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Meeting with financial planner
This one is for athlete, but whoever else wants to chime in here, but all means!
We met with our financial planner on Monday and he said that based on the current amount we're investing each month, we're 83% of the way to having the same income we have now when we retire. So if we continue putting the same aside and don't increase/decrease, we'd wind up living on 83% of our current income when we retire at 65. If we want to get 100%, so we have the same net income that we're used to living on, we have to increase our investments by about $260 a month.
BUT, if we want to retire earlier, we have to increase it even more.
We currently put aside $100 each week, plus I have a pension at work, which takes off about $150 bi-weekly from my cheque and then the company puts money into it as well. He says the company pension accounts for 80% of my total investments, which is insane!
So, now DH and I need to sit down and decide WHEN we want to retire. (I personally don't want to wait until I'm 65.) And also if we think we'll be comfortable living on the same money we're making now. I personally think we're okay with that as by the time we retire, the house will be paid off and our expenses will drop, so we can funnel that money towards more vacations or entertainment. But we need to make sure we're on the same page. Then, our financial planner will re-jig the numbers if need be (so we can retire earlier, etc.) and we increase our investments accordingly.
But, the crappy part is that I now feel like I'm stuck at my current job because the pension is so good and basically unheard of nowadays. I wouldn't normally have an issue with that, but right now I'm having some issues with my manager (major issues) and I can't envision staying here for another week let alone another 30 years.
Anyhoo, that wound up being longer than I thought. If you have any questions, let me know!
Re: Meeting with financial planner
All this is so overwhelming to me! I put a very small amount into my 401k, but I won't be working much longer (well, hopefully) to be a SAHM. That makes me nervous because I won't be adding to mine anymore. I will keep it invested though.
And DH... doesn't have his invested. My boss doesn't understand how he can have a 401k without investing it. So I'm not sure what is going on with his. DH is way conservative with his money, and doesn't want to risk losing it, but he doesn't realize how much he's missing out on! I keep telling him to get that changed, but he seems to think we'll have more than enough when we retire. I'm not thinking so...
TTC since March 2012
BFP 3/14/13!!!
U/S 4/15: Identical twins!
Lost my angel boys at 10.5 weeks
My Chart***My TTC blog
TTC since March 2012
BFP 3/14/13!!!
U/S 4/15: Identical twins!
Lost my angel boys at 10.5 weeks
My Chart***My TTC blog
At the very least, you can just go to your bank and they can help you with that. I've set up Roth IRAs at Wells Fargo, and we also keep a simple money market account there. We can access the money market account online, just like we can our savings and checking accounts. Also, yes, get your DH to invest his 401k!! Even if he is conservative, there are usually levels of how much risk he can take on his investing. Most pros will tell you it's OK to be a bit riskier the younger you are, and you can gradually become more conservative as you age.
The one we're using is with Investors Group (Canadian company, but I'm sure there's something equivalent in the U.S.). They specialize in investments, versus a regular bank does anything and everything banking-related.
It doesn't cost us anything. Ideally he's obviously hoping we give him all our investments and he gets a commission though, so that's how they/he will get paid in the end. Right now we have a very minor investment through IG, but based on how good he is, I think we'll be moving over the majority of our stuff to them.
When our bank found out we were meeting with a financial planner from IG, they offered their services, but I've found that the regular banks don't offer as much information and the guy from IG makes house calls in the evenings! And he went through more than just what we'll need when we retire - he talked to us about disability and life insurance. DH needs more, I'm okay. He'll help us with our monthly budget if we want him to. That kind of thing. Very thorough. And he says we will meet once a year to review, or more often if something big changes (i.e. I get pregnant, job loss, etc.)
Sorry for taking over this post! After thinking about this, I decided to talk to my uncle (who's the CFO of a big company), and he's going to help us. He's coming into town next week for my brother's graduation, so we will sit down (well hopefully DH will agree to) and talk to him. I just want a general discussion, where DH will learn that it's best that he invests. So we'll see how that goes!
TTC since March 2012
BFP 3/14/13!!!
U/S 4/15: Identical twins!
Lost my angel boys at 10.5 weeks
My Chart***My TTC blog
We use Edward Jones and it's set up like this too. Ideally you want to find someone who is willing to take time to explain to you what it is that you're doing and why you're doing it. At least in my opinion. My H could have cared less about saving money until he actually went with me to my financial planner and she explained things in a way that made sense to him. Now he's totally on board.
Thank you for posting this!
I agree, it totally makes me feel unprepared for retirement. I'm 25 and DH is 33. I know DH would love to retire before 65, but I have no idea if that is even possible! I would love to meet with a financial advisor, but I'm definitely not sure if DH is up to that idea. It's good to know that Edward Jones does not cost anything to have a financial advisor Next goal of mine - to see if DH would be willing to go talk to a financial advisor (especially if it doesn't cost anything!)
How do you go about finding a financial advisor? Obviously you can google them :-) But, how do you know who is the right person for you? Should you "interview" a couple of them? How did you decide who go to with? I just looked up Edwards Jones to see what Financial Advisors were around us.
TTC since June 2012
Ask around for recommendations from family, friends or co-workers. And if they make house calls, then your DH doesn't have much of a choice to meet with a financial planner!