% of Income into Retirement?

brij2006 · May 2013

We are set to meet with our financial advisor this week to go over our investment portfolio, and I wanted to get a feel for what everyone else invests.

Currently we invest 15% of our combined income into retirement. That money is separated into different types of investments, but I feel like we should increase it to somewhere between 17-20% so we can retire early.

What does everyone else do, or what would you recommend? We are 25 and 27, and have been investing since we were 20. Our goal is to retire around 60 for me, and 62 for H.

CuriousKiddosMama · May 2013

I'm not sure of our total % right now, but I would totally put in more if you are able to. I put in 20%, my husband maxes out his 401K through work and gets a 6% match. We try to put in extra every couple months to a separate retirement account we have set up as well. Sometimes this is a lot, sometimes it isn't much. We in total are probably close to 20% (not counting the match from DH job because he isn't fully vested in that yet- will be in 2 more years)

My husband wants to retire early as well, and so that is one of the main reasons we have been trying to contribute more. That will change after baby arrives- we will start contributing some to college fund and our monthly household costs will go up I"m sure. Hopefully we will be able to continue with a bit over 15%.

brij2006 · May 2013

We are at right around 15% of our base income. Each of us earn commissions/overtime/bonuses so I feel like we should put more in. But H thinks we are just fine since we budget on our base salaries only.

Our investments are separated out over multiple risks, so we don't have everything in 1 type of investment. The most we have in 1 type is 6% of the 15% is in his 401k through work.

If we do more, we would be opening a Roth IRA for him. I have one, and we max it out each year. But my employer does not offer any retirement, so we feel like we need to do more to replace my income than his.

Our only fear with investing more is that we do not have children yet. So we don't want to get set up to invest more, then put ourselves too thin when children come along (we are currently TTC but having trouble).

Xan84 · May 2013

We're investing 25% of our combined pre-tax income into retirement accounts. We each have a Roth IRA and a 401K. I definitely think you should invest more if you can afford it. Roth IRAs are a great investment as your money grows tax free! Don't worry about setting yourself up to invest more before you have children - you can always reduce your contributions later when the time comes if you find you need more money. If you have the money now, I say invest it and let it start growing!

MommyLiberty5013 · May 2013

We do between 15-20% currently. I am a SAHM and DH has forced retirement at 65 due to his career - he will work until that age.

I have read, though, that since women typically live longer than men, it can be wise for them to invest more.

sillygoosegirl · May 2013

About 25% at the moment, but we plan to retire early and save less after we have kids (also plan to work quite a lot less after we have kids).

sparklerose · May 2013

We currently are at 10%, but we are at the end of a looooooong debt snowball. We will increase a lot once the debt is gone, in December! Yay!

kasi55 · May 2013

We save about 22% of our income for retirement between maxing out two Roth IRA's and our employer plans.

We are saving more right now because we don't have kids yet. This is about to change but we would like to continue and save at least 15% as a minimum. Hopefully, keep it about 20% though.

I think if you can afford it now, I would do it. Like a PP said, you can always reduce you're contributions later if your priorities change.

brij2006 · May 2013

Thanks everyone. Hopefully I can get H on board with increasing it to 20%. His only fear is that infertility is not covered by our insurance plan at all. So he would rather take that money and save up for medications and treatments. Where I would rather cut our everyday budget to pay for those items, and increase our investments. Then maybe lessen them once we do have children.

athlete010688 · May 2013

DH puts in 8% into a roth 401K and has a 2% company match.

I put in 4% into a roth 401K and have a 2% company match. I also put roughly 2.3% ($75/month) into a roth IRA.

So, in total we contribute just over 14% and we have 4% company match. I suppose that's not too bad - it's more than what I thought!

h2babe · May 2013

I have been investing 20% since I received my very first paycheck out of college. DH started doing the same thing after he met me. We had recently reduced it to 18% since we're getting ready to contribute to our second child's 529. I plan on bumping it back up to 20 % next year though.

laurakaz13 · May 2013

I put 20% into my retirement account. We also put around $1000/month into savings. DH has a maxed out pension and will get a monthly stipend each month for the rest of his life.

704bride · May 2013

brij2006:
We are at right around 15% of our base income. Each of us earn commissions/overtime/bonuses so I feel like we should put more in. But H thinks we are just fine since we budget on our base salaries only.
Our investments are separated out over multiple risks, so we don't have everything in 1 type of investment. The most we have in 1 type is 6% of the 15% is in his 401k through work.
If we do more, we would be opening a Roth IRA for him. I have one, and we max it out each year. But my employer does not offer any retirement, so we feel like we need to do more to replace my income than his.
Our only fear with investing more is that we do not have children yet. So we don't want to get set up to invest more, then put ourselves too thin when children come along (we are currently TTC but having trouble).

To me, this means that you are investing less than 15% since you are not including your full salaries. We are at around 20-21%, I believe. I was trying to figure out the best answer to this question, too, a few months ago. I got so tired of people saying "as much as you can" is how much to put into retirement. Yes, I want to be able to enjoy my retirement without money worries, but I want to enjoy life a little now, too. I know too many people that didn't make it to see their retirement.

% of Income into Retirement?

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