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Since this board is anonymous i thought it would be interesting to see averages for different age groups...
How much do you have stashed in your 401K and how old are you?
My current account has less than $2k because I have only been there 6 months but my account from my old job has over $10k. I'm 23.
Between 5 and 10K....i'm 24 but only started contributing to mine about a year ago. I have a nice excel sheet at work that tells me how much I'll have in there by the time i'm 50 :)
I am 29 and i have a little over $60K. The recent economy completely depleted mine :-) hope next year will be better...
I just turned 28, I think i have about 23k in mine. I haven't checked in the past few months because I hate watching it when gains/losses (especially losses) are posted.
@MissAsB: Did you start working at age 22 (after college). if so about $12K in one year is super impressive. You go girl!
I'd also be interested in hearing about everyone's investing style. I know that's not the purpose of this post, but are you all aggressive or more conservative. I'm in that whole "Auto Pilot" mode that invests based on my age/target retirement date.
I am 24, and I only have about $2k in my 401K because I can contribute at my summer job. I am still in college though, almost finished!
I am aggressive as i do not think 20s is the time to be conservative... this will change as i get closer to retirement which hopefully is a long ways ahead. and I hope to open a Roth next year...
I'm 22, it's hard to say how much I have in mine until I get my quarter end mailing. It's probably around 10k at this point. I contribute 6%, my company matches 4%, I've been contributing since May and my portfolio has actually done really well.
@souliganprincess: I actually work for an Investment Firm, so we have a lot of options for our 401k. Since I am so young, I have a lot of risk in my portfolio. One of the people I work with helped me put it together, and so far it has worked out great!
@nadia_2: I started working full time at 21 so that's contributions from 2 years. I put in 10% of my pay and got a match of 5%. Right now we are only putting in 5% and get a match of 5% but we want to up it at the end of this year.
We are pretty agressive, we have no money in bonds and a decent percentage in international funds. We also both max out our Roth IRAs every year.
My husband and I have about $62,000 in ours. I'm 27. I've only been in the job market a year and a half, so only about $16,000 of that is mine. Almost all of it is in diversified US and international stocks right now - it's grown by leaps and bounds as the stock market has recovered in the last 2 years!
I'm 29 and have between 35-40k with my Army TSP and my current 401K. I'm super conservative with investing and I'm probably making nothing additional beyond what my job matches (5%). I can stomach paying 1k on my wedding shoes, but I can't stomach losing 1k in the stock market, so it's mostly in money markets. By the time I retire I'll have 2 pensions, which helps me be okay with not investing more than I'm comfortable with.
@Nati-Lyte: The stock market gained 11% this year. If you have well-diversified funds, you will be in good shape right now while the economy rebounds. You're missing out on the most important growth years for your retirement. You should really educate yourself more on the market and investment - otherwise you'll really fall short when it comes time to retire (and lose out on money due to inflation eating away at your funds!)
@crayfish: Thanks for the unsolicited financial advice; however, I think my financial situation is different from most. I currently receive 1 tax free pension that is modified every year based on inflation and cost of living. When I retire, I'll have another pension (this one taxed, but adjusts as well). I max my IRA (5K) and my 401K now (16K). To me, it doesn't really matter whether or not I could have made more money in the stock market because I'm not dependent on the stock market to retire and live the lifestyle I live now.
Further, just because we can stomach different levels of risk, does not make me financially uneducated, just means I invest at the level that is comfortable for me.
I am not sure how much I have in my current job since I have only been there 7 months. But I contribute 5% and they match it at 9%. My previous job had either 2-3k in it because I wasn't doing much with how much I was allowed to contribute. I really do need to roll mine over though.
I go out on a limb.... well i did !! I worked for a national retail chain that was bought out by another one ... that has a red star in their logo. Anyway i made out like a bandit. My PATHETIC 401k split and i walked with a good amount. Now i'm more conservative, but then .. i played the riskiest investments ... and Contributed the most i could afford. They matched up to 6% but after i paid off my car, I put in the amount i was paying for the car to the 401k. The time to play the risky game is when your young. AND put in as much as you can afford.
I needed a transmission so i pulled out some money from that .. and repaid it with in 30days ... so no penalties
I'm 27.
I have about $15K in my 403(b), which is the non-profit organization equivilent of a 401(k). And I have about $1K in a Roth IRA I just started a couple months ago.
My fiance is 26 and has about $27K in his 401(k) and $3K in his Roth IRA.
Sad thing is, we both graduated from college the same year! But I was unemployed for an entire year a couple years ago, and that really screwed up my investments. :(
Im so jealous of all you ladies! I didn't know what a 401k was until (literally) about a months ago and I have been at my job for almost 4 years. Im 24 and only have about $150 in mine lol
I started mine about 2 years ago and I contribute $1k a month (10 months a year). I also right at the beginning put $5k into a ROTH IRA. I don't keep very close track but I guess I must have a little less than $20k, plus the IRA. I wish I would have started sooner (I'm 30, started at 28ish) but at least I'm doing it now. I have a 403b instead of a 401k because I'm a teacher so no matching : (. Do companies still do that anymore?
I started my 401K when I was 25. I started with 5% of my paycheck and now, I am up to 20% (which is our maximum).
Do it as much as you can because you won't see any of the benefit.
@Mrs Green Grass:Yeah, my company matches. Mine puts in 2% whether I do anyhting or not, and will match an additional 4%. I contribute 10% myself, so it's actually 16% of my income going to my 401k monthly thanks to my employer!
@Nati-Lyte: If you are educated on what you are doing, it isn't very risky. The past two years of the market were outstanding for stock investments. It isn't particularly risky if you know what you are doing, therefore there isn't anything to "stomach". Most 401ks allow you to shift funds around instantly - so if you keep up with the markets and projections on a daily basis like I do, you know what's coming. I do think that investing the way you have is throwing money down the drain. Obviously a thread such as this lends itself to financial advice, since it is a discussion about investing. No need to be so defensive. If you're ok with missing out on thousands upon thousands of dollars that could go towards your family or your family's education, more power to you.
I only contribute 2% of my paycheck into my 401K. My employer doesn't match and I'm still in my 20s.
I'm not sure the total amount in my 401k accounts, probably around 60k. I'm 30 and have been putting in 10-15% continuously since age 22.
I stopped following it too closely when it took a massive beating in 2008 - too depressing.
I also have a Roth IRA with about 10k in it.
Between 5 and 10k. I'm 26 but I'm a lawyer which means I didn't start working until about 2 years ago. I also cut my contributions down significantly this year to help pay for the wedding. After the wedding both my FI and I are going to seriously up our auto withdrawals.
(also, its not a 401k, but a traditional IRA. Lawyers don't get 401Ks... boo.)
I have $18k fully vested in my 401(k). I have another $5k that is not vested from my firm's profit sharing plan (we get a lump sum on top of our individual contribution rather than a match).
If we are counting Roth IRAs (I rolled over my former employer's 401(k) because their fees sucked) I have about $10k from my rollover in my roth, and $5k that I socked away on my own.
I am 23 and am extremely Type A. I grew up in a pretty poor household (in $$$ only... my parents are two of my best friends and did the best they could) and promised myself that my kids would not have to live through what I did.
@rungirl20: Hi there - how long have you been in the workforce if you do not mind me asking? I started at 22 and knowing how much i had at 23-24, i get so many impressed by bees that have $20K socked away at their early 20s. I have much to learn :-)
I worked parttime starting at 16 thru the end of grad school, and worked fulltime for about 9 months before going back for a fulltime master's in Aug. 2008. I finished in May 2010, and have been working fulltime since June 2010 (I took a month off between school/work). So all together... a bit over a year and a half.
I "invested" most of my savings/wages before this year in either undergrad or grad school tuition/books/etc, but when I was working fulltime for those 9 months before grad school, I also worked ~15-20 hours during weekends/evenings so that I could put a decent chunk of money in my 401(k).
I strongly recommend the book "smart women finish rich" by David Bach. You can preview it on books.google.com and it's probably free from your local library (or $4 shipped on amazon).
None of the advice is totally novel, and it's similar to the cheesy "7 habits" books, but David gives you the framework to lay out a concrete plan with long and short term goals, and shows the places where it's easy to make "mistakes" or how small changes can really make an impact. He also has some interesting anecdotes and "case studies", which makes it a relatively easy read.
@rungirl20: I need to buy that book! I want to set myself up for a nice life..
I don't have a 401k, never will.
I do however have 20k + in my TFSA. For posterities sake I am 23.
I'm 35 and have somewhere between 50-60K. Lost A LOT when our went company went down two years ago, the stock lost 95% of its market value in one year and we finally got acquired by a larger corporation.
I have been at my current job less than 3 years (old job didn't have a 401(k) program). I am currently 26 and have a little under $20k in my 401(k).
Since I'm so young, my 401(k) is invested in global stocks (no bonds).
I have about $20k in my Roth IRA too (invested in an S&P 500 index fund).
I also have a larger investment account (also invested in an S&P 500 index fund) and a savings account which makes nothing (~1%).
I work at a financial firm and see NO reason to invest in bonds at this point.
I have a cushion in savings and the rest of my investments are long term so I've invested aggressively since I don't have debt to pay off.
My 401(k) investment has seen a 30% return in the past year. Never would have gotten that by sitting in conservative funds.
15k in my account. 20 something in FI's. We're 26.
Wow I feel behind in the game!!! I only contribute the minimum to get my work's matching contribution (5%). The rest of savings goes into my money market.
@KatNYC2011 ooh 30% return is great!! I have some stocks that made 17% and I was impressed. Wish I had the 30%!
@PinkMagnolia: Yeah, it's a pretty impressive. I mean it was down about 40% for a bit, so there's still some making up to do from the crash, but I put a fair bit of money in near the "bottom" so I'm happy.
DH and I both have been maxing ours out (I am 29, he is 31) and we have $100K + in both. We have our financial advisor manage the actual investments in both.
I think for those who don't really contribute, once you start, it really is easy to do since it lowers your tax rate and you just forget about it being part of your paycheck so you almost forget about it until you check the balance occasionally and then are happy when you see how much you have saved!
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