Where are you in your retirement planning?

[NeverlandClub23]

My husband is 37 (will be 38 this year) and I am 33. We have no children and good paying jobs (however, with little to no benefits). Our retirement greatly depends on health insurance costs. Our plan right now is for my husband to retire at 50 and we move permanently down to Florida at that time (depending upon how our parents are doing health wise). We currently have 4 rental properties that are good income producers and we do save quite a bit in IRA's (no pensions or 401k's). We plan on having all the houses paid off in the next 13 years. Then we'll move to our "forever home" in Florida (probably purchased in the next 10 years, but not paid off before we move). I plan on continuing to work full-time in Florida hopefully in a job with medical benefits (I'm a paralegal so I don't think it will be hard to find employment or I can freelance) while my husband works part-time doing whatever strikes his fancy. I plan on fully retiring (or working part time at a fun job) between 50-55 depending upon our financial outlook and when our "forever home" is paid off. At that time, we'll live off of the rent from the 5 properties that are paid off here and our other vacation-home-turned-rental property in Florida. We do plan on vacationing a lot between now and then (and during retirement), but we live very frugally otherwise.

A lot of unknown situations, mistakes, and catastrophes could/will happen between now and then, but that's our grand plan.

 

[amylevan]

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster?

Well, I've got a number of different means of savings, which diversifies my options, but nothing too fancy (401Ks, 403b, 457, life insurance, etc.). One thing you could say I'm doing is that I'm putting lots of money into DD's college fund now (she's 2), so that once she graduates high school, I won't be paying for her anymore. Then I can start putting everything into retirement. To me, her education is slightly more important than my post-work plans.

Just so you know that this is basically against every advice out there. You should fully fund your retirement before saving for your children's college. You can take out loans for college, you can't take out loans for retirement.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Just so you know that this is basically against every advice out there. You should fully fund your retirement before saving for your children's college. You can take out loans for college, you can't take out loans for retirement.

I cannot quantify how much it meant to me that my parents began funding my college education when I was still in grade school. Never having to worry about finding loans, or having to choose my college based on cost, was very important to me. I would feel very wrong if I did not give my daughter the same opportunities. I do not consider this optional.

And as for loans, DH and I did have to get some for our graduate careers. Let me get back to you regarding how I feel about those when I'm done paying them off.

 

[crisi]

I cannot quantify how much it meant to me that my parents began funding my college education when I was still in grade school. Never having to worry about finding loans, or having to choose my college based on cost, was very important to me. I would feel very wrong if I did not give my daughter the same opportunities. I do not consider this optional.

And as for loans, DH and I did have to get some for our graduate careers. Let me get back to you regarding how I feel about those when I'm done paying them off.

I agree, so we made sure to do both. We put money into 401ks to capture the match, put some money into college funds (for us, we didn't start that seriously until we stopped paying for all day daycare - with the daycare expenses gone, there was plenty of money for college savings!) and upped the 401k contributions with raises.

Somehow, we ended up with too much money for college (actually I know how, I saved for two children and my son has trade school ambitions - plus my children inherited some money that was earmarked for college funding pretty much after I had said "done" - leaving my college bound daughter with a hefty budget for college.)

 

[dreamin_disney]

I need to get on the ball. I didn't realize that because I'm part time My 20 years only counts as 10 years
so here's what I have
Total= $36,976
Years of service 10.632 (I've actually been there 20 yrs)
Time to earliest retirement 7.080 years @55 yrs old @ 2%

I'm 43 years old and hope to keep working as long as I can but wouldn't mind stopping at 60 years old. I work for school district as classified employee, not a teacher.

Here's a lil background. Dh and I should be creditcard debt free next Nov. (I have 0 on my cards its his card with a balance)
We owe $196,000 on mortgage @ 4% 20 year loan

I have a child that will be graduating High school in 2 years so we will have college to pay for

1. Should I be saving 15% or more of my check and is it before taxes or take home amount?
2. What type of an account should I get? I think for people that work in educations theres a 457 plan (I think)

I want to start saving for retirement and payoff credit cards, Then save for college.

any tips

 

[Colleen27]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age or a certain dollar amount?

Age. I don't actually have a solid number in mind, but ideally we'll both be able to retire when DH is 65-67ish. For me, that means late 50s.

How much are you trying to save for retirement?

I'm working on figuring that out. I've seen a million dollars thrown around as a goal but I'm not sure that's realistic, not in the sense of being attainable nor in the sense of being enough. Right now something that is tripping me up is that the online calculators are all income-based so with our income increasing our goal goes up even though neither our lifestyle nor our expectations have changed.

What age did you start saving for retirement, where you an early planner or late to the game?

Late to the game. We didn't start saving until after we'd bought a home and had kids, and for the last decade we've been trying but not saving nearly as much as we should as DH started a business, took a beating in the recession, and otherwise weathered some big ups and downs in our household income. Putting aside 10% of your income sounds like a great plan until that 10% isn't even enough to max out your IRA for the year!

What age are you eligible for full Social Security and do you calculate SS in your retirement plan?

I have no idea when we're eligible. I sort of calculate SS; I assume by the time we retire it will be means tested and could be a safety net if we don't save enough on our own, but I don't think it'll be available as a supplement to our savings the way it is for our parents' generation. So to me it is a worst-case option - something that will be there if we fail in our own planning, but that will only provide a subsistence income.

Will your house be paid off or do you plan to move to a smaller home or become a snowbird?

Our house is already paid off. We plan to sell and move somewhere smaller, newer (our house was built in 1880), and lower maintenance, preferably in a warmer climate, once the kids are out of the house. That should be about 10 years before we're ready to retire so we're open to the idea of a small, short-term mortgage but we will do our best to find a home that our equity will pay for.

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement?

Our health. DH is 9 years older than me and a smoker, so I worry he won't be healthy long enough for us to enjoy retirement together.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster?

That's why I'm revisiting our retirement planning/goals. DH will have a 401k for the first time in his adult life starting in Sept and I'm waiting to hear details about the employer match (we know there is one, but not the percentage). That will help with playing catch up. If I'm doing my math right starting in 2016 we'll be able to max out both the 401k and IRAs. I suspect that still isn't enough but it is a start. I'll reassess again when I finish my degree and go back to work; I strongly suspect my income will basically be split between the kids' tuition (private school now, college later) and retirement savings, and I don't have a problem with that because I'm content with the lifestyle we have on DH's income alone.

What do you want to be able to do in your retirement? (fully retire or work part time for extra cash etc)

Travel, mainly. Neither of us did much traveling when we were young because we were also broke, and then we settled down and had kids. So seeing the world is at the top of the list of retirement goals. DH doesn't plan to fully retire - he sells his woodworking as a side business now and he plans to continue that even after he gives up his day job. I don't really think I'll retire completely either, at least not at 58 when we're newly retired but I will shift to freelance/contract work rather than traditional employment in order to have more flexibility and free time.

 

[aprilgail]

Wow looking at some of these replies makes me see how lucky I was to work where I worked. I can't imagine working until I was 60-65 years old. I have been retired for just over a month and it is great- of course once I start getting some money in it will be better LOL. It takes my job 4 months to factor all your income and start sending your pension checks so I retired June 1st but won't get a check until Sept 1st- that will be 4 months worth of pension in one check but it takes that long to get your first check.
Since I never paid into social security I will never collect that. Instead we pay into a different fund but we start collecting that at 60 rather than whatever age social security pay and its about double what social security would be. Of course we pay more into it to when we are working but it is worth it.

 

[disfanforlife]

My DH and I are both late 40's. We have healthy savings in varied funds, plus we save the maximum in our IRAs and no debt. We are partners in a business with my brother. But we have no pension. Our retirement will be whatever we get selling our business and our own savings. We try to enjoy life but also save as much as we can since we have don't know how much we can get when we sell, we don't want to sell anytime soon, but probably in about 10 - 15 years.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age or a certain dollar amount? Ideally, I would like to think 60. However, that will likely largely depend on whether or not I am able to complete the Government and Public Interest Student Loan forgiveness. I have $145,000 in student loans (thanks law school and 22 year old self!). I am fortunate to have been employed for the last year and will start a new two year job soon, which will equate to two years and eight months worth of payments towards forgiveness. I need ten years total. If I am able to stay in government and have the balance forgiven, that would be a big help.

How much are you trying to save for retirement? We don't have a specific amount set, DH and I have just started talking about retirement with my new job coming (we just got married three months ago and are 25 and 26).

What age did you start saving for retirement, where you an early planner or late to the game? DH started at 19, I will start next month! I had never worked until I got this job out of law school.

What age are you eligible for full Social Security and do you calculate SS in your retirement plan? Not sure, but it's not something I'm counting on.

Will your house be paid off or do you plan to move to a smaller home or become a snowbird? We rent right now, but I certainly hope our home will be paid off by then. I know that DH would love to work part-time at Disney when we retire though!

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement? Health care costs. Just general concern that something bad would happen and we would run out of money. Fortunately, my family has been relatively healthy as they've aged. My grandma is 93 and her only real issues are arthritis.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster? I will be putting 15% of my salary towards retirement. Not sure how much DH puts into his right now. Since I work for the state, they will match 8.5% of what I contribute. As student loans/car payments clear out, we will definitely contribute more though.

What do you want to be able to do in your retirement? (fully retire or work part time for extra cash etc) I would be happy not working at all. DH and I are both horseback riders, and I would definitely have plenty to do taking care of horses and riding. DH would go nuts not working though. So he would definitely want to live out his dream of part-time work at Disney, or he's talked about us managing horse shows together as a business, which is something I would enjoy doing in retirement.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age or a certain dollar amount?
Right now since we feel secure in our jobs (with pensions) and our retirement accounts are earning decent interest we go on age. DH could retire at 50 with a reduced pension or 55 with full. I could retire at 55 with a decent pension but I will probably work until I am 56 as that gives me full pension. DH is 2 years older then me. If something happens to one of our jobs then I'd look at amount as we would't have the monthly pension I'd rely on.

How much are you trying to save for retirement?
Our pensions will cover more then our expenses each month. In our retirement savings account we should have 15X our annual salary.

What age did you start saving for retirement, where you an early planner or late to the game?
When DH was 25 he started putting in his and I was 26 when I started with mine.

What age are you eligible for full Social Security and do you calculate SS in your retirement plan?
Ours is both at 72 for full. I have never budgeted in SS when planning as I am not confident it will be around (yet I can't foresee how they could do away with it), but if it is, we'd pull as early as we could so at 62. I have never taken that into consideration though in the event it does go away.

Will your house be paid off or do you plan to move to a smaller home or become a snowbird?
It will be paid off and we will keep our home and buy a 2nd home in Arizona or Florida.

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement?
Being healthy enough to do what we want

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster?
For the past few years we have have never seen a raise (the raises all get put into retirement) and we will continue with that plan.

What do you want to be able to do in your retirement? (fully retire or work part time for extra cash etc)
Travel mostly in retirement and just wake up each morning and do whatever we want to do. I do not plan on getting a job. DH says how it would be fun to drive a boat at Disney (like the ones from Port Orleans to DTD) part time or work at a National Park part time. I don't know if when the time comes he would really feel like that.