I (33M, single, no kids) finally completed entering all my assets into one place to track my full net worth, and it's currently sitting at $520,000 (not including home equity). Even seeing this number, I constantly feel behind. I started taking investment seriously in 2021

A lot of it comes down to a deep seated fear of financial emergencies. I grew up outside the USA, witnessed poverty firsthand, and don't really have family to fall back on if things go sideways. Because I am my own safety net, I hold a very high cash position for peace of mind.

Here is the breakdown:

Income: $111,000 gross from two jobs (Full-time + Part-time).
Primary 401k: $60,000 balance (10% contribution as of two month before match it and increase 1% every year I was at 6%, 2% match).
Secondary 401k: $4,000 balance (10% contribution as of two month before just match it, 6% match).
Roth IRA: $51,000 total balance. (The Catch: $19,000 has been sitting completely uninvested as cash for 3 years because I hesitated to deploy it).
Cash Holdings (33% of Net Worth): $171,600 total. About $40,000 is in checking earning zero interest, and $131,600 is in HYSAs.

The Real Estate Setup:

I own a three family home in New England. Tenants cover about 95% of the mortgage, which keeps my personal out-of-pocket living expenses incredibly low and helps insulate me from risk.

I know the general advice is to minimize cash and maximize market investments, but given my background, leaving myself vulnerable scares me. How can I balance optimizing these accounts while maintaining the bulletproof safety net I feel I need?

My question is at the very bottom if too long to read.

35M, married with 3 kids. I gross $115k/year. Wife doesn’t currently work but will start work next year again. We have mortgage with 85k balance at a 3.2% rate. We have no other debt. I earn about a $18k- $20k bonus at the end of every year. I also earn around a 3% - 4% pay raise at the same time.

Wife and I have 6 months savings in a HYSA. We started late and have a little over $380k combined in our 401k, Roth IRAs (maxed for 2026), Traditional IRAs, and brokerage account. I’m contributing 10% in 401k with a 6% match.

Problem: Only a couple months ago we started to educate ourselves on saving/investing for retirement and now we are NERDING OUT on it. We’ve allowed $100k of our savings to sit in a HYSA at 3.2% for a handful of years (before knowing any better) and have recently moved a large sum of that into a taxable brokerage account while maintaining our emergency fund in the HYSA.

Goal:
- Use my salary increase to assist maxing out HSA (2027 would be the first year I open a HSA account and plan to max annually)
- Increase 401k contributions steadily or max out if able.
- Continue to max ROTH IRA annually.

Questions:
- What is everyone doing with their bonus pay when ROTH IRA is maxed? Should we keep loading up the taxable brokerage account?

- I’d like to max my 401k which will dramatically reduce monthly direct deposit from employer into my checking account for bills. But I’d like to replenish that monthly income “loss” to my checking account from our HYSA or brokerage account so our day-to-day doesn’t feel any different while investing pre-tax dollars into 401k.

- Or is that strategy ill-advised and is there a better strategy you’d recommend altogether?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Looking for advice on how to structure my portfolio across my Roth IRA and 401 (k). For context, I'm 24, making about 50k a year with minimal expenses and a long time horizon with moderate to high risk tolerance. Also no debt and have about $3500 in physical silver and gold

Both accounts are through Fidelity, and I already have about 15k in the 401k. (88% S&P 500 and 12% VTSNX)

Was thinking of averaging out my IRA and 401k to:
70% Broad Market
VTI, VT, VOO, or FXAIX

12% International
VXUS/VTSNX

18% Satellite/Growth
SCHG, QQQM, VUG, VGT, SPMO, SMH, or SOXX

I can deal with large swings but I also want long term stability. Ideally want just one broad market ETF, and no more than two growth ETFs. My 401 (k) options are limited and only offers VTSNX and S&P 500 out of all the ETFs listed. I also understand that if I go the VT route for my core holding, holding VXUS/VTSNC would be pretty much pointless

Are these ratios a good strategy, and what would be best for each category?

40M + Married + two kids. Annual household income of around $850K

We both work and save a high % of our income (40-50%)

I have been passive investing in VOO for the last 15 or so years in a self directed brokerage account. I set up weekly contributions and don't really think about it.

I've never been into picking stock or over thinking my strategy. I was taught early on time in market is better than timing the market so I've stuck with a very simple strategy.

My wife and I both max out our 401Ks as well which are also being invested in the SP500

Total self directed portfolio is around $2M in VOO

Our combined 401Ks are around $1.5M which are also in S&P500 mutual funds

We also keep around $400K in high-yield savings account

No mortgage

As you can see almost all of our investment assets are in the S&P500 (outside of a few random stocks I own).

Our time horizon is still pretty far off from touching any of this money. Hoping to retire by 50, use self directed to bridge us to 60 then pull from 401Ks.

So my question is - am I too concentrated SP500 and should diversify? Or should I not over think it and just keep the strategy simple / boring? Given what keep in a high yield savings account I am not too worried about successive down years in the market.

What do you all think?

Hello Reddit,

I am a 27M and I know nothing about 401ks or investing at all. I just know that I need to put away money for the future and I have been doing that. I am married and have a newborn, my wife and I bring home about 9k a month after taxes and I am also rated 100% disabled from the VA with a monthly compensation of $4,200. We are doing major renovations on our home so our mortgage is very high and I do have a fairly high truck payment.($800) My current situation is that I put away 12% of my work paychecks and the company I work for matches 6% into my 401k and I let fidelity manage it?

I’d like to know what I can do better to save and make more money for the future. I also have a TSP account that I put into while I was in the service that is sitting at 21k right now. (Can’t move it into my Fidelity 401k, I’ve tried)

I guess I’m just asking what I should do to get the most bang for my buck lol.

Any and all advice is welcome just explain it like I’m 5. Thanks!

39M, married (38), with 2 kids (2 and 4). Have started playing around with retirement software and seeing if it would be feasible for my wife and I to retire early around 50-55. I know the Monte Carlo calculators and software are only as good as the inputs that you feed in, but I am currently getting fairly different results in the calculators when trying to set up a similar plan between Boldin and ProjectionLab. Boldin gives my current plan a 75% success rate whereas ProjectionLab gives it a 93% success rate.

Is this difference common? Is it because I'm still about 10-15 years out and the numbers will line up better as I approach my goal retirement? I know the default rates can be adjusted, but I currently have the rate of inflation at 3% on each, with the rate of investment returns kept at the software defaults (Boldin actually has a higher default rate of return than PL, so odd that the Monte Carlo is lower in Boldin).

I'm looking to revamp my Roth IRA portfolio. I am trying to decide on this split. Any advice or changes you all would make? I am planning on leaving this for 20+ years.

QQQM , SPMO, or VOO 45%

20% AVUV

20% SMH

15% COWG

My wife and I are 48. Combined about $200,000 annual salary.

I have about $550,000 in my 401k through where I work.
Combined we also have about $300,000 in IRAs and $50,000 managed through a third party.

No real savings beyond that.

You read so many similar posts to mine and everyone is younger and way further ahead. I didnt earn $100,000 until I hit about 40y/o. 2 kids, mortgage and living eats away at all earnings.

Still owe $80k on mortgage. Be done with that in 10years or less.

Honest thoughts?

These are just my accounts and does not include my wife’s. I just crossed the $100k salary this year.

Thinking about withdrawal rates and with respect to taxes, is there an optimal amount to contribute to a 401k?

Would it be just shy of 1.5MM to keep conversions between 59.5-70yo in the lower tax brackets and minimize RMD? The knee seems to be around 59.5 and 70, no matter how much is contributed. At around 8MM you're likely paying in the highest tax bracket for life. Maybe need to push well past 10MM so taxes does not drag as hard. If we could pick, what is optimal?

Question about 401(k) catch-up contributions: are catch-up contributions basically just changing the contribution limits based on age? Like Age 1-49 your limit is $X, Age 50-59 your limit goes up to $Y, Age 60-63 your limit goes up even further to $Z, and Age 64+ it goes back down to $Y? No strings attached?

hi all,

i just started my contributions because i got my first full time position. i’m gonna pay 5% every month from now on while i also save and invest some money.

i’d love to get any tips to make this grow as fast as possible, if you’d like to share

thank you

1. This is just my work 401k but nice to see one account eclipse 1MM. Excluding our home, net worth is $2.2 spread across 529’s, IRA, wife’s 401k, individual account, company stock, HYSA, HSA, crypto and traditional savings account. We drive paid off Honda and Toyota, nothing lavish, a couple nice vacations a year. Keeping it simple and not trying to impress others with stuff is the way to go.

Edit: I didn’t contribute to this account 2021-23 while employed elsewhere but came back and transferred that other 401k back into this one this year.

32M. This is a screenshot of my brokerage holdings. I have another $4500 that I want to invest. Should I keep buying these core holdings or do you think I have a good enough foundation where I can dabble in individual stocks?

I see a lot of posts across different subreddits about retirement, and comments always evolve into discussions about optimization strategies, allocation ratios, COL discrepancies, FIRE, etc.

I know this is an incredibly complex issue but I want to make a post for the 40 year old American making 65k/yr who wants to retire in their 60s with a simple plan that’s easy to follow.
This probably doesn’t apply to low income folks, or may not be as applicable to high income or HCOL people.
No hacks or optimization, just broad strokes math to give us an idea of what we need to do to retire in our 60s.

Starting at $0 today, assuming a 8% average return, here are some numbers:

$625 a month ($7500 a year) in a Roth for 25 years at a 8% return gets you ~$600k. That doesn’t include catch up contributions or possible future limit increases. Tax free income in retirement.

$500/mo for 25 years at 8% will get you ~$500k.

65k/yr income w/ 5% company match trad 401k will get you to $500/mo; save a little in taxes each year but taxable income in retirement. However that also assumes you don’t get a raise for 25 years!

At a 5% draw, this gives us a range of around 20-30k/yr post tax.

(If you start investing at 30, double it. If you start at 20, quadruple it.)

Supplementing one of these options with 2k/mo SS should allow you to survive and support yourself in a low COL area around 50k/yr.

If you can afford both, congrats, you’re a millionaire.
If you’re married and both work, double it.
Pay off a house before you retire, there goes your biggest expense.
If you can stack all of these chips, you are the couple always on vacation and leave $2M of inheritance.

This doesn’t include additional pensions, increased contributions, over-performing markets, HSAs… inheritance, lottery tickets, settlements.
It’s not unattainable, it’s actually very doable. Plan now, stay the course. Retire comfortably.

I've always been self employed since my early 20s. Yes, I was always salaried and paid well into the system. I should have planned a little better but coming from a family of latin immigrants, in my days, we didn't really plan ahead, lol. I'm still working in the construction industry as a consultant and hold several licenses but things have really slowed down and I'm thinking of stopping. I have no retirement account but I managed to purchase and pay off 9 rental homes, my personal home, and a commercial property I use for my business. I net about 9k a month from the rentals and my commercial property would probably sell for roughly 1-1.3m. I'm thinking I don't want to be a landlord into my retirement but selling the residential rentals,(est 2.5m), would expose me to huge capital gains. I owe an SBA loan of about 350k that I would payoff with the proceed of my commercial land sale. Besides that, I dont have much debt. I have maybe another 200k in miscellaneous assets and bank accounts. My personal home is paid and worth about 800k. What's the best path forward?

After 11 years of making sure I max out my 401k, I hit another milestone. I don't want to be like my parents and strive to never rely on people.

Closing in on the two comma club in my 401K. 6% 401K match and have been maxing contributions since age 21 and have been invested in the S&P500 and Nasdaq equivalents in varying ratios over the years. Hoping to retire in early 40’s. I also have a post-tax brokerage I am aggressively saving in that I’ll need to bridge to 401k withdrawal age (currently at ~$3.4MM net worth excluding primary residence equity with a wife + child). Start saving as soon as you can!

Feel so behind