When we say "max 401k out" does that mean multiple people ITT are contributing 2x,xxx per year?

8/24/2012 12:09:21 PM

^^^I believe that is correct, yes. You pay whatever the income tax rate would be for the distribution you take. So if you take a distribution of $50k you will pay 25% of that in federal income tax plus whatever your state income tax is, but no other taxes (FICA, medicare) since you already paid those on that money when it was going in.

^Well, it's $17k, but yeah.

[Edited on August 24, 2012 at 12:12 PM. Reason : carats]

8/24/2012 12:09:45 PM

^^ 16K and change last year, although I think they upped it to 17K this year

8/24/2012 12:12:55 PM

Quote :

"When we say "max 401k out" does that mean multiple people ITT are contributing 2x,xxx per year?"

Yes, my wife and I both do this.


And, ^correct. It is 17k this year.

8/24/2012 12:27:36 PM

Bah, no raise this year and I'm too lazy to change my contribution amount.

8/24/2012 12:35:24 PM

I moved mine up to the new match because I got my PE license so I got a bump from that. I kind of wish that our company 401k portal let you just select "max contribution" like Vanguard does with my Roth IRA so that I don't have to figure out the right % and it auto moves up the amount to whatever the federal max is that year

8/24/2012 12:37:51 PM

You could just put it at a % that would more than max it out and then they would just stop taking it out once you hit the max. That's what I did last year, it was kind of nice to have a little larger than normal paycheck around Xmas.

8/24/2012 12:44:00 PM

Yeah, that's what I did my first year, unfortunately my salary isn't increasing % wise faster than the 401K max.

8/24/2012 12:46:38 PM

That's basically what I do since I can't do exact %s (just whole numbers). I try and get it remotely close however. You're right though that it is nice to get that small amount of extra money at the end of the year

8/24/2012 12:46:50 PM

^^It only went up $500. That's an extra $20 per paycheck. Just up your contribution, fool.

8/24/2012 12:50:12 PM

I'm fine with upping it, but that involves logging in, some clicking, some typing, I'm a very busy man you know...

8/24/2012 12:57:37 PM

Sounds a lot like something you're doing right now!

Actually, I just logged in and am tinkering with my fund allocations right now because of this thread.

8/24/2012 1:00:26 PM

Quote :

"Your current Contribution Amount is 30%, and can be as much as 180%."

8/24/2012 1:07:26 PM

Hmmmmm, time to change my allocation?

24.89% LARGE-CAP VALUE IDX
24.87% TOTAL STOCK MKT IDX
20.41% INTL STOCK MKT IDX
19.91% LARGE-CAP GROWTH IDX
9.93% SMALL/MID-CAP IDX

8/24/2012 1:09:21 PM

I would. I probably wouldn't buy the market, or at least not nearly 25% of my allocation.Sure, it gives you great diversification, but if you're just looking for diversification I would rather buy the S&P 500 vs. the market. Personal preference though, most people view them as similar strategies.

I have no idea what funds and options you have available to you though.

What kind of rate of return are you seeing so far this year with that mix?

8/24/2012 1:29:42 PM

I have access to a ton of Fidelity funds.

Personal Rate of Return from 01/01/2012 to 08/23/2012 is 11.7%

8/24/2012 1:32:11 PM

That's solid. Like I said, I would probably switch to an S&P 500 index vs. a total market index, but other than that, without seeing the prospectus and the holdings for the available funds I don't feel like I can give a worthwhile opinion.

If you're getting 11-12% on that mix then you're doing good. If you're comfortable with those allocations and you monitor things and take action when needed then don't sweat it. The important thing is how you do over the life of the account and what your retirement projections look like.

8/24/2012 1:58:34 PM

I'm shooting for 4 mil, but I suppose I could live off 3.5 You?

8/24/2012 2:04:29 PM

I could probably be comfortable at 2.5, but I'm shooting for 3-3.25 million, and retired/semi-retired at 60. I also have a decent pension that I was lucky enough to get grandfathered into before they got rid of it for new employees.

I figure if I buy a house and pay it off by the time I'm 50-55 my actual non-medical living expenses should be pretty minimal, and I'm strongly considering overseas retirement.

[Edited on August 24, 2012 at 2:24 PM. Reason : asdfs]

8/24/2012 2:22:10 PM

Bastard. No pension for me.

8/24/2012 2:23:48 PM

There are so many factors in guessing how much you'll have as well as guessing how much you'll need that I haven't really worried about specific numbers too much. Between both of our 401ks and our Roths I figure we should theoretically be doing more than enough. And if it isn't then lots of other people will at least be worse off than we will be

I do also have some taxable accounts with Vanguard and Etrade that I buy into some funds with and do some light individual stock trading in. The idea is that these would eventually be "bridge" funds that would help determine how early we can retire (ie how long before we have to touch the retirement funds) but we'll see. Getting the/a house paid done is another big thing too that isn't even a part of this thread obviously.

[Edited on August 24, 2012 at 2:25 PM. Reason : ]

8/24/2012 2:24:10 PM

I wish I was a dink

8/24/2012 2:25:02 PM

Ha. Yeah it helps right now for sure. Pluses and minuses to both though. We still aren't sure if we want kids yet; we've gone back and forth for years. We still have some time though.

8/24/2012 2:27:07 PM

Children are expensive. I'd rather have a Ferrari.

8/24/2012 2:29:24 PM

Or a vacation home.

8/24/2012 2:31:00 PM

what do yall think gold is gonna do next week? go back over 1700? its up like 50 bucks this week

8/24/2012 4:25:53 PM

Heh, where's Face when you need him...

8/24/2012 5:29:34 PM

I think at that price it will continue to not be purchased by me. I'll wait for the next cycle thank you very much.

8/24/2012 5:39:35 PM

I'd rather invest in other commodities.

8/24/2012 5:41:53 PM

tough to say, gold is crazy in the short term. I'd say it probably hovers around here until we get more info on QE3.

It's still gonna have some huge selloffs along the way while the economy unravels.

Quote :

"You could just put it at a % that would more than max it out and then they would just stop taking it out once you hit the max. That's what I did last year, it was kind of nice to have a little larger than normal paycheck around Xmas."

Kinda dangerous to give this as blanket advice. For many people they will stop receiving company match for the rest of the year after they max their 401k, so you wouldn't want to max out until your last paycheck. Some plans (like IBM) have a "true up" but many of them do not.

8/26/2012 5:02:44 PM

Trying to educate my 26 yr old sister who has finally found employment.

[1:49 PM] Melanie: it looked like another language
[1:49 PM] david0603: funds are abbreviated like stock symbols
[1:49 PM] Melanie: I don't know those either
[1:49 PM] Melanie: is that a risky fund
[1:50 PM] david0603: yes
[1:50 PM] Melanie: yeah well then that wouldn't help me

8/31/2012 1:52:14 PM

I have enough to live off of for the next four months before the end of the world. Who needs a 401k when money is worthless and/or you are dead!

9/4/2012 6:14:36 PM

a bunch of my trailing stops hit yesterday... im getting out of the way for now

9/5/2012 7:54:51 AM

9/6/2012 5:00:18 PM

9/6/2012 5:16:22 PM

Don't worry I sold off some things too early as well but I'd rather cash some out and if the market legs up get back in that be stuck holding when the big pullback comes (which I think is the more likely scenario). Don't wanna be left with my pants down wondering what happened.

9/7/2012 8:51:01 AM

Is it really good at our age to be trying to time a big pullback while simultaneous missing out on gains?

9/7/2012 11:28:46 AM

tvix is at 1.75 lol

9/10/2012 2:27:43 AM

Anyone have thoughts or opinions on Furniture Brands International (FBN)? Looks like bankruptcy or a take over attempt will be part of their near future.

9/11/2012 1:28:16 PM

Im waiting for QE3 to be announced this week, taking gains then moving to cash till post election

9/11/2012 3:00:11 PM

[Edited on September 13, 2012 at 2:11 PM. Reason : ]

9/13/2012 2:10:05 PM

Quote :

"One thing is for certain, gold will continue its meteoric rise for the 11th consecutive year."

9/14/2012 4:26:36 AM

It's no wonder less and less people want to invest in the market. Economy sucks.. Market nears all time highs. This bizzaro world just keeps on trucking until the fed runs out of bullets I guess. I'm normally a bullish person but this is beyond ridiculous right now. Perfect setup for another massive drop and people 10 years older never being able to retire.

9/14/2012 7:32:09 AM

The question is... with the market so high with an imminent crash coming, at what point to you pull all out into cash? And for how long?

9/14/2012 8:07:56 AM

Quote :

" Economy sucks.. Market nears all time highs."

um wat

9/14/2012 9:11:01 AM

Im not the one to ask now I thought it was time to pull out earlier this week so at this point I have no clue. Technical analysis has broken down so who the fuck knows how high we go at this point. Just depends how much you want to gamble but for now once I can exit some of my positions I dont plan on holding anything new more than a few days until we get the big pullback.

My reference was to the fact that the economy is in no way supportive at this point of the market closing in on all time highs. Sure it's better off than when we had the last crash in some ways but overall what is really that different? Companies are only meeting earnings estimates because they are slashing jobs and costs left and right and so in the end the majority of America feels pretty fucked right now. The only reason unemployment appears to be going down is because so many people have just said fuck it and stopped even looking for a job. I think things will get better over time hopefully but at this point the optimism of the markets borders on insanity in my opinion.

/rant

[Edited on September 14, 2012 at 9:17 AM. Reason : .]

9/14/2012 9:12:13 AM

What economic indicators support your assertion? --- not anecdotal observations on how folks might feel

[Edited on September 14, 2012 at 11:25 AM. Reason : .]

9/14/2012 11:25:01 AM

Pulling out to go to cash is long term suicide. They just announced endless QE.

It's too late, we've picked the path of destruction. The economy will not recover until we blow the whole thing up which could be anywhere from 5-25 years from now. (I'd lean closer to 5 than 25 at the pace this disaster has been accelerating these last few years.)

Everyone says the market is near all-time highs. You are crazy. The market isn't going up, the dollar is going down. Measure the market in terms of gold. It hasn't gone anywhere for over a decade.

Inflation is RAMPANT and it's only going to get worse.

9/14/2012 4:13:43 PM

10/2:
Sold Oct JCP $23 puts at $.73
Sold Oct JCP $24 puts at $1.22
Bought Oct JCP $24calls at $.75
net credit of $1.20 per share

10/15
Bought to close Oct $24 JCP puts at $.05
Sold to close Oct $24 JCP calls at $2.00
net credit of $1.95 per share

10/15/2012 3:29:30 PM

Quote :

"In an apparent error, Google's Q3 2012 earnings have gone live smack dab in the middle of the trading day, instead of after the closing bell as expected. Early indications are that the search giant has notched third quarter revenues of $14.10 billion, representing a 45 percent uptick compared to Q3 2011. GAAP operating income in the third quarter of 2012 was $2.74 billion, or 19 percent of revenues, and that would explain the near 10 percent slide in the company's stock price. A year ago Google nailed down $3.06 billion, or 31 percent of revenues, when looking at operating profit; investors were expecting some $10.65 per share, while they got just $9.03 per share. When looking at net income, Q3 2012 saw that figure at $2.18 billion, whereas the company raked in $2.73 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Presently, trading has been halted on the company's stock as the dust settles, but one thing is exceptionally clear: pulling in billions in a single quarter won't go over well with Wall Street if its expectations see you pulling in even more."

10/18/2012 1:23:41 PM