Feeling Average
Seeing a lot of self-selection bias posts from people either doing REALLY well or who may be behind a bit. Wanted to share the perspective of someone who (at least from my perspective) is just doing ok, accounting for income.
33M making 150k. 180k in 401k. Only contributing 5% right now (employer matches fully so total 10% being contributed). Will be finishing up paying off 80k in student loans next month.
Wife is 31F making 110k. She has about 140k in her 401k. She is contributing 9% and gets 11% from her employer (academia has some crazy retirement perks). She just finished paying off her student loans.
We’ll be prioritizing saving up for a 20% house down payment next, which will be about 120k-140k.
For my 401k it does pain me that I’m not contributing 15% of my own money (would be about 1k/month more out of my take home) but trying to save up for a house downpayment is not easy! I was contributing 15% for a few years but decreased my contributions to pay off my student loans more quickly.
We also will be paying about 2k/month for daycare starting in August, so that’s an extra level of fun.
Overall for retirement my wife is certainly doing better than me, and we’re both set up for reasonably comfortable retirements in our 60s, but nothing extravagant. Wish I had started sooner though!