Posted on 05/29/2024 11:03:26 PM PDT by Cronos
Lillian Zhang wasn’t even out of college before she started planning for retirement.
Zhang was 20 years old when she opened her first retirement account, a Roth IRA, after learning about them from personal finance Youtube channels. She maxed it out for two years using money from her savings and summer internships, and when she got a job after college, switched her focus to maxing out her 401(k).
Zhang, now 24, now has six figures stashed across three different retirement funds. (She recently opened a Simplified Employee Pension, or SEP, IRA for her side hustle as a content creator.)
And she’s part of a growing class of Gen Z retirement super-savers.
Today’s young professionals are prioritizing their golden years like never before: The average Gen Zer starting saving for retirement at age 22, compared with millennials who started at 27, Gen Xers who started at 31, and baby boomers who started at 37. That’s according to a January survey of 4,500 U.S. adults from Northwestern Mutual.
So what’s pushing young people to stash away money they can’t touch for decades?
Anxiety is one big driver. Many are concerned about stagnating wages in an era of skyrocketing costs of living, says Paloma Thombley, chief human resources officer at Handshake, the jobs site for college students and new grads.
Americans estimate they need to save $1.46 million to live comfortably in retirement, up 53% from 2020, according to Northwestern Mutual.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
The problem with homes is you still need a place to live. I am meeting more couples who sold their homes and are now renting. Sell high, rent low. For instance, I could sell my house in Blacksburg (hot market) for $520k and rent a nice place in a depressed area like Bluefield WV for $700 a month.
Your financial advisor is clearly a dangerous fool—time to fire them now.
The problem is places that don’t cost a lot, tend to become high-crime areas.
Many Freepers—on a variety of threads—forget one of life’s most basic lessons.
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Saving as much as you can is not perfect, but it is good.
Homeownership is not perfect, but it is good.
If you do lots of good (non-perfect) stuff you will probably live long and prosper.
Or you could sell your home and buy another one for less in a lower cost of living area and ditch the monthly payments.
There are a lot of people from northern states moving into the Myrtle Beach area that did just that.
“To save real money means realizing PMs should be a bigger part of your savings.”
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Some natural resources funds have mining investments too. That’s another possible option to consider in your overall asset mix.
Just getting fit and in shape is an investment with plenty of dividends for long-term (if only because it'll minimize your healthcare expenses as you get older).
FWIW, I make my own decisions. During early scamdemic days,I got 85% out of the market early. Learned of a mask manufacturer in Arizona (IIRC) from a freeper. Called “my guy” and sold more stock to buy big into the mask company stock at $7.25. He advised against getting out of the market so sharply then advised against the mask stock. That stock hit nearly $38.00. I backed out of it in three sell trades, the lowest of which was ~$16.00/share. Made EXCELLENT MONEY, even after short term capital gains tax.
When the scamdemic was nearly over, he had to admit that I was one the few clients who's portfolio was ahead during that time.
Although I thanked the freeper back then, if I could recall the username, I'd thank her again and send a personal thank you note.
I guess my point is that he is good for knowledge I simply don't have, but I make my own decisions.
Best wishes
(You're not wrong though)
Yes, always good advice. One of the biggest expenses is labor. If you learn skills, you can save big on things you might otherwise have to pay other people to do. My wife and I do the bulk of our remodeling projects ourselves. Got that advice when young, by craftsmen I sought advice from for large home projects and they told me I could do it myself, so I did. Carpentry, electrical, tiling, plumbing, concrete work, etc. I've passed on skills to my daughters and they can accomplish remodeling projects (and one actually worked her way through college doing tiling and sheetrock work). Many thousands of dollars saved.
But they also invested in retirement plans while investing in their own real estate. Prepare for old age, it comes sooner than you think. My wife and I started in our mid-20s, and we're enjoying senior life without worry.
Golds value is also theoretical. Does it have an intrinsic value? Yes, but nowhere near what we notionally value it as.
Actually it is important that you share your succesful life story.
You weren’t mega earners but you still developed a sensible savings mentality and now are living comfortably
Yes. Even small amounts saved in your 20s give big dividends in your 40s and beyond
40 is too much.
I would rather recommend 4 to 6.
2 large cap or blue chip funds.
2 mid and small cap funds
2 probably sector focused or hybrid money market funds if you need.
I only have the large and mid/small cap funds. For added spice I invest at times directly in stocks, but that’s only when I think they are going to play big, I don’t always succeed but these bets are a small part of the portfolio that also includes real estate
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