Posted on 04/22/2016 10:01:15 AM PDT by MtnClimber
You should check these items off your to-do list by 40 if you want to retire with enough money in the bank.
A worker turning 40 today has 25 years to prepare for retirement by age 65. This may seem like a long time, but in terms of retirement preparation, it represents a swiftly closing door.
Compound interest is most powerful when it has a longer term in which to work its magic, and workers who fail to practice good financial habits early in their career may find they run out of time to correct mistakes prior to leaving the workforce. That doesn't mean you can't still retire comfortably if you start preparing later in life, says Rande Spiegelman, vice president of financial planning for the Schwab Center for Financial Research. However, those who start younger have an easier path before them. "If you start [retirement planning] right out of college, you could set it and forget it," Spiegelman says. "The longer you wait, the tougher it is."
To avoid making your savings situation any more difficult than necessary, finance experts say you should do the following 10 things prior to blowing out the candles on your 40th birthday cake.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.usnews.com ...
The earlier you start investing for retirement the longer it has to grow. Unless the government takes it for your own safety.
47 and wife has the (much) bigger 401k.
i’m in a lot of trouble :)
Get a government job when you’re 25 retire on six figure income when you’re 50.
Simple.
Doesn't do much for you when interest rates are so low, or when 401k's lose 5% or more per year, rather than gaining 5%+.
Any govt job, had a buddy that started with Park and Rec at 21 doing labor, retired at 51 $76,000 per year for life.
Get a Roth? Good lord, no. You’ll be paying taxes on the money before it’s invested. Get a regular fund and when you retire, structure your mandated withdrawals such that your income is below the bar for attracting income tax. Your withdrawal will be tax-free, and the money that went into your fund instead of paying income taxes back then will have been increasing your investment value over time, rather than coming back to you in tax returns you might not even get.
Here's what NOT to do. Take out loans against your 401(k). Yes, you are paying yourself back with interest and so it sounds smart. But you are reducing the size of your paycheck (to pay it back) and will be subject to heavy penalties if you get laid off from your job and are unable to make the lump sum payment to pay it off all at once.
The ship has already sailed on this one for me. I’ll be working a long time.
“Any govt job, had a buddy that started with Park and Rec at 21 doing labor, retired at 51 $76,000 per year for life.”
There ya go.
The other option is to get ANOTHER gov job at 51 then pull TWO pensions when your 66.
Lot’s of hacks in MA doing just that.
Yeah, at current interest rates, uh, maybe when I'm 567 1/2...
Your wife will probably live longer.
The key to retirement, IMHO, is keeping the number of wives to a minimum.
Alternatively, vote Democrat. Then, you can have fun going to "college" until you're 50, then retire comfortably on your ADHD or similar "disability". The government will take care of all your needs such as a free Obamaphone, Internet, housing, Obamacare, Food Stamps, and so on.
“The ship has already sailed on this one for me. I’ll be working a long time.”
Me too.
What we should push for is:
ALL gov’t pensions be rolled into “The Social Security Trust Fund” then we can retire at 55 too.
That’s “fair”.
The 11th thing - get a job and work your way up the experience ladder. Too many lazy young people, flitting from job to job because it doesn't easily give them lots of money for little work. I saw this in my twenties with some friends. They were more interested in goofing off and partying, when they got jobs it didn't last more than a month. My wife and I married young, and started saving in our 20s, put us way ahead of the others. Now we're in our mid-60s and very comfortable. Those friends, not so much at all because they didn't save until very late in life after 40.
LOL!!! Seriously though, that is the best retirement plan ever!
lol. I can barely deal with one.
And you’re right. She is a hypochondriac (took a nap on Saturday and worried she was dying because she never takes nsps :))
but she will outlive me.
She led a clean life before we got married. Me, not so much.
In fact, one night when we were still friends, she met me at a bar because I was upset over a gal and she watched me eat cigarettes, knock the quarter line up off of the Pool table and wander around the neighborhood trying to open car doors and kicking trash.
Though we still didn’t date for a long time after that, that’s the night she said she fell in love.
Women.
Or marrying a single working woman much older than you who is close to retirement. A sister-in-law married a guy 15 years younger who had nothing going for him, married him and added him to her pension plan just before retiring a year later. Guy doesn't work and smiles a lot.
A Roth should be done only after tax deferred 401K/IRA. But a Roth could be a good idea if tax rates go up in the future.
The writer appears to be cribbing from something written some years ago. If I had been able to work straight through from 40 to 65, my retirement would be quite comfortable. But throw in a company failing, a couple of layoffs for economic reasons, and a stretch of underemployment, and I realize he's writing fantasy, not advice.
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