Anyone cares to share guidance or experience?
38 replies (most recent on top)
@ZD4yTDN-6ptg trying to time the market is fraught with peril It can make for some good stories, but its harder than it looks. Better to develop a good stock/bond/cash allocation mix that you can live with. Don't waste time trying to mico-manage it.
Avoiding high interest credit card debt is a very good thing. A 20 or 15 year mortgage can build more equity come time to relocate. If you get on a roll, don't be obsessed with paying down a good-rate mortgage.
Good luck
53, 17 years with the company. Our 401k just broke $200k. Like some others I did stupid things along the way including taking out a couple of loans. Those were good to pay off credit cards and pay interest to ourselves but I missed some run up in the market.
Been selling the highs and buying onnthe dips recently. Basically waiting for a quarterly announcement and buying as the market crushes the stock price temporarily.
Good luck !
I am the OP - thank yuo!
How do you have 600K in pension lump sum with working 20 years? Does not sound feasible...….What is your salary range? Mine is approx. 170K (not counting bonus)mwith 24 yrs and have nothing close to that.....
16% 401k index 500, large cap and yearly max to roth in fidelity select funds technology, software and it services, semiconductors, it services. Save for major market pullbacks and Buy these same separate from roth forget bonds and international dead money now... carry no credit card debt... 1 M at 39 Measure to self-goals not how good bad others are doing...
"Yup. It’s time for some of you to take a buyout, lump sum, and leave the company."
Oh, trust me, IF the company offered a buyout of any kind, they would have to put some serious limits on who could take it because of the mass exodus of folks with specialized knowledge and expertise that would walk away from this dumpster fire forever.
@1ywl, to quote an old tv western "No brag, just fact." And you’re right, you laid it out just the way it should be done....add something extra, dollar cost average and compounding.
Allow me to add to stay in the market, those who bailed out ten years ago (and never returned) missed a 350% run up in the S&P 500. Don’t fret daily market events and practice a patient, long term attitude. Think of Recessions as an opportunity to buy your investment choices at a discount, whether in a 401K or other choice.
Fidelity handles your 401k, take advantage of their CFP’s to help you plan your long term investment future.
Was at the company for 17 years. At first I contributed up the company match, but bumped it up to 20% plus the company match. Since it was pre-tax withholding, I didn't miss spending money I never saw in my bank account. At 49, I have >$650k accumulated from AT&T, including pension balance rolled over into a 2nd IRA - and this was my 3rd job with 401(k).
It's not bragging, but an illustration what you can save by taking advantage of the retirement plans, putting in something extra, dollar-cost averaging and compounding.
Lots. I contributed the minimum to my 401k to get the match, but also invested outside of it primarily in S&P 500 Index fund and some others. Never sold in bad times nor good, just kept buying in taking advantage when the market was low.
Historically, the S&P 500 gained 6.8% yearly on average since 1926 plus maybe a 2.4% dividend yield. This is better than most actively managed funds. Go 90% in an index like this and set aside 10% in a bond fund. You don't need to worry about the stock market going down until you get within 10-8 years of retirement (most recessions/depressions end in less than 8 years). You'll recover in time. At 8-years, start mitigating by moving stock assets to bonds until you get to like a 50/50 split.
How much will you need to retire? Start by adding up your expenses and dividing by 4%. Use this percentage because if your assets average 6% return annually, you will take 4% of them and leave the balance for growth and to stay ahead of inflation. An example is if your expenses are $50,000 a year, then you need $50,000/4% or $1,250,000 to stay financially sound. And with 50% in equities, they will continue to grow and stay ahead of inflation.
Yup. It’s time for some of you to take a buyout, lump sum, and leave the company.
54 yrs old with 32 yrs service. 401k = a little over $1 million
More importantly debt free and home paid off
Recently pushed out the door at 59 with lump and 401K at $1.4M
19 years service - $365,000
Keep in mind that you may have a situation of 'self-reporting' bias here - as people with more money in their accounts are more likely to reply if compared with folks with empty accounts. in turn, this creates an illusion that every poster has a healthy amount saved.
The median 401k savings at age 40 in the usa is about 100K, granted that's not your typical AT&T employee (I'd assume our folks have 2, 3 or 4 times that)...
As of the first quarter of 2019, Americans between 40 and 49 years old had an average 401(k) balance of $102,700 and were contributing 8.5% of their paychecks. Fidelity also found that employers were matching, on average, 4.9%, which put the total savings rate for 40-somethings at 13.4%. Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/how-much-money-americans-in-their-40s-have-in-their-401ks.html
54 this year, 29 years service, still working... My total 401K balance is about $820K. I could have and should have done better but the fact is it could have been worse too.
Good luck and keep saving.
401k contributions can also be allocated to post-tax ROTH
You might consider doing the first 6% into the regular pre-tax 401K and the rest in Roth 401K or even ROTH IRA. Fidelity manages the 401k balances by type of contribution and growth. At roll-over time, you push the regular part into a traditional IRA and the Roth part into a Roth IRA. Trustee-to-trustee transfer is best for seamless non-taxable events.
Younger workers do way better in the Roth if invested with a stock allocation appropriate to age. Lower tax rates when younger make the post-tax aspect easy to bear. There's no tax on the way out as long as age restrictions are not violated. You want to move Roth 401k balances into Roth IRAs after the termination roll over because the gains continue to grow tax free.
Contribute the max for the match and then put in all you can afford supplementally. I did this most of my career and retired with an income of 93% of my last years salary. This counts SS, pension, IRA and dividends. I worked until I was 63.
My advice to everyone is diversify your investments. Don’t rely solely on a 401k. I’m 39, regular level 2 person, I save around 14% in 401k with match. I didn’t start till late and jumped around a bunch of jobs when I was younger. I invested in real estate and other items. My net worth as of last month is $1.6m. I’m not bragging. Best to have residual income from other sources, business investments, rental property income, that kind of thing. 401k will be a constant draw down over time. Also factor in your ssi benefits in retirement. You’ll need to figure out how much monthly income you’ll need. A paid off house is a great place to start. If yours isn’t paid for, downsize and move somewhere cheap when you retire.
ZERO..I didn't start as employee until age 38, 20 years later I have $710K in 401 and 600K in pension lump. So some time this year will roll 1.2-1.3M to an IRA and retire.
You've done well, great post. Is it fair to say that you're able to live quite comfortably off the interest from your retirement investments without touching the principal? That's where I'd live to be at your age. Well done.
I was 35 years old when the markets crashed in 1987.
We had maybe $10k in retirement savings- IRA, 401k.
By age 65 it was about $2M in rolled-over 401k, IRA, Roth IRA plus some pension annuity.
The path was of no extravagance, consistent charitable giving, minimum debt, no received inheritances to speak of, some world travel. I was always employed as a non-bargained professional in large companies in the various positions comprising my career.
People here seem to obsess over the full service pension. If you get it, fine. If you get close, it's close enough. There is not a huge gap in missing it by an MR75 point or two. Severance pay can cover the gap. If you are able and still working, it's wise to defer taking the pension in order to avoid taxes. The annuity level continues to grow at a pre-defined rate and the partial lump sum may grow or not depending on the vagaries of the interest rate calculations. It looks like we’re in a low rate environment in the foreseeable future thus keeping the level of a lump intact or increasing. When the time comes to take it, roll whatever lump there is into a regular IRA and invest the residual annuity into a tax-deferred IRA to offset other taxable earned income.
A lifetime of prudent investing, borrowing and spending offsets all kinds of petty chiseling tactics taken by the accountants. They are dealing with the law of large numbers every time they try to cheat each of us out of a dollar, it means thousands on their cash flow models. That the company appears to go out its way not to pay out the full service pension or it even targets those individuals who are within an MR75 point or two is a public relations goof. They take a good thing and make it another talking point for cord-cutting and bad public relations.
Good luck! Always discuss strategy with an investment fiduciary such as a CFP. When dealing with your brokerage reps, make it clear that you only want advice from a certified, bonafide fiduciary- someone who acts and advises in your best interest.
50 this year, 25 years service, still working with $630K balance...it should be well over a million but I did some dumb stuff over the years and it is what it is. I have paused contributions right now to free up extra cash to help with my kid's college. I think I am going to be OK between this and pension, but as many are mentioning start early as you can, and don't pay any attention to what the market is doing. The only people hurt around 2008 were the people that moved their money out of the market (and I know quite a few that did). The market is up over 300% since then and they missed out on that.
I’m 52 with 29 years service and have $335k in my 401k. I could have and should have saved more. I do $75 every 2 weeks. Do more than that. My advice would be to contribute until it hurts and you’ll be free to retire when you want to! I’m impressed you asked for the advice.
I always saved the max pretax which was about 16% + catch up $6000 when you over age 50. At minimum you need to take the company match which obviously is doubling your money right at the start. Remember the TIME VALUE OF MONEY - Ideally, you'd start saving in your 20s, when you first leave school and begin earning paychecks. That's because the sooner you begin saving, the more time your money has to grow. Each year's gains can generate their own gains the next year - a powerful wealth-building phenomenon known as compounding.
The hardest part of investing is the mental struggle through Recessions, and Great Recessions. You will always be tempted to pull your money out....I have plowed through a few Recessions since 1987 and the tricks are to not watch your portfolio daily (it will make you nuts), keep it intact and always building, let 401K auto payments work their magic (in down markets as well as up) and know that at the end of your career the market will be higher than today.
Resist the urge to time the market, I have the feeling that many investors bailed out during the ‘08-‘09 debacle, never came back in and missed a fantastic run. Understand that Recessions will happen, on average they used to come around at least twice a decade, or so....just make yourself a long term investor and be comfortable with that.
I’m 47 and have about $400k saved and I’m pretty sure that’s not enough to retire. You have to have over a million these systems to live comfortable in retirement.
My advice is do the minimum to get the company match. Still being young I would be risky and keep it to 10 to 15 percent bonds.
The best thing you can do is work towards being debt free and then throwing money into mutual funds and making out Roth IRA deposits every year. Don’t get spooked when the market dips try to ride it out.
Listen to some of Dave Ramsay’s podcasts and books he really changed my life and I am on track to retire at 50 if I want to. Thanks to him I’ve been investing since my early 20s and live debt free. I am 30 now and my returns will be passing my work income within the next 5 years.
Kudos man... I am the same age and I have about 100k...
I have around 290k and I’m 38. 17 years worth of contributions with the bare minimum to get the match for the first 11 years. Been playing catch-up in the last seven years with a average yearly contribution of 14-17k. Dividends taken as cash first 10 years, reinvested last 7.
Oh and staying debt free really helps. Paid off house and no debt will be a heck of a retirement starting point.
https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-do-i-need-to-retire
They claim 2x your starting salary by 35.
It depends on your lifestyle. Spend now and suffer later or save now and have a great future. Live under what you make and learn the difference between need and want.
I would contribute a minimum of 15% only to the Roth 401K and if you can the pay the taxes, covert some or all of the company match to Roth every year. Remember the majority of your 401k in retirement will be from growth. The Roth contributions will be grown 100% tax free. Imagine retiring and taking out money as you need and not paying taxes on it.
At 35 I wouldn’t have any compunctions about doing a 90% stock/10% bonds allocation:
35% Small/mid cap
30% Large cap
25% International stock
10% bonds
Heck maybe even an all stock portfolio.
The started doing 16% right away and 22 years later I have around $500k in the 401k (15 years spent asleep at the wheel as far as asset allocation but luckily it was mostly in stocks) and another $90k in separate Roth IRAs.
Yes I plan on leaving if I make it to 30 with the company and doing an encore career elsewhere.
34 years, zero in 401k. Biggest mistake of my life. Wonder if I’m the only idi0t out there?
I have around 290k and I’m 38. 17 years worth of contributions with the bare minimum to get the match for the first 11 years. Been playing catch-up in the last seven years with a average yearly contribution of 14-17k. Dividends taken as cash first 10 years, reinvested last 7.
You are allowed to put away $18,500 yearly and T will match up to 6%....unless you designate, that 6% will go into buying individual shares of T stock.
I won’t go into what you "should" have in your 401K, I don’t even remember what I had then. What I will seriously suggest is to sit down with a Fidelity CFP (Fidelity is our go to Broker) and lay out your futures plans. Chances are fair that he/she will discuss more than the 401K, as IRA’s will become a topic.
The fun, scary part....they can layout a chart that will show you what your assets will accumulate to as you move through stages of life. Be prepared for a lot of questions as they get to know your investing style, and ask plenty of your own....it’s worth the visit.
Good luck
Troll posing as employee, just trying to instigate friction between districts.
So many factors to consider. Save as much as you can and make sure you always get at least the company match. Live below your income/means. When you look back you will not regret being a saver.
Yeah, that not a question....did you mean how much SHOULD I have saved?
Everyone wants D4 to help upcoming D3 contract. How much OT did D3 work in the last year and a half when D4 has been fighting? How many crews came and worked in D4 from D3 while D4 has been fighting? But now, if something works out we should wait and carry you guys right?