When did you start saving for Retirement

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I used all 403B and Roth because as a single mother nurse, it never occurred to me that I could retire young, before being allowed to access those funds. I had absolutely not a glimmer of hope for that in my eyes. And everything I read said max fund 403b and Roth, then kids' college and then non-retirement vehicles after all that. I never reached totally maxing my retirement vehicles, never mind the next two things.

now while waiting to see if I will get SSDI at 45, I'm wondering if that was the smartest advice but I'm getting by. Although, once I get SSDI, I can access my retirement funds without penalty, I just hope i don't have to.

You could also draw on retirement funding in equivalent amounts to get around the penalties. If you do get disability you will get SSDI. However without it are you able to retire with what you have saved?

I guess it is important to balance saving for retirement inside and outside of retirement vehicles if you plan on retiring early. However usually people who retire early have done that because they were "planning" on retiring early and were able to save that much.

Due to unforeseen circumstances you didn't expect to need your money now versus even 10 years from now. You've mentioned FLA how aggressively you've invested the retirement accounts so it hasn't been in the plan to touch them this early. So I wouldn't say it was a bad thing to have been saving in retirement accounts versus taxable accounts. I think you saved with as much foresight as anyone could have given the known information at the time.

[FLA]

Due to unforeseen circumstances you didn't expect to need your money now versus even 10 years from now. You've mentioned FLA how aggressively you've invested the retirement accounts so it hasn't been in the plan to touch them this early. So I wouldn't say it was a bad thing to have been saving in retirement accounts versus taxable accounts. I think you saved with as much foresight as anyone could have given the known information at the time.

Thanks for that.

I did get SSDI so I now can draw penalty free from them if needed. However, really don't want to do that. I don't need to yet because I am still getting long term disability from my employer. But that policy, that is supposed to boost earnings for disabled employees until age 65, is known for giving out two years max. So once I lose that I may need to touch retirement.

So far I've met all my bills and saved a lot in the EF for future medical expenses, but that is with me not paying my share of the taxes on this house. So far everyone has been more than fine with that but I hate it. But I acknowledge that their generosity has allowed me to grow that EF and it is very kind of them.

I earned another free CFP session from Vanguard, once I get my official SSDI award letter, I plan to work through various scenarios with them.

[RedHotLama]

My first job at 15 was for the state and they pulled some money out for their pension program, later in college i rolled that over to an IRA. After college, 22 years old, during my first job is when i started saying in retirement accounts. 401k was limited to 20% and that didn't get me to the yearly max. But i have either put in the max i was allowed to contribute or hit the yearly max since. I also have funded in full ROTH IRAs each year.

My wife and I are now 33 and 32 and we have both been doing this. My plan is to retire at 40 and if conversions into roths are still allowed, to do some strategic roll overs.

[FLA]

well done!

[Goldy]

I started with my first job at the age of 16 and contributed the max to the Roth which at the time was 2k or so. My math teacher spent a day talking about compound interest and investing and it really opened my eyes to investing early. After that I continued to invest in the Roth and once I got in my career at 22 I started contributing to the 401k at 10% and increased it until it was maxed about three years ago.

[FLA]

kids need to be taught about the basics about personal finance. I'd like to replace whatever Home Ec is called now with a semester on finance. I can teach my kid to iron and cook a basic meal and "consumer skills", i.e.: how to buy things for the best price, etc.

I don't feel 100% confident teaching them the basics of investing. My son shocked me by confessing he is contributing to a 403B at low paying nursing home job he has. I guess he heard me all these years but he won't discuss how it is invested. I'm guessing all in a money market acct because that's how his dad was.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I wish my mom had been more wise about retirement savings. I learned good financial habits but no investing habits zero. Nothing on mutual or index funds. Nothing on 401k or Roth IRA. Only BAD investment advice like buy real estate it never goes down. Even bad investing in real estate such as "as long as you get close to the mortgage". Never anything about looking for ROI on RE.

But it would have been nice to have it all explained.

[NormanR]

I've always been a saver. Never one to splash the cash unnecessarily! I started saving straight out of college. First question I asked at my first job interview was what's the 401k?? Been saving ever since

[Singuy]

I started saving for retirement after the company I work for started matching. Frankly I am going to take what they tell me with a grain of salt about my 401k. Yes..if I can get a constant rate of return at 11-12%/year, my 401k will have millions by the time I retire. But I think that's a pipe dream dealing with the stock market bubble. To me this retirement account is just a bonus. I rather have cash in my hand than put it in the hand of the market.

My -2.65% return this year is saying hello

My wife is not contributing to any kind of 401k. She is allowed to contribute up to 50k/year because she's a small business owner but I was like..mehhh. Maybe once we have another correction sometimes this or next year when the Dow is at 9k points due to the market credit bubble..then we'll start her 401k.

[rennigade]

It seems to me that I am the only one who has saved for retirement outside traditional retirement type funds

Most people do not realize but any money you stuck in a roth ira can be taken out anytime penalty free. Its basically a savings/retirement account.

I started saving for retirement around 2007 when I was 24ish. Was fortunate enough to contribute a lot of roth/401k so far...it has added up nicely.

[FLA]

Most people do not realize but any money you stuck in a roth ira can be taken out anytime penalty free. Its basically a savings/retirement account.

I was planning to use the Roth principle towards college. I think you have to have it in there 5 yrs before you can take it back out penalty free

[Calacola]

I started at 26 and it was nearly 6%.

[ygrey]

Hell, I just started saving. I guess i'll just use someone else's tricks to start saving up.!

[sv2007]

We just invested and forgot about. We saved other money but that's when started saving for retirement. Now in our 30s we'll just continue. I wish we had saved more earlier and had more options.

How much did your early savings grow?
Well, hindsight is 20/20.

It seems fashionable to retire early these days. But retirement life isn't all that carefree; I'm right now very tired from the several vacations we took in during the last few weeks. I want a rest, but wife wants to go visit somewhere that's 4.5hr away (we've booked hotels already).

Since beginning of July, we've been to Las Vegas, a cruise from LA, an RV trip to Santa Barbara, and now a car journey to Fort Braggs next week. These are all DRIVING vacations (except LV), and I'm the one who end up driving (and I don't like driving). I must drive or I might get motion sickness.

Seriously, working was way easier than this. I look forward to the start of school for my kid; then we'd be more trapped. Last year, I got really sick (physically and needed medical treatments) from all the traveling (IL, TX, OR, HI all between July and August). This year, I'm sleeping/resting as much as possible between travelings.

One more thing is that retirement savings vs normal savings should not be thought of as different. It you do, how can you ever retire early. It is similar to how some people assign different values to wher emoney comes from (hence the phrase easy come easy go); money is money. This is key to retiring early and investment growth.

[sv2007]

How old were you when you started saving for retirement? How much did you save % I mean. Did you start at 1%? 5%? Have you increased it or just stayed the same?

I started saving even during high school; I don't really classify savings as retirement or not; it is just money that I can use in the future.

I started an official retirement account on my first real job after college) when I was 23 where I put away the max % into my 401k. I think it was 10-15%, can't remember exactly. I also put in max into traditional/roth IRA accounts since 23.

Over the years, I always put in pretty much the max percentage (although later in life, I max out on the max allowed contribution, so it doesn't really matter what % I put).

The allowed max amount has increased over the years, and since I've been putting in max for the past so many years, the answer would be that I've increased it over the years.

The thing is, that's just retirement accounts, and I won't be touching that fo many years down the road. BUT I'm retired right now. HOW? Well, this is where I said I've been saving since high school, to me, my savings don't have specific assigned tasks; if I need the money, I'll take it out of savings (there's some considerations given to tax and investments, but there's no "this is retirement money, and that's fun money". All money's the same to me (so far, no business has refused my $ yet where they want to know , since I'm retired, if it came from my retirement fund : )

I think this is an important concept that can really help or give a leg up to someone in life.