Retirement thread

BoxsterCy

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BoxerCy North End Zone?

Well, not so much, there was like years of nursing care for my mother after her major stroke. Was pretty much in a vegetative state for years. The reference point was like 9 years ago when my dad died. I did inherit a house in small town Iowa that will net me less than I paid for the car in my garage. :rolleyes:
 

Triggermv

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Jul 16, 2010
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I just got my truck paid off last month as well as the new floor we put in the house a few years ago. Big time for us. Only debt I have now is my wife's student loans, house and her Jeep. Been a grind but will be worth it, hopefully, in the long run.

Probably should get out of journalism if I ever want to retire though. :)

Congrats man. Grinding out that debt is key. We started the no-debt route (excluding house) directly out of college and you'd be amazed how freeing it is and how great one can live even on fairly marginal incomes. While I don't like to compare, I'm still wondered at how much higher my wife and I's financial standard of living is as compared to many of our friends, even though I know they make more money than us. Some of them make significantly more. The big difference there simply comes down to debt and all the payments they have to cover each and every month and we don't. In fact, I'm your age and already have the majority of my house paid off. Take that away in not too long and that is one significant raise right there again. Don't get me wrong, we had to do some early grinding to do all of this, but it has been well worth it.
 
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throwittoblythe

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One question I'd like to get opinions on is HSAs. Between 401k, my employer match, and our personal Roth, we contribute about 16.5% to retirement each year. I also contribute another 4% of our income to the HSA each paycheck and my employer throws in 1.2%. We have a young child and are planning for a second so medical bills are a certainty.

Questions:
  1. Do you consider the HSA as part of your "retirement savings"? I know its not really retirement, but it's also a good chunk of money going there every year. We are putting away 21.7% of our income each month to savings (me+employer). At face value, that feels like a lot and I wonder if the HSA contributions would be better used paying down the house.
  2. Is there a point where you stop contributing to the HSA account because it gets to a certain dollar amount? I've heard suggestions to keep it at your out of pocket maximum, but more is not necessary.
 

Beerbrat

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Aug 17, 2011
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One question I'd like to get opinions on is HSAs. Between 401k, my employer match, and our personal Roth, we contribute about 16.5% to retirement each year. I also contribute another 4% of our income to the HSA each paycheck and my employer throws in 1.2%. We have a young child and are planning for a second so medical bills are a certainty.

Questions:
  1. Do you consider the HSA as part of your "retirement savings"? I know its not really retirement, but it's also a good chunk of money going there every year. We are putting away 21.7% of our income each month to savings (me+employer). At face value, that feels like a lot and I wonder if the HSA contributions would be better used paying down the house.
  2. Is there a point where you stop contributing to the HSA account because it gets to a certain dollar amount? I've heard suggestions to keep it at your out of pocket maximum, but more is not necessary.

I would keep putting in money to your HSA as long as your other needs are being met. It is tax free money that never expires and there is no penalty as long as you use it for medical purposes. I'm fairly young and keep putting the max in my HSA on the assumption I will have more medical bills later in life. I keep up to my deductible in cash and then invest the rest of the money in a mid-tier risk investment since the gains on an HSA are also tax free.
 

The_Architect

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Apr 11, 2006
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I'm 36, have 220k in my personal 401k. Max out my allowable contribution, employer matches another 3%. Wife is 38 and has about 120k in her 401k. She defers 10% and employer matches 5%. We put 250/month into a Roth that has about 12k in it and max out our 2 kids Iowa 529's. I want to double that Roth but I'm in the middle of refi down to a 15 year on the house so need to wait a few months to adjust. I also own rental property I could sell for about 140k that I owe 88k on and 9 years left on the mortgage. I think we'll be ok.

Question is, in 30 years what's 5-6 million really worth and will I have enough energy to blow through it!? :eek:
 

DeereClone

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Nov 16, 2009
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One question I'd like to get opinions on is HSAs. Between 401k, my employer match, and our personal Roth, we contribute about 16.5% to retirement each year. I also contribute another 4% of our income to the HSA each paycheck and my employer throws in 1.2%. We have a young child and are planning for a second so medical bills are a certainty.

Questions:
  1. Do you consider the HSA as part of your "retirement savings"? I know its not really retirement, but it's also a good chunk of money going there every year. We are putting away 21.7% of our income each month to savings (me+employer). At face value, that feels like a lot and I wonder if the HSA contributions would be better used paying down the house.
  2. Is there a point where you stop contributing to the HSA account because it gets to a certain dollar amount? I've heard suggestions to keep it at your out of pocket maximum, but more is not necessary.

1) No I don't consider it retirement savings. I treat it as if it were a non-retirement investment vehicle like a general mutual fund joint account that is outside of an IRA/401K.

2) If you have another use for the money I don't see anything wrong with stopping/slowing down once you are past your out of pocket max. Once I build it past the max I allocate those funds towards another investment with more flexibility. I don't think there is anything wrong with continuing the HSA contribution past the out of pocket max because of the tax advantages, but I like the flexibility of allocating that money towards other investments once the out of pocket max is reached.
 
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cy4life94

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One question I'd like to get opinions on is HSAs. Between 401k, my employer match, and our personal Roth, we contribute about 16.5% to retirement each year. I also contribute another 4% of our income to the HSA each paycheck and my employer throws in 1.2%. We have a young child and are planning for a second so medical bills are a certainty.

Questions:
  1. Do you consider the HSA as part of your "retirement savings"? I know its not really retirement, but it's also a good chunk of money going there every year. We are putting away 21.7% of our income each month to savings (me+employer). At face value, that feels like a lot and I wonder if the HSA contributions would be better used paying down the house.
  2. Is there a point where you stop contributing to the HSA account because it gets to a certain dollar amount? I've heard suggestions to keep it at your out of pocket maximum, but more is not necessary.
I believe the general rule of thumb is an HSA is one of your best investment options and you should max out every year if possible. Before maxing out, you should always get the employer match from the 401k though.

The reason for this is because the money that you put into your HSA avoids FICA taxes and if you withdraw for qualified expenses you do not pay taxes on the withdrawal; essentially not ever being taxed as I understand it. Once you turn 65, the HSA turns into the same thing as an tIRA and any withdrawals you pay income tax on.

Just remember, if your employer provides you an HSA account, it may not be a investment account and just a bank account. You will need to open an HSA from another provider to gain the investment options. That is what I have to do at my employer. There may or may not be other fees charges by your employer provider that you would need to look at also.
 

Mtowncyclone13

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Oct 10, 2012
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1) No I don't consider it retirement savings. I treat it as if it were a non-retirement investment vehicle like a general mutual fund joint account that is outside of an IRA/401K.

2) If you have another use for the money I don't see anything wrong with stopping/slowing down once you are past your out of pocket max. Once I build it past the max I allocate those funds towards another investment with more flexibility. I don't think there is anything wrong with continuing the HSA contribution past the out of pocket max because of the tax advantages, but I like the flexibility of allocating that money towards other investments once the out of pocket max is reached.

This is good but I think we're all quite curious as to your household income.
 

Ms3r4ISU

Me: Mea culpa. Also me: Sine cura sis.
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Mint is a lifesaver and my go-to agglomeration to manage all my finances. They can track all of your assets, accounts, debt, spending, and bills in one place, complete with some simple analytics, so you can watch everything at once and see the big picture and trends.

I highly recommend anybody opens up an account there -- completely free, too.

For those of you talking about historical returns to equities, there are plenty of reasons to believe those will be slower in the future than in the past. I usually plan on a real return of 5% or so.

There is more here, to provide one example...

https://blog.wealthfront.com/us-stock-long-term-returns/

...but to provide the punchline...

We have examined three widely-used methods of estimating future equity returns. They all suggest a similar conclusion. Future returns are very likely to be below the returns that have been realized by equity investors over the past century. With short-term rates near zero in the United States (and actually negative in Europe and Japan), and with bond yields substantially below historical norms, equity investors should have realistic expectations for only single digit returns. Realistic long-term projections should be in the 5 to 7% range.


I tried Mint, I really tried, but it got to where it wouldn't or couldn't link to the credit union where we have several accounts. That made me a bit leery, especially when the Mint folks couldn't tell me anything that would let it work. At that time I noticed several similar Qs from others with similar issues.
 

Rabbuk

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My best "investment" this year has been my bitcoins. If anybody needs to get a hitman from the dark web, let me know. We can work something out.
Tomorrow it will be your worst haha
 
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CySmitty

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I treat my HSA as a retirement investment. I would put in the list right below employer match on 401k. The nice thing about HSA is that you dont pay any tax on that money (including medicare/ss) as long as it runs through your employer.
 
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BoxsterCy

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Speaking of investment admin costs. My 401k is the federal employees Thrift Savings Plan that the big brokerages and management firms absolutely hate. There are five individual index funds and five lifecycle funds. The admin costs are 0.038% to 0.039%. With over $450 billion invested by employees you can see why the financial jackals are always lobbying to privatize the management and take it away from the independent Thrift Savings Plan Board that manages the plan and the funds. They also continually lobby to add the flavor of the year as an additional risky fund. Not that long age they were nearly apoplectic about federal employees being the "denied" the magic elixir of a real estate investment fund (before that bubble burst). :rolleyes:
 

dmclone

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Oct 20, 2006
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I'm 36, have 220k in my personal 401k. Max out my allowable contribution, employer matches another 3%. Wife is 38 and has about 120k in her 401k. She defers 10% and employer matches 5%. We put 250/month into a Roth that has about 12k in it and max out our 2 kids Iowa 529's. I want to double that Roth but I'm in the middle of refi down to a 15 year on the house so need to wait a few months to adjust. I also own rental property I could sell for about 140k that I owe 88k on and 9 years left on the mortgage. I think we'll be ok.

Question is, in 30 years what's 5-6 million really worth and will I have enough energy to blow through it!? :eek:
You sound golden pony boy
 

Doc

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Aug 6, 2006
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Tomorrow it will be your worst haha

Yeah, I've been debating buying silver with them. It's easier in some places to buy with bitcoin than a check or something. I have a bit of an emotional attachment to the virtual currency, though.
 

Sigmapolis

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I tried Mint, I really tried, but it got to where it wouldn't or couldn't link to the credit union where we have several accounts. That made me a bit leery, especially when the Mint folks couldn't tell me anything that would let it work. At that time I noticed several similar Qs from others with similar issues.

I can imagine you might have less success with "mom 'n' pop" joints like that.

All my financial accounts are with pretty big fish... Chase, Fidelity, TIAA, Merrill Lynch, Vanguard, etc. ... so I never had any problem with setting it up.