<p>"I’ll bet there are far more people with big bucks in their 401K’s. I’m surprised so many people have managed to accrue large amounts in just their IRAs at all.</p>
<p>Busdriver11, LOL!</p>
<p>It is not many…</p>
<p>That is what Notrichenough and I are talking about. :)</p>
<p>It is 9,000 taxpayers out of 43 MILLION with IRAS above $5 million. </p>
<p>9,000 out of 43 million.</p>
<p>314 taxpayers out of 43 million taxpayers have iras above $25 million.</p>
<p>314!</p>
<p>And the way some of the 314 did it looks like a scam…</p>
<p>That article reads more about encouraging more investment, not stopping the deals and breaks for the mega IRAs and the ultra wealthy. It is mistitled. Of course the way that many of those people got hundreds of millions of dollars in their IRAs are through sweetheart deals that aren’t available to most of us. And I doubt Congress will ever do away with the good deals for their donors.</p>
<p>I see no reason why 401k’s should be excluded. If you have millions (pick a number - 5, 10, whatever) in total in your tax-advantaged saving accounts, at some point that is enough on the taxpayers’ dime. Contributions should cease, and perhaps the money should come out. No tax-free growth when you have $10 million, you have to put it in a regular account so it gets taxed.</p>
<p>I also think it is wrong that Roth distributions (or imputed distributions if there is no forced RMD) don’t count when calculating the taxability of SS benefits.</p>
<p>Well, it was legal, and still is. The politicians can rant and complain about people who make too much money and how they make it, and it’s all rhetoric. The wealthy have gotten far wealthier over the last six years. The ranters are good for the wealthiest people’s bank accounts, all populist rhetoric and nothing more, at least when it comes to the deep pockets.</p>
<p>We’re an example of a couple who started planning for retirement from our first jobs out of college (late 70’s, early 80’s). We have always lived on our one highest salary and banked the other no matter what the culture was telling us to do with our money or what we “deserved” and no matter how modest a lifestyle that decision imposed. This was a tough decision during the 80’s when we were young and all of our friends were living/spending like it would never end. But we found it rather fun to figure out how to entertain ourselves without a lot of the services or toys that would have eaten up our later financial freedom. We looked at this strategy as a form of writing our own lottery ticket which we would cash in when it was time to step off the treadmill. We both have worked traditional/professional jobs, no windfalls, no gifts, just slow and steady saving and investing.</p>
<p>We had our one (surprise) child at 40 and had to factor in education, so we started saving for that before he was born and understood that our retirement timeframe would need to be adjusted as we weren’t/aren’t flexible on the retirement number. Naturally, there have been bumps along the way, but significant savings were always there to cover, and we just returned to the plan as soon as each bump was resolved. We are now in our late 50’s with no mortgage or debt and a senior who will be off to college next year backed by a fully-funded 529 which, ironically, he may not need to use (or not much). We’re within a year of our retirement number and, yes, there’s quite a hefty sum there.</p>
<p>However, now that the lottery ticket is in hand, I’m not as anxious as I thought I’d be to cash it in. DH wants to put our outgrown house on the market next summer and get a rental (or small condo) in our local city (a tourist destination) while we look around for that perfect place to spend our third quarter of life. I agree that it’s about time to move on, but I am so attached to the memories in this house, I just can’t let go yet. There are some losses money cannot recover.</p>
<p>To answer a question, we could only take some money out of that company provided 401k for rollover (a small portion, about $27,000) I I will check after H is 59.5 to see if we can do more rollover - not distribution, but rollover. H has signed so I can deal directly with Prudential on this - his company has such skeletal HR. Some plans do offer an option for you to rollover a certain amount of money yearly, but not how his plan is written.</p>
<p>“However, now that the lottery ticket is in hand, I’m not as anxious as I thought I’d be to cash it in. DH wants to put our outgrown house on the market next summer and get a rental (or small condo) in our local city (a tourist destination) while we look around for that perfect place to spend our third quarter of life. I agree that it’s about time to move on, but I am so attached to the memories in this house, I just can’t let go yet. There are some losses money cannot recover”</p>
<p>Sometimes it is a big mistake to leave where you are happy, and try to find a place elsewhere. Sometimes it is worth the money to stay put, if you can afford it.</p>
<p>We are wrestling with that right now. Not that we think that we’re going to move for at least five years, but do we put big bucks (50-75K) into windows that will last forever? Or just fix them up to last a couple of years? For all we know, we could live there until we die, but it is a very expensive, maintenance heavy house. But we don’t want to even think about leaving. If we knew we were going to be there forever, the decision would be easy.</p>
<p>Most people consider themselves middle class, whether it’s upper or lower.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I have much choice on the windows except for how long to delay. It’s either 30K ish to get vinyl, or 50-75 to get fiberglass that last forever. It’s not that we’re looking for fancy windows, just ones we don’t have to deal with again, ever. It’s a funny business, though. We’re prepared to spend a lot of money on these windows, and nobody seems to want our business. We’re flexible, not picky, easy to work with…and they all have so much business they don’t even want to give us a quote. Business must be great.</p>
<p>Roofers must be doing a great business too. It was next to impossible to get someone to give us an estimate to fix our roof. And getting a handyman out to look at windows to fix? A joke. Apparently quite a shortage of skilled laborers. Took my neighbors four months to get someone out to fix their deck. </p>
<p>Think people who might be good with their hands and willing to work might be better of getting a job in skilled labor, as opposed to spending thousands on college and then earning less after graduation.</p>
<p>Maybe someone should start a thread about not wasting their money in college, but working in the skilled trades where there apparently is huge demand.</p>
<p>Some skilled trades like plumbing and electric require some sort of apprenticeship, which can take as long as college.</p>
<p>Roofing isn’t really a skilled trade, but it is hot, heavy, and dangerous work. We put a new roof on when we bought our house, but we’ve been there so long we may need to do it again. I have a roofer I’ve thrown a ton of business to, he returns our calls. </p>
<p>The trades are extremely cyclical. We’ve done a lot of renovations and improvements on our house, and many of those guys didn’t survive the recession. Now there is a lot of pent up demand.</p>
<p>I agree, and we even bought this house thinking we’d be in it forever but, like you, we’re facing too much investment to make it worthwhile and neither DH nor DS has any emotional attachment, it’s just me with the lump in my throat. The house will need new A/C eventually, but the real issue is the pool. We haven’t used it in years, since DS went off to boarding school. I do the maintenance, but we have to hire a service when we travel for any length of time and, once we’re retired, we hope to spend our summers elsewhere. We could take it out, of course, but that is uber expensive and would significantly de-value the house should we ever need to sell as not having a pool here is the same as not having a garage back east. Can we afford to stay? Yes. Does it make sense to stay? No. We’ve simply outgrown this footprint and family/child-focused community. We’re looking to downsize, but upscale, to a lock-and-leave solar-home community (there are several very attractive options here) that will free us to enjoy the fun and weather here in the winter and travel to cooler places in the summer. My husband would just like to live in the city temporarily after the house sells while we decide on which of these communities works best for us.</p>
<p>The real issue here, for me, is facing the fact that we are entering a new phase of our lives which brings changes in identity as well as property. Our role as parents is changing as well as our relationship to work and each other. It’s all good, but although we’ve answered the OP’s question about how much we need to retire comfortably, I’m not quite so sure about the “when.” There is a difference between financial readiness and emotional readiness. I will have no problem leaving the workplace, but I will need some time to make my peace with leaving this “home" that no longer fits.</p>