How do you anticipate your retirement? Do you have a 'plan' ? Do you finance it 100%? Are you on target with what you'll need?

I am 15-18 yrs away (55-58). I am 100% dependant on market shares. If I get 6% with 2% inflation utnil then, I am OK. I am getting 7%+ so far with my portfolio. Of course, my real estate will be my security.

In Quebec, we have currently 5 workers for a retiree. By 2025-2030, it will be 2 workers for a retiree.

...Something is not likely to work as anticipated.

 

Try not to loose my wife....

 

You won't have to worry about her. If you mysteriously go missing, someone here will take care of her.

 

I'm saving for retirement but the reality is I have no idea how much $ I'll need. Who knows what cost of living will be then? I won't have a mortgage when I retire, that's for sure.

 

I am only 24, but I am prepared for retirement. I max out my 401k at 16%, and my company matches 4% with company stock that I can redistribute into any of my other funds.

I am also lined up for a pension, but that isnt something that I am depending on.

I should also have tons of equity in my real estate by then.

 

I plan on financing my retirement 100%.
The alternative is to rely on other people's money, which is never a pleasant thing.
As far as planning - well, when and how I retire basically depends on how much money I have
at that time.

How much you need depends on lifestyle and intangible things like how healthy you are! It's best to save up as much as you can, imho.
I recommend starting as early as possible, putting as much as you can into you Roth/Roth IRA/Roth 401k, and that should be plenty of money right there.

 

According to MS Money 97, not counting your real estate, you need 1 240 000$ to afford a 30yrs retirement of a mere 48K$/yr on 6% interest rate and 2% inflation.

 

in reality, the majority of the population is not prepared for retirement. many of my clients nowadays rely on SS and even worse, their children. I say pat yourself on the back for even going forward and planning for the future.

15-18 years is a good time horizon going forward, however, retiring at that age (55-58) may be something you'll have to adjust. remember, time is the strongest driving factor as to how comfortable you will be in retirement. you should consult a trustworthy financial planner to do a thorough asset allocation, cashflow and networth analysis and a retirement funding analysis. definitely re-evaluate your investment holdings and make changes as necessary.

nobody knows what the future dollar's value will be and how high the tax rates may rise. time is your friend, do an analysis, worst case scenario, gotta work a few more years til retirement.

 

100% here.

 

Most online brokers have financial planning software that's available for free. You may want to consult those source rather than a "financial planner" in person because most of those tend to be hucksters trying to sell you high commission financial products like whole life insurance, annuities, and loaded mutual funds.

It's a good thing that you're being conservative with your estimated return. A lot of people count on earning anywhere between 9 -12% per year for the next 30 years just because that has been the case in the past 20 -30 years. Unfortunately, in an economy growing at ~ 4-6% per year that rate of return is not sustainable on a diversified portfolio unless profit margins burgeon or there is a huge, heretofore unforeseen influx of new capital into the markets that keeps pushing valuations higher. Even fast growing economies like India or China are growing at less than 10% per year.

 

I don't know what "fianance it 100%" means... It's not like someone else is going to contribute to my retirement fund... But if anyone want's to, let me know

If it means that I contribute the max to my Roth IRA, and a decent chunk to my 401K (probably 75% of the max), and have other investments, savings, then yes...

I don't consider my house as part of my retirement plan...

 

Smart move Greenie.

 

You can't really count a house as part of your retirement plan... Hardly a liquid asset.

Sell off 100sq ft, or something...

 

100% here

I am placing a good amount in my pre-tax 401K (13%) and a bit in my post-tax Roth 401K (3%). I have shares in my company, but I plan on diversifying once I am married.

I plan on having kids (2 to be exact), so I know retiring before 60 maybe out of the question, but I am trying to save around 500 a month right now, and once I am married, targeting 1000 a month, if not more. My initial savings outlay will be used to pay for the kids education (pre-school, and University).

My future house will be equity, but I don't plan on it being my nest egg, and my Social Security (if it's even around by then), will be play money.

Hopefully I will be able to live comfortably with the future wifey on our own for ~60K a year

 

That's kinda what the previous owner of my house did... they downgraded...

They sold the house to me and moved to the Ocean Grove section of town. The lot sizes there are about a 1/4 of what I have and they lost a few 100 sq ft, but it was the only way they could retire and not have to carry a mortgage...

 

Ya, but you can't get at that money in a pinch. That was my point.

 

I'm just stackin up as much as possible now before kids and a wife start sucking money up. I figure it's better to have too much than not enough. I put 6% of my pay into 401k, then the company matches half of that but they also throw in around 10% of my salary each year for profit sharing which pretty much doubles my yearly contribution.

Plus Roth IRA will be started soon with vanguard and t. rowe price funds.

I also plan to start dumping money into 1 or 2 good consistent stocks that will be separate from my day-to-day trading portfolio.

 

Gotta snicker at this article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17706852/

Well, DUH. You can have $1 billion and be tight on money if you are used to driving to work in disposable Bentleys.


Although there are some good quotes: