Investments/Retirement-how much should we have?

[kathy884]

I think it depends. New Jersey is absolutely the worst (LOL, I was there for 24 years and could not wait to get out. I was in south jersey)..

lol -- My husband is from New Jersey. He always says it's a good place to be from, but has always chosen to live in the Midwest or the west, as wages are pretty similar for his profession nation wide (mine too actually), but it's so much less expensive to live in the middle of the country than it is on either of the coasts (east and west).

 

[ilovemk76]

Just logged into my retirement account - it estimates I will get $135,000 a year (I am 46).

Can I live off that? Probably.

But I will always have a mortgage as long as interest rates are low - my parents are in their 70s and just took out a new loan - they make too much money in the market to want to pay cash for a new house. They put down the bare minimum and financed the rest.

Is that in today's dollars? Does it include SS? Just your SS or you ans spouse?

 

[Pigeon]

This question is so much more complicated than ask the Dis. If you don't have a good handle on finances and investment, you really should find a professional to help you.

It depends so much on how you will be spending in retirement. And medical expenses are the huge unknown.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

Is that in today's dollars? Does it include SS? Just your SS or you ans spouse?

No - that is just 401k

Does not include mine or husband's social security. That is another couple of thousand a month - but I am not counting on it - in case of means testing.

 

[tvguy]

This is a pretty interesting discussion. Also what is so interesting is that "where" you ask will give you a totally different perspective.

I chat on another site, dedicated to investing and a poster there is worried because he's not sure if he can retire with ONLY 4 million bucks saved up.

He does want to spend 1 million on a house soon.

Perspective is every thing.

And mindset. Meeting with a broker, a long term insurance agent, a life insurance agent and a CPA in finalizing my estate planning, they all used different software to build a model of my financial situation. And all 4 different pieces of software defauted to $1 million as the size of the estate we wanted to leave our children when we are both gone. That's not having $1 million for retirement, that is hopefully living decades in retiring and still have $1 million left.

 

[ilovemk76]

No - that is just 401k

Does not include mine or husband's social security. That is another couple of thousand a month - but I am not counting on it - in case of means testing.

Is that number the amount you will collect at retirement in today's dollars or in the year that you retire?

 

[eliza61]

And mindset. Meeting with a broker, a long term insurance agent, a life insurance agent and a CPA in finalizing my estate planning, they all used different software to build a model of my financial situation. And all 4 different pieces of software defauted to $1 million as the size of the estate we wanted to leave our children when we are both gone. That's not having $1 million for retirement, that is hopefully living decades in retiring and still have $1 million left.

I have a good girlfriend tv, her parents were well off (dad worked for IBM overseas for a long time). anyhoo they had a very interesting thought on inheritances.

Basically they gave their three kids huge gifts during their lives with the full expectation that they were either going to spend their wealth or give it away.

so each kid got full tuition paid, my girlfriend went to law school no loans.
huge down payments for houses and her brothers got the capital for their own businesses. they were pretty cool with it. now of course most middle class folks can't give their kids 250K for a down payment on the house but I thought it was an interesting thought process.

I'm not sure how I feel about leaving the kiddos big inheritances. LOL. if I have grand kids it may change. I have seen some really ugly behavior in my family when wealth was left.

 

[Disneybuckeye]

I have a good girlfriend tv, her parents were well off (dad worked for IBM overseas for a long time). anyhoo they had a very interesting thought on inheritances.

Basically they gave their three kids huge gifts during their lives with the full expectation that they were either going to spend their wealth or give it away.

so each kid got full tuition paid, my girlfriend went to law school no loans.
huge down payments for houses and her brothers got the capital for their own businesses. they were pretty cool with it. now of course most middle class folks can't give their kids 250K for a down payment on the house but I thought it was an interesting thought process.

I'm not sure how I feel about leaving the kiddos big inheritances. LOL. if I have grand kids it may change. I have seen some really ugly behavior in my family when wealth was left.

I am looking at a pretty big inheritance from my parents barring a catastrophe of some sort. My college was paid in full by my parents and they gave us $20k for a house down payment back in the mid-80s. Everything in my parent's will is spelled out to the penny, so I doubt there will be any issues.

We paid our kids college in full and gave them all cars when they graduated. Will not be giving them down payments on a house though. While I am not opposed to giving them money when I die, we are tossing around the idea of an education trust to pay college and grad school expenses for our grand children and beyond. The other issue is pre-college schooling expenses. Our kids went to private schools k-12 which was pretty pricey, but worth every penny in our opinion. We are pondering if we should help with this too?

Such decisions and so much unknown.

 

[tvguy]

I am looking at a pretty big inheritance from my parents barring a catastrophe of some sort. My college was paid in full by my parents and they gave us $20k for a house down payment back in the mid-80s. Everything in my parent's will is spelled out to the penny, so I doubt there will be any issues.

We paid our kids college in full and gave them all cars when they graduated. Will not be giving them down payments on a house though. While I am not opposed to giving them money when I die, we are tossing around the idea of an education trust to pay college and grad school expenses for our grand children and beyond. The other issue is pre-college schooling expenses. Our kids went to private schools k-12 which was pretty pricey, but worth every penny in our opinion. We are pondering if we should help with this too?

Such decisions and so much unknown.

My mom took all of us on several nice trips and cruises, the last one was when she was 89. She wanted to be around to see us enjoy our inheritance. She came along on all but the last. All she required is that we carry her suitcase for her.

 

[Ginny Favers]

I am looking at a pretty big inheritance from my parents barring a catastrophe of some sort. My college was paid in full by my parents and they gave us $20k for a house down payment back in the mid-80s. Everything in my parent's will is spelled out to the penny, so I doubt there will be any issues.

We paid our kids college in full and gave them all cars when they graduated. Will not be giving them down payments on a house though. While I am not opposed to giving them money when I die, we are tossing around the idea of an education trust to pay college and grad school expenses for our grand children and beyond. The other issue is pre-college schooling expenses. Our kids went to private schools k-12 which was pretty pricey, but worth every penny in our opinion. We are pondering if we should help with this too?

Such decisions and so much unknown.

Your parents sound like mine! They paid for my college in full in the 90's, and gave us a modest $10k down-payment for our homes. They have been supplementing our income lately with small "gifts", $500 here and there, so that we can let the kids have their lessons. My father has been retired for 20 years; they live on a pension and have never touched their 401k... I know they have a large inheritance put away, money that they've saved from their parents.

Because it is our "family wealth" I feel a certain sense of responsibility with it; I want to make sure it lives on and that we can add to it.

Right now, we are pretty stretched thin with our budget. But my husband and I are still both working, plan to be for at least the next 20 years, and are contributing faithfully to our 401ks. I want to make sure, though, that any money we receive from my parents is put to good use, so I'll likely be paying for my children's educations and a down payment on their homes, just trying to use it in the same way my parents did to help us.