The general rule is contribute the max that you can.

If your company plan sucks, contribute only up to the company match and put the rest in an IRA.

Your minimum savings per paycheck should be 10%. 30% is great, especially if you have to fund college plans and such...

Live below your means, but always strive to increase your "means".

Sooner or later the have nots are going to over whelm the system dragging it down. Before that the demand for cash to keep it going is going to result in consficatory tax regimes. Illinois, NY, CA, WA, NJ, etc.

Stalin depoessed millions of Kulaks from their property, sending most to their deaths. In one fell swope he altered hundreds of years of Russian society forever.

+1. This, exactly. There are a lot of psychological studies that show that once certain basic needs are met, satisfaction from further marginal gains thereafter do little to increase happiness. It's about $75K to 90K per year, depending on where you live. Add in another $20K if you own an air-cooled Porsche.

I had a boss who sort of hit the corporate big-time lottery and was paid a multi-million dollar bonus (grossed up for taxes) when she left her high-paying job ($1M plus guaranteed $1M bonus annually.) We went back many years, and as she steadily climbed the corporate ladder, ultimately ascending to riches, she became more and more unhappy every step. She also changed a great deal--for the worse. It all became about the money to her.

We were good friends once, but I haven't spoken to her for several years. We don't care about the same stuff anymore.

I'm nearly half way there (to 1M$) now with 10 years to go until retirement. With a full pension, some SS, and no debt, I shouldn't have any problems.

38 to be 'zact. See, I knew I could find something good about getting old.

SmileWavy SmileWavy :cool:

The tax man cometh. :eek:

I've definitely found in my life that stuff doesn't make happiness. Sometimes stuff enables experiences that bring happiness, for example spending time with family and friends on our boat. But stuff for the sake of stuff, including money, does not bring happiness. My goal is to have enough in the bank that we can enjoy our retirement and the same level of lifestyle that we had while I was working, and I'd say we are on track to attain that.

Do you people think you live in a vacuum?

The government is going to feed, cloth and house most of those people who saved nothing. They are going to have to get the money from those that have. It already is doing just that by printing money and borrowing heavily. It is called stealth robbery of slowly devaluing the intrinsic value of your assets so as you don't notice. The government does not want civil unrest..so give em bread and circus.

America has been getting a little shabbier every year for decades. What passes for good today would be unheard of even a few years ago. If you people who have something to lose are not worried about it, then who is? Ryan is going home...

The first thing FDR did in 1933 was close ALL the banks. and made it illegal to have gold.

Money does not buy happiness. But it buys freedom and independence and those things can add to your overall happiness factor.
If you don't have to worry about finances, you are prolly in a better mood.
if you don't have to put up with crap from a boss because you know you can walk in a heartbeat and not be hurt by it, that makes you smile.
If you don't have to worry about having enough for yourself or your wife and kids, that makes you not sad.
If you know you could go most anywhere or buy most anything or do most anything that is legal, that makes you independent and free.

Spending money just to get something new is a fleeting experience that fades quickly.
Watching your portfolio generate more income than your job lasts all friggin day.

And there is nothing wrong with being frugal or developing frugal habits.
If you can be happy without spending $$$$ on crap, you're better off than most.
But anything carried to an excess becomes evil. If you obsess over money to the point where it detracts from happiness, it sux and you aren't doing it right.

Look what is going on in American society....mass shootings almost everyday, snowflakes in elite colleges claiming disability, jobs that certainly are not paying MC wages, with less hours. With 39% of Americans not able to cover a $1000 emergency. Stresses have been building for years.

Who is going to be able to buy the crap down at Wallmart or on Amazon that has to be sold in order for the economy to grow? You need broad based participation in order to continue. Americans don't have the jobs, savings/cash and or the credit anymore to continue doing it. And they wonder why the economy is anemic.

But if you people (who have everything to lose) are not concerned about it...well then the train is just going to continue on till it can't anymore.

Well put. Your clarity is appreciated.

Getting rich requires two behaviors:

Earn more, spend less.

i'll let you guess:
"he's like that dude watching an orgy, trying to stick his dick somewhere, anywhere."

hahah..

i'm saving for the future hoping for the best. when i hit 50, i started that catch up amount. i'm maxed. my paycheck is embarrasing. crazy how money is so easy to spend, so hard to make and save. i wish i started earlier.

Selfish me...I'm pushing 75. Figure the train will probably keep going as long as I'm here. But..the young kids probably should worry about this.

When you have money you don't worry about covering the bills you worry about keeping it. There are no free lunches..

America has PROMOTED Conspicuous Consumption for nearly 75 years. America is broke (along with the world) and so are you but you don't know it yet... The money in your portfolio is fake money...

I say enjoy what you have and be thankful you have it, but don't expect the illusion to last forever. The powers that be have really fked you over big time for decades to keep the music playing for another day. They have robbed your future for a hamburger today.

Good for you!

Now these next ten years, because you're all set, should take up increasing devotion to making your life and the lives of those whom you love BETTER.

Retirement, done right, is the time to reap what you have so diligently sown. There really is no greater payback, of course, than investing in yourself.

Thanks, corg.

You are a thinking man.

So many of my similarly aged co-workers have many bad habits, and are saving nothing because the small pension, and SS will be their lifeblood when that are finally able to retire in their late 60s. Having everything paid off with cash in hand, and in the bank is very comforting. I have a large 401K that I have been contributing 20% into for a few years now, but it could all go bust in a crash.....at least they can't take my home, or my pride.

You are absolutely right. You will... HAVE been seeing a slow but steady deterioration in your civil circumstances... more consternation and craziness in society.

We live in interesting times, and I watch it with a bag of popcorn enjoying the circus go by.

Your coworkers have made a calculation just as you have, ck.

They have banked on a federal bailout of some sort, or at least of a subsistence until death. There are a lot of them, too. That's the way they're rolling their dice so who can criticize?

Ultimately, when push comes to shove, the relationships you have built will mean your and their survival.

Unencumbered outright ownership affords a moral basis for protecting and keeping property by any means.

A check in the mail is only as good as the check and the mail.