max out my 401k, company matches 50 cents on the dollar up to 5% of my income. i’m not too concerned about the investments losing money (within reason of course) because I just end up buying more shares as the prices drop. I’m not retiring for a few decades anyways and the market is cyclic. It will go up again and when I’m close to retiring, I’ll move my money to something less aggressive.
The wife does the max on her 401k and her company throws in $8k per year (down from $10k).
Any extra money each month goes to a savings account for a rainy day.
we have a great 401k. I put in 7%, company matches 5%. That is going up by 4% in 30 days since raises are coming through. What makes it great is that I can place the money anywhere I want it to go. If i want it as cash equivalent, or in a specific stock they will do it.
the big problem here is that you’re heavily in managed funds that rape you silly on management fees… you’d do a lot better if you put the money beyond company match into an IRA and picks safe stocks.
I love working at RIT. I put in 5% of my salary and RIT puts in 9% every paycheck. I started putting in when I was 23 or 24, so it should be pretty decent when I need it.
Roth IRAs are personal money accounts that you can invest up to 5k a year into. its not deducted out of your income so you pay taxes on it now but later in life, you dont owe anything on it as far as i know since you already paid it.
Depends on the managed fund, some (through Fidelity) are 0.01%. Others are higher, but there are no fees until I cash out. I can move money freely and an unlimited number of times. Plus the dividends that are reinvested each year in my 401k are fairly substantial.
But, an IRA might be a good way to go in addition to my 401k. Not arguing that point.
if you’re really putting that much into your 401K I suggest you get a financial adviser to help manage your money or learn more about investing. if you already have one and you’re doing this on his/her advice then fire him/her and get somebody better. (this assumes you’re not investing money elsewhere and not making 6 figures)
thinking about this today, it’s not as much money as I thought… I never stopped to think about how in $ I put away monthly, only in %.
anyway, the simple argument is that you have a LOT more flexibility and choice with the IRA. you can pick the exact same funds or you can do any number of things. more choice is always better than less choice.
I’m a computer programmer… not a financial advisor. I already pay fees on my 403B to get that money moved where it needs to be. The last thing I want to do is have complete control over that much money at one time. I don’t want to watch the market. It is depressing. I’ve seen it first hand… lots of money in the market, you lose your ass, make some more bad decisions and now you went from over $1M in the market to eating bologna every other day.
someday you might change your mind… with everything in the 403B you’ll have no option to change your strategy… in the roth ira you could be trading options tax free and picking stocks instead of funds etc… why limit your future choices?
if you have 100K in your 403B and no money in your IRA then you can’t just transfer between them later on because you feel like changing your mind from what I understand. the 403b thing might make it a little different.
I was implying that if I’m doing 10% into my 403B now… I could cut that back to 5% and put the other 5% into an IRA. Not necessarily moving the money thats already been put into one of the accounts.
Jack just so you know a bunch of professionals will sit down for a free consult and be able to explain pros and cons to the different ways of investing. So if you like what they are saying then go ahead and if not just sake hands and walk away. I was very impressed with how much time my guy was willing to sit down and explain/answer questions that I had. If you decide to meet with someone let me know and I will give you his contact info.
