Comments on: Behind on retirement contributions

By: bluntmoney

bluntmoney — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:21:20 +0000

Sampson, no I haven’t, which is yet another reason why the $300,000 is an initial goal. I feel better having a target though.

By: Sampson

Sampson — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:14:17 +0000

Have you adjusted for inflation.

Your ability to live off $12000/yr means you need to bring in $28300 25 years from now. That’s assuming a modest 3.5% annual rate of inflation and assuming you’ll be retiring at 65.

By: bluntmoney

bluntmoney — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:45:45 +0000

@ Marci – Well, I did say I might be able to use Social Security to pay for health insurance. I just don’t have a whole lot of faith that it will be there, so better to prepare as if it won’t.

By: Marci

Marci — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:16:45 +0000

When you did the $300,000 figure, you made it sound like the $1000/month
be all you have – but you should each have a SS check coming in (if that
doesn’t crash) so you’d be way over that $12,000/yr figure.

For me, single – I plan on $200,000 in investments for investment income; a
SS check (hopefully); a PERS check for $400/mo; a pension of $48/mo; a
property contract of $300/mo: IRA’s and a 401K. Plus my house is already paid for. As you can see, I am going very
diversified as I don’t trust them all to be there. Not all the retirement eggs in
one basket – so to speak. Once your house is paid for you’ll be sitting easy!

Right now my take home pay is about $1000/month…. so when I retire, (1-8 years) if all
those things fall into place right, I’ll actually be bringing home much more in
retirement than I have to live on now…. I can handle that :) YES!

And that’s good to have more as I WILL have to buy health insurance, which is
provided by employer now fully paid… and that’s the one reason I may work
til I’m 62 instead of taking my early retirement at 55. We shall see.

By: bluntmoney

bluntmoney — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:53:21 +0000

@ Mike – Of course we’re planning on sharing the same retirement. But we have separate accounts in most other areas too, so I guess we are just looking at it the same way.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:21:55 +0000

You have plenty of time – the direction of your financial journey is more important (usually) than when you do it. You are definitely going in the right direction.

Question – are you and your husband not planning on sharing the same retirement? Why are your retirement funds separate? I’m not saying amalgamate in the same account but for planning purposes they can be combined.

Mike

By: plonkee

plonkee — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:28:01 +0000

It sucks when we realise that we ideally need to go back in time to fix something. Still, better to confront it now than wait another five years.

Hopefully, whilst you’re cutting back on how much you need to spend on expenses, you’ll be upping the amount that you can afford to contribute leaving you able to retire in good time.