If you are over 50, how much do you have saved for retirement? anonymous of course

[Hrhpd]

That is so sad- I can't even imagine working a full time job at 55 never mind at 70.

The person sitting in the most stressful job in the world is 72. The Senate majority leader is 77, the house majority leader is 78, Chuck Grassly is 80, one of the people seeking the most stressful job in the world is 76, the queen of England who still works every day is 92, Jeff Bezos is still running Amazon at 55, so definitely a full time job, Warren Buffet ceo of a Fortune 500 company is 87, Kevin Johnson (Starbucks) is 57, and on and on and on..

Seems a whole ton of extremely successful people are still working full time jobs at 55 and over. In fact, the average age of a CEO of a fortune 500 company, so still working a full time job and more, is 55.

I can't imagine not working until I am not able to work. I am currently in my 60's and work full time because I want to not because I have to.

 

[mjkacmom]

Debit is the problem. My mom's Social Security check was $1,250. Her house had been paid off for 25 years when she retired, her car had been paid off 9 years. She did have to spent $10,000 on a new roof on her house and buy a new car for $12,400 in the 28 year was retired before she passed away. Other than that, her monthly expenses were under $700 a month. But she and my dad had a saying.....both living through the depression....."if you can't pay cash, you don't need it, no matter what it is"

My dad’s fixed expenses were easily over $2000 a month, had no debt, house paid off decades earlier.

 

[longboard55]

Sounds cliché but they key is really to start early. I have an IRA account that had less than $100k in 2004 when I switched over to a 401k . and I have not put a penny in it since but left it in the stock market and now it is worth $1.4 million

 

[tvguy]

My dad’s fixed expenses were easily over $2000 a month, had no debt, house paid off decades earlier.

Ouch. Even with the car payment we picked up last June, ours aren't $2,000 a month.

 

[mjkacmom]

Ouch. Even with the car payment we picked up last June, ours aren't $2,000 a month.

Actually closer to $3000, property taxes and health insurance supplement almost $2000 alone (can’t wait to sell).

 

[tvguy]

Actually closer to $3000, property taxes and health insurance supplement almost $2000 alone (can’t wait to sell).

Double ouch. . My mom passed 5 years ago, her Secure Horizons supplement was $90 a month then, and her property taxes were $970 a YEAR thanks to Prop 13 in California.

 

[a1tinkfans]

OP I was wondering why u chose 500k as your top choice? Imho,
Most will not be able to securely retire with that amount in saving. Perhaps if one was retiring in their mid 70s...
I think anyone considering retirement should have none to minimal debt And atleast a million available to them. More, if they are under 6o.

 

[tvguy]

Actually closer to $3000, property taxes and health insurance supplement almost $2000 alone (can’t wait to sell).

I just totaled up my February bills, $1,955, so just under the wire. March will blow that out of the water because of air fare, hotels, and rental car for my Spring Training trip. About $3,000 just for that.

 

[jennyq87]

I think people do the very best they can do.

I hate to see people made to feel badly that they haven't saved enough.

Agree with this! There are ways to make suggestions or give advice without being condescending or dismissive of someone’s hard work.

 

[Floridaman999]

I sure hope the $3.50 I have saved goes a long way.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

My God. All of you with all of this money are so fortunate. I hope you realize that the option to have that much money saved isn't an option for everyone, no matter that they work 60+ hours a week, etc.

My husband is 46 and just this year has made $30 an hour. So it’s not like he has discretionary income. Yet has been contributing to his 401k since he was 19. He has 800,000. So if he retires at 60 I imagine he will have 2 million plus.

 

[Elle23]

Hoping and praying I don’t live well beyond 70-75, so hopefully the Lord will have mercy on me and retirement won’t even be an issue. And hoping I will go quickly and not be a burden on anyone.

That said, my husband has a pretty good retirement through his job, so hopefully he’ll let me sponge off him if I do linger longer than planned.

 

[sam_gordon]

My husband is 46 and just this year has made $30 an hour. So it’s not like he has discretionary income. Yet has been contributing to his 401k since he was 19. He has 800,000. So if he retires at 60 I imagine he will have 2 million plus.

I've been putting into a retirement plan (didn't have a 401k available when I started) since I was 20. No where close to that. Went over $30/hour 3-4 years ago and have been bumping my part every year. I don't even hit the top of the OP's chart.

 

[QueenIsabella]

My husband is 46 and just this year has made $30 an hour. So it’s not like he has discretionary income. Yet has been contributing to his 401k since he was 19. He has 800,000. So if he retires at 60 I imagine he will have 2 million plus.

See, that's what I have a hard time with. All these people that say "you're so fortunate" don't seem to grasp that we made retirement savings a priority from the very beginning. I have a tough time believing that most people couldn't squeeze $10/week from their budgets. (Hint: Look at your fancy coffee drinks, your soda, your cigarettes...). $10/week means $500/year. Add in half of any windfall--bonus checks, rebates, tax refunds, birthday money, whatever. Now you're up to $1000/year. Do this for 30-40 years, letting the magic of compounding work for you. Most people could make it to $1M. Problem is, most people don't WANT to make retirement a priority, because it's nowhere near as interesting and fun as spending.

I do realize that some people have dire circumstances, and some people have things like medical emergencies, job loss, etc. We've had some of those, too. We did stop retirement investing during stretches of unemployment, yet we still managed to have a decent amount in retirement savings.

 

[Christine]

Sounds cliché but they key is really to start early. I have an IRA account that had less than $100k in 2004 when I switched over to a 401k . and I have not put a penny in it since but left it in the stock market and now it is worth $1.4 million

You must have a better plan than I do. I transferred to the fed government TSP in 2008. I transferred in $258,000. Took the 2008 hit and lost about $40K. It's now 2019, I've been dumping a LOT of my salary in since 2008 (the full amount allowed and over 50 catch up for 5 years and I get a match). I'm at $700,000. I don't have a lot of choices on where to direct my funds but I'm generally in the more aggressive ones.

 

[Floridaman999]

My wife started at 2 months old though, and she has $36.6 million now so I guess my $3.50 is pretty safe.

 

[bdcp]

DH and I have way over 500K (1.8 million) plus I have a US Gov pension coming (retire in one year) and he has his US Navy retirement plus a small pension from a company he worked for 30 years ago for 9 years. 500k isn't enough even with that. Currently, if I retire next year and DH retires in 3, we'll have in all about 75% of our current income if we include SS. We will be downsizing homes. We currently have a two story plus finished basement 5500 sq ft colonial on 2/3 acre and we have about 350K in equity. Cost of living here is high (NoVA). We are not unusual where we live in terms of 401K and our home. Heck, our sons are 33 and 35 and both own townhomes with equity and oldest has 300K in his 401 and youngest has over 150K in his. They will not have pensions though so they're aggressively saving.

 

[firefly_ris]

My wife started at 2 months old though, and she has $36.6 million now so I guess my $3.50 is pretty safe.

With interest you'll probably even have enough for one of those really fancy coffees instead of a regular one. Everyone will see your expensive coffee and be like, "Wow, that guy must really have it together."

 

[Floridaman999]

With interest you'll probably even have enough for one of those really fancy coffees instead of a regular one. Everyone will see your expensive coffee and be like, "Wow, that guy must really have it together."

All the other retirees will be so jealous.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

I'm not your target demographic (just turned 35) but those numbers seem scary low. I think for people of my age or younger getting anything like a pension is almost unheard of with a job. Most people are happy/lucky to have a 401k that matches 6% from an employer. Not to mention the fact that there's absolutely no guarantee that by the time I retire there will be any Social Security money waiting for people in our age group. With that in mind, I'm focusing on preparing for a retirement that relies solely on my 401k, and personal investments. I save as much as I can into my 401k yearly (my husband and I both barely hit the max contribution limit this year) and have been saving since my first "professional" paycheck. I'm not expecting to retire early because I have no idea how the next 15-20 years will go with inflation/stock prices. I still have over the top amount listed on the survey saved and feel like it's "never going to be enough". I'm a lucky person for my age group because I'm not still saddled with student loans, but I know plenty of people my age who can't contribute much to a 401k and manage to pay their loans as well. For those of you who are in the closer to retirement demographic, do you feel this sense of uncertainty, or are you more comfortable?