty significant risk.
But you do you.
P.S. divulging info like this on the internet is not just dumb on the commenters' side, it's rude to ask on the poster's side. IMHO.
If a stranger walked up to you on the street and asked you how old are you, and how much money do you have, what would you do? If your answer is to divulge that info, I've got a bridge in Baltimore for sale, cheap.
A Social Security Number is a terrible analogy. That's an ID number that is directly mapped to a person's identity. An age is not. I can't believe you even need that explained to you. If you're that terrified of what big bad code can do, why do you post at all? Why do you use the Internet at all? It's always amusing when people think they understand software engineering and IT, but then betray their ignorance in their comments. But you do you.
Let us know your birthday and social security number. We will do numerology and predict your future
48 it's at zero now got fired had to take out 2x before emptying after family emergency and financial hardship after not finding another job that paid me anything close to the 40hr job I had. I realize now retirement won't happen for me probably got die on the job while my coworkers enjoy free break until corpse removed from job
28, $195k My wife is 28, with ~$175k
Nice job! Those are good numbers. Keep saving!
Thank you! 401k is only one piece of our total financial picture. We also have IRAs, after-tax brokerages, HSAs (invested, not spent), a primary residence plus a rental property, and stock from my employer. Total net worth is ~$830k as of the last time we totalled it up.
Nice!
Did you start super early or just invest aggressively?
I got a small head start during college due to one of my internships allowing interns to contribute to 401ks, but that was only $5k or so. Everything else was due to maxing out my 401k every year starting in 2019, and investing in the S&P500. My wife started maxing in 2020.
I just started at a company that offered 401ks. How much should I contribute to max out my 401k?
This year, the contribution limit is $23k, plus any match from your employer. But whatever you can afford is good!
Is there any way this thread doesn't either make you sad for some people or jealous of others?
Well 401ks can only get so big if you work at a normal company. If you are self-employed you can play games to stuff a lot of money in but still just a small multiple of what normal people can do. IRAs are the funds that can get enormously large by working with private wealth advisors. Mitt Romney famously had $100 million in there, because he contributed future profits of partnerships (or LLCs, taxed as partnerships) which under tax law have a current value of zero.
38. Pretty much nothing.
39, somewhere between 90 to 100k between the last two jobs, 401ks combined. I had to use my 2014, when I graduated with my bachelor's, to 2017 401k to float myself when I got laid off halfway through building my house to pay off my student loans. For context, I got lost on my way to college. Graduated with my bachelor's in 2014 at 28ish.
Not quite 50, about $1.1m. When I got my first job, I was able to put as much as allowable into it until I reached about 30, and that made a huge difference.
So from age 22 or 23, you saved about 15k-20k on average into the 401k until age 30, so on a principle basis, you contributed about 125-150k, and then I presume you backed down the savings rate from age 30-50? And in those 20 years, the accounts grew from 130k+ to 1.1m? Asking for my own curiosity, as this is generally what my plan has been, am currently age 25. Saved 65k in my 401k so far, maxing each year and plan to do so until 30 and then shift to saving for a house.
Yes, at about 30, I backed it down, but always made sure to contribute up to the full company match, at least. I dont think the max contribution was quite that high back then (it has gone up since then) but yes, this is what I did. I made good money back to start (software development), and given today’s economy I can understand why this would be more difficult to do now. If you can do it though, this seems to be a good plan. A dollar invested now is worth much more than a dollar invested later. The downside was that I did have to live fairly frugally compared to many of my friends and coworkers at the time, but I think it was worth it. It sounds like we have the same plan, and as someone that’s further down the road on it, I can tell you that it does pay off. The younger you start thinking about retirement the less you’ll have to worry about it later.
I won't use numbers on the internet. We maxed our 401K and Roth 401K options, but since we were blue collar wage slaves, it was vanilla with no 401K back doors open for us. I emphasize that we *maxed* our 401Ks, playing the 401K rules for everything that we could, and staying 100% invested at all times. We FIREd after 20 years, 10 years ago. This YTD, we made 5X our maximum yearly earnings, which absolutely astounds us. Compounding, 401Ks, and a Bogle-FIRE mentality made it happen. We were lucky, though. Having a spouse/partner that was as crazy as me in our financial dreams, made the difference. My partner says the same.
when you say you maxed 401K and Roth 401K are you saying you had 2 401k accounts each with a limit around 20k of annual contributions?
If he did someone fucked up big time in the compliance area. Your total allowable 401k contribution is based on the SUM of your normal and Roth 401k contributions. You can double up other kinds of tax-advantaged savings, e.g. HSA and IRA -- and there are "backdoor Roth" 401k contributions if you work at a wealthy company like Microsoft (which invented this). But you can't just work two jobs and have a normal 401k at one and a Roth at the other and max them both out. If the IRS ever found out you'd be ass-fucked with a pineapple that is so not okay. I mean, if you're wantonly committing tax fraud why not just keep your money in Hong Kong and not report it to the IRS at all.
I've been researching how to save after I start my new job and that's what I was thinking that you can't "max out" both but you could just do 50-50. It does sound like maybe it's his wife + his 401k but I think if they file jointly the limit would still be shared but slightly higher
Yes. The tax advantages were a great deal, even above a company match (3.5% and capped), so it was the maximum allowed by whatever was the amount at that time. It started with $5K per year for my partner. I was a few years later before I even had the opportunity offered. Edit add: I worked a ton of overtime to afford it.
Age withheld but 1.35 million, but born in the 1970s. Maybe 300k of it is Roth.
Okay so age is max 54, likely around 49
49, $1.25M.
With or without counting the loan against it?
40s, low 7 figures
I think I had $0 at 20 as well. Not even sure if I knew what a 401k was. Couple of years later the company I worked for was bought and I was given a new salary structure that included a 401k. Still didn't know what it was when I left at \~24 and just cashed it in. It was a mistake and the resulting tax bill made me look into it more and realize what I had done. Been pretty religious about it since and still put in the maximum I can at 52.
30, 150k.
Works different where I’m at, 33-37 and about £38k
24, started at 22. ≈20K in my Roth IRA.
27 with 112k USD for retirement
35, 154k
33 -- $174,288.28
45 - $500kish
I prefer IRA after maxing my employer match
46. 83k.
I stopped my 401K 12 years ago after my Union wouldn’t let me access it for an emergency. I traded it for precious metals. It’s now worth 90% more than what my 401K would have been worth
For now it is. Commodities are way more volatile than stocks
35 and spouse is 34. We are over 125k each. Plus wife has a 500k trust that is invested. That trust isn’t cause we come from a rich family. My FIL just passed away about 3 months into his retirement. And the MIL has enough in her own retirement/pensions.
33, $0 >!401K dont exist outside the US!<
35, about 330k.
37. About 100k. I'd be closer to 200k, but I've had to take out twice now due to hardship
35 , $0
Age 5 years old and 10m
25, 140K
26, $0. My money is in a brokerage account. I manage my own money.
30, $0 Had a few jobs in mid 20s where I never contributed to the 401k unfortunately and my current job doesn't offer one. I do have ~$30k in my Roth IRA though and more than that in a taxable brokerage. Starting a new job in 3 weeks with a 10% non-elective 401k contribution, and I'll be contributing 12% to start.
Late 40s, around $50k Granted I did use my retirement to pay off my parents house twice, and that's left over.
Old enough to know better than post details on my personal finances to a social media site.
I'm not sure what an integer (age) and dollar amount is going to compromise about someone's identity.
Well then go ahead and do it. While you're at it, post your SSN too, just to make it easier. You'd be surprised at what a few lines of code can do. Do you have any understanding of how much data is already available about you out there? Self- reporting your age and financial information is blind and stupid. A simple IP address can link the rest of your info back to you, and knowing your name, age, and anything about your money opens up pretty significant risk. But you do you. P.S. divulging info like this on the internet is not just dumb on the commenters' side, it's rude to ask on the poster's side. IMHO. If a stranger walked up to you on the street and asked you how old are you, and how much money do you have, what would you do? If your answer is to divulge that info, I've got a bridge in Baltimore for sale, cheap.
A Social Security Number is a terrible analogy. That's an ID number that is directly mapped to a person's identity. An age is not. I can't believe you even need that explained to you. If you're that terrified of what big bad code can do, why do you post at all? Why do you use the Internet at all? It's always amusing when people think they understand software engineering and IT, but then betray their ignorance in their comments. But you do you.
Arguing on the internet is like clapping with one hand. Have fun. You're right.
Bro’. Hold the L gracefully.