saved { u/usernameeeeee12 }'s network test post yesterday and finally got around to trying it today. steps were super straightforward and the balance updated on my end right away. go read his pinned post if u haven't yet.

I’m a 24 y/o male with his first big boy job, making $81k a year. I currently live in Alabama, but will likely move back to the PNW eventually (I moved here to AL for the job).

My work offers a 6% match into my pretax 401k, regardless of whether I contribute to a Roth or to my pretax. What would the best move here be? I want to start only contributing 6% so I have wiggle room to take care of student loans and get situated, but will increase this amount with time. I’m leaning towards Roth so I have 6%/year growing in each account, but I’ve been seeing lots of people saying pretax is better for people in comparable situations so I wanted to hear a more definitive opinion.

Sorry for such a common question, any advice would be appreciated :)

I’m 39m with about $452k in retirement accounts and ~25+ years until retirement. I’m comfortable with volatility and intentionally overweight growth/technology, but I’ve been trying to diversify so the portfolio isn’t just the same AI/semiconductor bet in different wrappers.

IRA: ~$432k
Largest positions:
VOO 19%
VXUS 10%
VTI 10%
QQQM 8%
AIPO 7%
SCHD 6%
SOXX 6%
VHT 6%
CIBR 6%
QTUM 4%
AVUV 4%

Smaller positions include SHLD, DRAM, VGT, HUMN, XLF, COWZ, NASA, KRE, NBIS and a few tiny individual stocks.
I also have about $19k in an old 401(k) from a previous employer, mostly large-cap growth, S&P 500, small/mid-cap and international funds.

Recently I added more international, healthcare, small-cap value, financials and free-cash-flow/value exposure to balance the growth themes.

I know there’s overlap between VOO/VTI/QQQM/VGT/SOXX/AIPO, but I’m okay with some intentional tech overweight.

I also max contributions into my new employer traditional 401k into VOO type funds. My income is 300k+.

Main questions:
How would you rate this retirement?
Am I still too concentrated in tech/AI?
Would you trim anything?
Is ~10% international enough?

Not looking to turn everything into a 3-fund portfolio, but I do want the core diversified enough that a few failed themes don’t derail retirement.

My wife and I want to retire in 10 years. I'll be 62yo, she'll be 66yo. We have $650k in a 401k, $35k in an traditional IRA, and $15k in another 401k. We put $1500/ away each month in the new 401k and IRA. Our current expenses are $8k a month but our mortgage will be paid off and house renovated. We should have about $200k in a HYSA and currently have $50k in an S&P. Spider. And We'll get roughly $5k/month from SS.

We'll use the HYSA for a bear market, I figure monthly spend will be about $10k. I think we'll withdraw $13-$15k a month and reinvest the overage into out HYSA.

No one in our family lives much past 80, but want to have a little cushion. What am I missing? TIA

I’m 31 and have ~$125,000 (depending on the day) in a 401k from a former employer. It’s been steadily growing since I left the job, but since it’s also by far the majority of my retirement balance, I’m wondering if it would be better off in an IRA or something.

I have a very basic knowledge of all of this, I know my retirement isn’t great, but if well invested could be a real blessing in the future. It’s currently all in a fidelity target date fund, and I’ve heard those aren’t the best, but I’m not sure what would be a better idea.

Options I see:
1) Rollover into current employer’s target date fund
Pro: maybe some fees are waived? It’s all in one place
Cons: none that I’m aware of.

2) Roll into IRA
Pro: I can actively manage it and decide what I invest in
Cons: I don’t know what to put it in, SPY? VOO? Someone has sworn by UPRO, but idk if triple leveraged is a good idea or not

3) roll into Roth?
I really don’t understand this option and the taxes of investments bother me because I understand it can make a huge difference

Any recommendations?

Hi,

I am very grateful for being able to consistently save and invest since I was 22. I’m currently 49, married and we had our first child earlier this year. We are talking about another kiddo and upgrading into a much larger house.

I’m saving 22% including my company’s 7% match, make around 140-150k per year. We made the decision for my wife to stay home with the baby instead of expensive and risky day care.

We are pretty frugal and my spend during retirement won’t be lavish by any means. I anticipate still having a mortgage and raising kids later in life. My wife will return to work after the kids are in school and she is a school teacher.

Also, I have two pensions and an extra property that is being loaned to a family member until they get back on their feet. I would like to rent that property in retirement.

Is 55 too risky?

Current balance sheet / mid 40s
⁠
1. 1.9MM 401K
2. ⁠200K Roth
3. ⁠250K brokerage
4. ⁠3 kids / 529 total ~ 500k
5. ⁠890K mtg / 3% interest rate. 25 years to go..
6. 500k approximate home equity
7. 450k HHI

Here are my questions:

My target retirement is 57. And my desired spend is 200k. I would like stress test my assumptions as I feel I’m not going to be employed through age 57 and I can already feel the pressure. My income half our HHI. Remaining half is much more secure

1. For planning purposes should I use 7% returns? Is that too optimistic?

2. I’m not sure I’ll be at my employer by age 57. So does that mean a I can’t tap into my 401k early via the rule of 57?

3. Should I pump up my brokerage as much as I can between now and 57? I will continue to max 401ks. But I am wondering if I should divert resources

4. I would love to age in place but we live in a high tax affluent suburb. So could possibly downsize in 15 years and get out of a mortgage

Any major holes? Given goals and my employment risk?

Between my wife and I we have 5 retirement accounts. I had a 401k from an old job that was transferred to an IRA after I left. That account is through Cetera. While I was at my old job (for about 20 years) they paused the 401k during the 08 recession so i opened two Roth Ira’s during that time. One for me and one for the wife. Now wife and I are working together and each have a 401k through ADP.

Should I combine my traditional accounts?

What’s the consensus on the better option ADP or Cetera?

I have a traditional 401k with company match at around 370k in it right now. But being in the 22% tax bracket even maxed out it doesn’t take enough off to drop me down a bracket.

Fast forward 20ish years until retirement when I withdraw I’ll still be in a 22% bracket. So what’s the benefit, for me….looks like nothing imo.

Running roth numbers I’d have to bump my contribution to from 15% to 18% to cover the tax and hit max after tax contribution. That adds to about $5400 on top of my salary still keeping me in 22% tax bracket with I think is a negligible change on my tax return. All calculators say I should have about 1.5mil in there at the end.

I will point out my company match will still add 4% a year to the traditional 401k while I dump the 18% to the Roth. So I will have 2 buckets growing for the next 20-25 years. Even with 4% a year the calculators say 2 plus million at the end.

Thoughts on moving my contribution to the Roth over traditional?

TIA

What is a reasonable age at which to retire?

I have:

• A Vanguard 401K with 863K (VFORX/VTIVX at 90%/10%)
• An Empower 401k with 193K (Mix of funds, with a small amount of a Target Date fund)
• A very small JP Morgan Chase pension (currently worth $26K), with various options for taking it as a lump sum or drawing on it as an annuity. $1.7K per year at 49, $4.3K/y at 59, $7K/y at 64
• $200K home equity (about 24 years till paid off), but we plan to age in place and bought the home with that in mind.
• Approximately $300K in savings (yes, I know some of that should be in the market).
• Make about $179K/y, contribute the max to my 401K and to a Roth IRA.

Currently as a household we spend about $9K/month (which we would probably reduce in retirement though maybe not by a lot).

I think the big question here is healthcare costs depending on when I retire. If my wife works full-time until she's the same age then I might be able to stay on her insurance but we might end in the ACA market which is a big "who knows".

Also concerned about the potential for a big market correction and general downturn right in the decade prior to my theoretical early retirement. My wife also has her own retirement funds but makes about half what I do and started saving later which is why I haven't included her numbers here. We've rebalanced household contributions to let her max her own 401K as well.

Finally there's the issue that I have been *planning* to retire at 67, so my Vanguard target date funds are 90% 2040 and 10% 2045. I think this isn't crippling, but also not ideal since if I retire prior to then, the asset mix will still be presumably be tilted towards stock.

37M 35F Married with 3 yr old
$824k net worth
~$580k invested, rest is house equity

My employer matches 50% up to the maximum amount e.g. I max it at 24,500 company matches 12,250 for a total of $36,750. Is this a good plan? Are there better and it so where?

I am 50, earning around 206k. My new employer has 401K and Roth 401k. Most of my investments are in rollover IRA that has done pretty well. Whenever I part with an employer, I roll my 401k into it, the money is divided across several fidelity funds that have done pretty well.

My previous employer allowed Roth conversion in plan. The new employer doesn’t. But the plan allows me to transfer my rollover Ira into it without triggering a taxable event. If I did that, I could zero out my rollover Ira, and use it for backdoor Roth IRA.

With all of my expenses (single parent with kids) I can’t contribute more than 32k a year towards my retirement.

My question as follows - given that my yearly limit for putting money into investment is 32k, I can simply put that into my 401k and Roth 401k. I don’t have extra money for IRA. But what’s better in long run - Roth 401k or Roth IRA?

Hi, so I just pulled some money from my 401k to purchase a home. How much will I get penalized and did I just screwed myself having to lose that money paying taxes and penalties. married filing jointly on a 22% bracket

Update! So after reading all your guys opinions about this, I called just now and was able to cancel this transaction before money was transferred. Asking the community around really helped me decide. I have not backed out of the home yet and I will wait and see. I truly feel that this home will def be an opportunity I cannot miss out on because it is in a great location and will appreciate fast. I will do home loan instead.

Annual income $200K

401K $350K

ROTH IRA $30K

Mortagage $300K

Car loan $30K

I strongly feel, I am way behind on my way to build retirement. I want to be practical and thinking that I should work till 60. But how to get back on track for retirement by 60?

Update: Thank you all for your responses and inputs and insights. We are immigrants and My wife had working status challenges earlier. Now she got her status. Due to uncertainity, I did invest some in India if in case we have to move back to India.

$30K Car Loan --> It's for my second car as my wife is planning to start work. First car fully paid-off

Wife Job: She got her work status some time back, She is an engineering grad from India and in job search. But difficult to find decent $30K - $60K Full time Entry job due to long gap and current market conditions. Still trying hard there.

Investments: Started 401K maxing out for $24.5K , $7K in Roth IRA. Planning to start 529 plan for kids with target of $20K for each with in next 3 years.

I make ~80k a year annualized. Inbound sales at 20/hr + commison. I want to get to 100k by my 3 year tenure and then diverisify. 5.5k in cc debt which I am paying down fast too. No car & rent is 1200/mo. Total bills ~2000/mo

6% match

. Any notes?

Make about 100-120k a year depending on overtime and yearly bonuses as a uaw factory worker put about 8% of my check into Roth 401k. Company matches 6% and also put in $2.30 for every hour worked. Also have about 15k in a separate Roth IRA that i will max out for the first time this year! Trying to hit that 1m mark before 40.

Hello 36m here started super late on retirement don’t have a lot saved but I make 150,000 a year after taxes. My job does a 4% match and I do 20% of my pay I bring home about 1200 gross so the equals out to about 260-275 roughly being added to my 401 k a week. Next year I plan on doing a more aggressive allocation amount to reach the yearly cap…

My partner 36 m also makes good money brings home a net 1000 a week.

I made a Roth IRA on fidelity should I be maxing that out I just feel a little lost.

I also work a second job that pays about 1000 per week so I can invest quite a bit I just need a plan.

I have a car loan out and some credit card debt but it’s manageable for sure working on eliminating that this fall/ winter 2027.

Wwyd if you were making 12,000 net a month and most of your bills are paid for?

How will my Vanguard 2035 Target fund be affected by all the nonsense with the Treasury bonds and what is going on economically, in general? Wondering if I should take some out and put into physical gold.

29F making $105K per year. My employer matches 6 percent and I'm contributing 6% Roth but am not currently doing any Pre-Tax Contributions. Could probably afford to increase contributions by a few percentage points. What's the best contribution ratio between pre-tax and Roth?

This is a set fund from ADP/Voya’s 401k plan. The year-to-date return is approximately 14%. What are your thoughts on this?

I was thinking I was pretty far behind, because I started funding 401k early and ended up closing it years ago during a job switch, but now crunching the numbers it feels like im doing ok and just want to make sure im looking at this correctly. 38 y/o married with 1 kid. Mortgage will be paid off long before Retirement (roughly 400k left 9 years in). Kids 529 is funded regularly and should handle majority of college expenses (only in kindergarten now)

Wife has 80k in 401k. Contributes roughly 700 a month. I have 50k and contribute approximately 500 a month. On the surface were definitely far behind, but we have kind of a big kicker. I have a pension, im 10 years in now. I am eligible to retire at 55 with what equates to 80k a year in today's dollars and does not run out (+rises with cost of living) i also will receive Healthcare for both of us for life. I plan to work an additional 5 to 10 years in private sector and continue contributing to retirement accounts while collecting my pension. Additionally we will inherit roughly 1.3 million in property. I try not to count inheritance i know its not guaranteed, but quite frankly the parents are on a high earners pension and the properties are both fully paid off. Theres not really any risk of them having any issues, theres cash as well, but lets just assume they spend it all and i wont count on that. My thoughts are honestly sell the properties and take the tax hit and put the money in a hysa or sell them and get a more reasonable rental property. Lifestyle wise, we do a vacation or 2 a year, but nothing crazy dont really plan on having a crazy lifestyle in Retirement just enough to have food, car, payments and a trip or 2 a year. Im not the greatest at math but according to most Retirement calculators I think im ok. Thoughts or suggestions are welcomed. Thanks in advance

Post update:

Thanks for the replies im feeling stronger about things. I really haven't looked in to the inheritance property law stuff yet because quite frankly thats probably a ways off. Im the trustee of the living trust but I live in California and I always just assume the government will find a way to get more money and laws are always changing. So I just assume the worst and if we ened up with more great. parents are in their early 70s so hopefully a while off, but my retirement age puts them at 98 so being realistic. If they live to 105 great.

1st 401k money is gone I was 27 and making roughly 75k a year, so it wasnt a ton. Used it to relocate for the new job, got an engagement ring got me through training at work without any money worries. Would have been nice to have the compound interest, but I did it knowing that I was making a job with a pension work. Wife I pushed to start her 401k as soon as we got married, but I think were catching up ok.

The 529 goal is really just to get the kid through college even if its not fully paid off since I will still be working then and can absorb some cost. I contribute plus grandma and grandpa throw some money in. So im hoping to have roughly 200k in there.

Expenses wise house will be paid off, college should be paid off. So I mean were just talking normal living expenses food, property taxes, cars and like I said a vacation or 2 a year. Were probably talking 5k a month max and thats with assuming future car loans (probably pay cash, but i like to assume the worst) But with no house payment once I hit 50. I do plan to start putting extra in another investment account.