Having friends talk about daycare costs alone exceeding their mortgage is good birth control.
Retirement Targets
- Thread starter yowza
- Start date
Everything I've read is it doesn't really matter in terms of front load vs consistent contributions. I like to front load for no reason other than more cash incoming later in the year feels like a raise. It's like the 2 months a year you get an extra paycheck if your company pays biweekly. Not free money, but instant savings or fun money if you budget around the months youre front loading.
In theory over time, you’re better getting into the market as fast as possible, so I don’t have a problem with it from a dollar cost averaging perspective. What if you get a raise or promotion mid-year though? Does your company have a policy for making up for any lost match in the following year? I’m just thinking of a scenario where you drop to 8% (if that’s your match qualifier)…and then you get a promotion and have to drop to 5 or 6%.
People get excited when they leave daycare, then they learn new horrors come High School time and yearn for the daycare days.
I wouldn’t worry about the cost of kids. Based off what you are doing now, you would be fine regardless. If you want to engage in a fun exercise, run the numbers on what you would be looking at from a retirement savings perspective if you were able to max out until age 55. Then do a second one where you are able to max out for the next couple years and then have to be only at your employer match for about 10 years (then back to maxing out). I think you’re going to find that the numbers look good regardless. The only difference is in the first scenario, you’re going to be giving hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to your nieces and nephews someday.
gotcha. i was thinking the return should always about average out. i get trying to "maximize earning potential", but what if market is high in jan-mar and then drops later on?
Good. I already worry too much about what my bank account will look like in 25 years. Skip worrying about finances in the meantime is a win. There won't be millions left over, I like to travel.
That's where, IMO, you shouldn't overthink it. Win some, lose some. Save away and you'll be fine.
I smell what you're cooking. That is possible for sure. I keep a bit of a percentage cushion just in case.
They just put us up to an 8% match this year which I'm pretty happy about. I don't want to miss out on free money.
You’re going to have to find a different expensive hobby if you want to try to run out of money. Because if you care about personal finance, at some point you’re going to figure out the credit card travel rewards game, and you’re going to be traveling for little or nothing. Not trying to convince you to have kids…just sayin’.
Let me throw some water on this party. The finance guys I trust the most online think the market has another 15+% decline in it during 2023. They think bonds will rebound and yield over 10% in 2023. I haven't dug into the details, that was just their first broad perspective of what they foresee.
I don’t think that’s a problem for most in this thread. If you’re 10+ years out, it’s “stocks are on sale…carry on”. 5-10…it likely doesn’t matter either. Inside of 5 I suppose you might feel a bit nervous that you’ll end up working an extra year or two.
Aspiring CFA here..
I'm barely 30 and currently 50/50 in my 401K bonds to stocks. I relocated a bunch equity to bonds following the September FOMC meeting. Of my 50% weight in stocks, 40% of that is in India and China index funds.
Once the FOMC dot plot starts to meaningfully drop. I will pivot to heavy US equity indexes.
I think EM equities (especially Asia stocks) have the most run room over the coming months. This is tied to zero COVID ending in China and India benefitting from a boom (accelerated by low energy pricing from buying Russia domiciled oil and gas).
I'm barely 30 and currently 50/50 in my 401K bonds to stocks. I relocated a bunch equity to bonds following the September FOMC meeting. Of my 50% weight in stocks, 40% of that is in India and China index funds.
Once the FOMC dot plot starts to meaningfully drop. I will pivot to heavy US equity indexes.
I think EM equities (especially Asia stocks) have the most run room over the coming months. This is tied to zero COVID ending in China and India benefitting from a boom (accelerated by low energy pricing from buying Russia domiciled oil and gas).
Yeah it’s coming down. 2.49 here at a few places. Was 2-3 more so that would make sense for Cali.
