Posted: 8/28/2025 9:50:23 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Samal][Edited]
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My 401k + IRA retirement fund finally made it to 7 figures. Wife's 401k is another 700k. We intentionally keep and track them separately. 10 years to retire for me, 15 for her. We both are white collar professionals and dont mind working till 65. Kids colleges are funded separately. Kids are over 18. With her working for longer, i might even delay my Medicare and SS benefits till 70.... I guess she is a keeper. |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Oh great: you had to mention SS, which will turn an otherwise congratulatory thread into a debacle. While it sounds cliche, that first mil does seem to be the hardest to make… and you’re on your way to 2 (combined). The 2nd, 3rd,…seem to come a lot quicker… because they do. |
I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one.
No rules today, sport…just orders.
It’s not about how many people you kill, it’s about how many you save.
No rules today, sport…just orders.
It’s not about how many people you kill, it’s about how many you save.
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I took social security at 62. It worked for me because I saved it all and was able to gift my daughter money to downpay her first house. It worked against me because I lived past the 13-15 years it takes to make up the difference between taking at 62 vs. 651/2 for full benefits. These days a million bucks is still fun to have, but without some kind of supplementation, it is probably not enough to take you into late 80;s or early 90's comfortably. |
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Originally Posted By Mousegun: I took social security at 62. It worked for me because I saved it all and was able to gift my daughter money to downpay her first house. It worked against me because I lived past the 13-15 years it takes to make up the difference between taking at 62 vs. 651/2 for full benefits. These days a million bucks is still fun to have, but without some kind of supplementation, it is probably not enough to take you into late 80;s or early 90's comfortably. |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Originally Posted By ag04blast: Thats awesome. I have been hitting it hard and close on mine. The wife is under a public plan and decent but getting there. I am also counting the time till our house is paid off...9yrs and 9months. Attached File |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
| Gotta look to see how much I have in my three accounts. Paid the house off last year when I was 49. Immediately upped my 401k and roth contributions, need to up them again. |
Award: 24/365 Most likely to be an appendix.
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
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Originally Posted By SkiandShoot: Congratulations as that's cool and thanks for sharing. Inspirational for lots of us. Just curious, why 65 retirement? Why not 64? Why an age metric or threshold versus a total net worth number? |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
| Very nice! Personally I’d be looking at my sooner rather than later exit but that’s me. Remember you can’t get more time. You can work longer and make more money but you can’t make more time. |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
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Originally Posted By kc-coyote: Great job OP. You just need to hit 7.2% per year and in ten years, you will have doubled your current $1 million. As a side note, if you're over 50, you can add an additional $7,500 pre-tax per year to your 401K. |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Originally Posted By jmart172: Congratulations I'm 71 and also have amassed a milestone a couple of times. Start thinking about converting to a Roth IRA , the taxman is coming |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Originally Posted By Samal: Not at my current tax bracket! It will have to wait until I retire (Roth conversions) Food for thought, we've been investigating this concept the last 3 months or so. A couple key points for this topic for success for anyone out there but I could be wrong and there could be more: Needs to be done as early as possible so the Roth growth can outpace the taxes paid. Typically needs to be done when the household only has 1 income, typically $90k or less OR no income. It needs about a 10 year run of growth +/- Sweet spot of age looks like about 55-58 or so. Income needs to be as low as possible or no W-2 income. Rule of thumb, it's about a $10,000 cash tax foot print per $100,000. This scales upwards and could be $15,000 depending on income. Ideal to use outside or free cash to pay the taxes NOT conversion. So one strategy is for year 1 or year 2 of "not working" to have an extra $15k-$30k in Bucket 1 that is dedicated to perform a conversion. Do the conversion while living off Bucket 1 free flow cash with no W-2 income. |
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Originally Posted By SkiandShoot: Ideal to use outside or free cash to pay the taxes NOT conversion. If you withdraw $100k for a roth conversion and only deposit $90k while using the other $10K to pay taxes then you will have to pay both taxes and penalty on that $10k. Make sure you plan to have adequate cash on hand to pay the tax bill of a roth conversion! |
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I hoped that this thread had not yet got archived! I am bumping it up to report a yearly progress in 20 days from today :) guesses of the current balance are welcome :) and my retirement goal is shifting. I want to retire at 62, 6 years from now :) |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Originally Posted By FALARAK: You were a combined 1.7m last year, so with contributions and growth, I will say 2.1m today. Are we estimating? 2,007,000 |
WTF is up with this bullshit anti-bayo lug crap. Was there a group of irrate japanese guys bonzai charging disabled school children and puppies that I wasn't aware of?
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2,029,800 S&P 500 (VOP ETF) growth from 8/28/25 to today would be that much… So that is if you were both highly aggressive, but diversified. Maybe you follow conventional (safe) wisdom and are a lot less aggressive, or maybe you own some stuff that did better. But that is as good of a guess as any! |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
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Hit $1M in the 401k just this year as well. Good confidence boost to see that extra digit. I think I missed out the first few years of my career so that probably represents about 20 years worth of hitting the statutory max contribution ($24,500 this year for example, in 2006 it would have been $15,000). You can get a lot done in a short time if you drop the hammer on it and stay consistent. My wife and I are married now so it doesn't matter but one of this best things I did for her when we started dating was help her set up a Roth IRA with automatic weekly contributions of like $50. She's got a quarter million bucks in it now after just shy of 20 years. Saving for retirement wasn't even on her parent's radar so it was a foreign concept when we first met. Sadly one of the things they really don't teach in school and yet one of the lessons that people need as early as possible in their lives. I don't care if you dig ditches for a living, if you can figure out how to set aside some percentage of your pay for retirement and stay consistent with it for your career, you will retire ahead of the vast majority of people. |
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Originally Posted By kc-coyote: Great job OP. You just need to hit 7.2% per year and in ten years, you will have doubled your current $1 million. As a side note, if you're over 50, you can add an additional $7,500 pre-tax per year to your 401K. This, not to mention the additional effect of his contributions and matching between now and then. OP is sitting pretty. |
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Congrats on a million liquid! Why wate until 65 for retirement? IMO, if you have the funds, it makes sense to exit the workforce earlier. We only live so long and physical capability oftentimes degrades rapidly in the 60's or 70's. I would look to retire a bit earlier while still physically capable. |
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Originally Posted By woodsie: Hit $1M in the 401k just this year as well. Good confidence boost to see that extra digit. I think I missed out the first few years of my career so that probably represents about 20 years worth of hitting the statutory max contribution ($24,500 this year for example, in 2006 it would have been $15,000). You can get a lot done in a short time if you drop the hammer on it and stay consistent. My wife and I are married now so it doesn't matter but one of this best things I did for her when we started dating was help her set up a Roth IRA with automatic weekly contributions of like $50. She's got a quarter million bucks in it now after just shy of 20 years. Saving for retirement wasn't even on her parent's radar so it was a foreign concept when we first met. Sadly one of the things they really don't teach in school and yet one of the lessons that people need as early as possible in their lives. I don't care if you dig ditches for a living, if you can learn out to set aside some percentage of your pay for retirement and stay consistent with it for your career, you will retire ahead of the vast majority of people. Definitely. I’ve always been good at managing money (living within my means) but wish I had been educated on investing sooner. I’m in great shape financially but would be in better shape if I had started sooner. I have plenty of pension income that begins at 55 so I’m still in good shape. But I’d be retired a couple years sooner than I have planned if I had started investing sooner. I’m now preaching investing to my grandkids. Hopefully they listen. |
"It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things."
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
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Congrats op, about time for that update! I'm sitting there with you. About $615K in traditional and $375k in ROTH. I'm in my early 40's so I've got another 20 or so to go! It hurts but I'm basically only putting money towards my ROTH 401K now. The backdoor is a little complicated because we are pretty high W2's. And I rolled an old 401k to a traditional IRA 10 years ago instead of paying the ROTH conversion and doing it then. I also have a small pension and my wife works for the state so she has one as well. |
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Well. An update. 1.7 turned into 2.4 in exactly one year. But not all of it gains. Between me and my wife' our IRA, 401k, Roth 401k and after tax contributions were over $100k in a calendar year, closer to $150k. I am meeting with a retirement planner next week to discuss the course of actions for me to retire in 2032 at the age of 62 and for my wife before 2037 (she is turning 50 this year) biggest variable is health insurance for her before she hits 65. |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Originally Posted By Samal: Well. An update. 1.7 turned into 2.4 in exactly one year. But not all of it gains. Between me and my wife' our IRA, 401k, Roth 401k and after tax contributions were over $100k in a calendar year, closer to $150k. I am meeting with a retirement planner next week to discuss the course of actions for me to retire in 2032 at the age of 62 and for my wife before 2037 (she is turning 50 this year) biggest variable is health insurance for her before she hits 65. If she is going to continue working for 5 years past you, I would not wait that long, unless you have significant expense/spending plans, and retire sooner. Medical insurance can be purchased, it ain't THAT bad and can absolutely be budgeted for. |
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I do an intellectually challenging and interesting work making great money, working remotely from home. My wife also enjoys what she does and makes well into 6 figures. We plan to invest as much or more every year while we work. I would love to keep my current spending in first 10 years of retirement at least while I am still able to travel the world and enjoy finer things. based on my calculations that would require me to retire with 4mil at least. If I can hit that magic number earlier I will retire at that time. For now, I don't mind working. |
IDF, A.A. 215, "Scorpion" Company. 1993-1996
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Originally Posted By Samal: I do an intellectually challenging and interesting work making great money, working remotely from home. My wife also enjoys what she does and makes well into 6 figures. We plan to invest as much or more every year while we work. I would love to keep my current spending in first 10 years of retirement at least while I am still able to travel the world and enjoy finer things. based on my calculations that would require me to retire with 4mil at least. If I can hit that magic number earlier I will retire at that time. For now, I don't mind working. Sounds like you have a good plan. |