Long story short, I received a new position at work. This came at the same time I hit my one year mark. Making me eligible for the 401K plan.
The plan is through Mass Mutual. I started out putting 10% away, but with the pay raise…I may up it to 15% in a couple months. (Work will eventually match a small %)
I don’t know shit about this stuff, but its going to be a large chunk of change @ 22 years old. Making upper five figures and eventually six.
I was told by this guy that does 401k planning for all the Basil’s to put it in a “Dow Jones Target 2045” fund. Basically its aggressive now, but towards 2045 it becomes more conservative when I’m ready to retire.
I can change it all around and place it into any type of plan I want. OPI, etc. etc. I don’t really remember everything, as the book is on my desk at work.
Should I stay @ 10% or go to 15% if I’m comfortable? Should I only throw 5% in, and put the rest in a Roth IRA?
I’ve searched and really came up with nothing. Just a couple threads. Any ideas?
PS - I’m looking for stability when I retire, with the possibility of general wealth in the next ten years. Maybe have access to the money in 15 years?
if you want to start a roth, shoot me a pm… if 15% isnt going to affect your living situation, then why not? its pretax money, so contribute as much as you can afford now before you have kids and things that require more financial attention.
the longer the money sits in the account, the more growth opportunity it has. (common sense)
Most people dont realize they can get to their retirement accounts without penalty before 59.5, as long as you annuitize the Retirement account over the time when you WILL BE 59.5 you can legally do it penatly free.
I know that, I’m not worried about pulling money out of my 401k early. I’d just rather only put 10% in and then put 5% in somewhere else, that i can get to when my kids go to college or i buy a house etc.
15% is quite a lot. Your only 22, no need to put that much in. Put as much as your company matches and leave it at that for a while (my work matches 6%, but I only put in 3%). You can always change it later when you get a big raise or something. Put the extra money that would go into the 401k into a savings account, no doubt you are going to want to buy a house at some point.
:lol: 15% is a lot, but he’d like to retire someday so maybe its not a lot for him. You’re leaving money on the table if you’re not putting the full 6% in, and for that reason alone, I dont think I’d take advice from you. Adam doesn’t have very many financial obligations at this point, so why not plan ahead, if its too much, he can always lower it as needed.
while you’re young, get the ball rolling by putting away as much as you can into the 401k and/or IRA before your expenses in life balloon (and they will). As I just posted in another thread, put into the 401k as much as they match, then goto the IRA where you have a ton more options and won’t have to worry about rolling it out to another 401k or IRA later on.
401k program used to list a lot of funds as “low risk” "high risk etc… but many have switched to “retire in 2045” “retire in 2060”… so pick the year you will require and they will manage with the aggressiveness that makes sense.
I would also focus on getting a savings account with a few months reserve because you never know what will happen.
if you were going traditional ira, there would be no real point other than you wouldnt lose your ability to contribute to the ira if you left your place of employment.
If you went Roth IRA, i can see many other advantages, esp if you think you’re going to have a wealthy retirement income.