What percentage do you contribute to you retirement plan? Are you aggressive or laid back? Do you increase it later in life or start out right away?
My investments are my retirement plan. No fixed percentage, I invest the money that I don't use for everyday living.
I max them out every year - I contribute a fixed amount each week and invest moderately aggressively. I usually put quite a bit more into my main investment account that has no annual contribution limits.
We max out our IRAs. I used to have a Defined Benefits plan through my employer, but it was discontinued, so I am looking at other ways of stashing retirement funds. My wife also has a pension plan and a 503(b) that we contribute to.
I determine the percentage I contribute to my 401k based on the amount my company is willing to match. Right now, they will match up to 5%, which is what I have elected to contribute for this year
I'm a laid back type of saver. I don't save that much because I value my lifestyle more. I don't want to get to the point where in I'd have to endure my hunger and sacrifice my happiness just to save a certain amount of money. I just need to discipline myself and set a proper mind set that whatever it takes, 10% of my salary would go straight to my savings. I'm not in a hurry anyway since I started early. Being cheap and being frugal are two different things. I just need to live within my means and not go overspending to keep my plans on track.
This is something that I had problems with earlier on. I used to spend as little as I could and invest as much as I could. Seemed logical since that way both my available capital as well as my income increased. The idea of course is that in X amount of years I'd have a lot more money to do what ever I want to do with it. But yeah, current lifestyle is very important too, I've realised that now.
It all depends on the amount of any given debit purchase I make. When I use my card, one dollar goes into a fund which will eventually be transferred into a 401k. Right now I'm averaging 5% of what I spend, not what I make.
I try to do 5% of what I make. I'm thinking of increasing the percentage but I think that for now, 5% is fine. Is this about average for everyone else?
I *want* to have a goal of 10%... it's not happening right now because we really need to do better than what the employer offers. I've been basically saving / investing on my own and doing just 1 or 2% on the 401k at work. They've not been handling it so well, so just biding some time here. I'm not aggressive when it comes to retirement. I've watched too many people thinking they were all set for a comfortable retirement and it just didn't turn out that way after some huge losses. I might be aggressive with other things, but not the retirement fund itself. The safer the better with that.