I like polls

[bertine]

[Poll #1150497]


PS. Monkeys are not cool at all, they are creepy despite the outcome of my last poll.

Comments

[inkedmama.livejournal.com]

i feel like "enough" keeps shifting as the economy goes wonkier and wonkier. i do what i can, but i feel like i should be finding ways to do more. fortunately, i've been saving since i got my first professional job, so i feel somewhat ahead of the game in that regard.

and i concur - monkeys are most definitely creepy.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Last night I totally freaked myself out about this, again. I know I am doing OK, I just feel that I could cut back on something and save more. It is just like how I have to convince myself every month not to put more money towards my mortgages because I am already paying it off early.

Ever since I posted that poll I have been noticing how many times monkeys come up. Giraffes don't come up that often!

[ex-ciannait.livejournal.com]

Yeah, don't pay your mortgage off early. It's "free money", because the interest is tax-deductible. If you want to pay off something, make it a credit card. If you have no credit card debt, you're freaking out over nothing. ;)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

It isn't enough interest to deduct anymore.

I have no credit card debt and no school loans. I don't even have a car payment. I just freakout about this stuff sometimes. Like today. :)

[elen.livejournal.com]

I do save enough and more, but that's only thanks to my employer contributing a hefty sum every month. Myself, I save just about 10% of that amount monthly... So it's more like "I'm lucky to be able to" rather than the "of course" that I chose.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I worry that the two years I had to stop putting money into retirement while I was going to grad school is really going to hurt me.

[ex-ciannait.livejournal.com]

I make a ton of money, and I put 15% into my 401(k). With the market tanking though, I'm somewhat annoyed but also - hey, stocks are on sale!

Drew is finally starting a 401(k) with like 5% or something. Neither of us has matching (fucking cheap-ass companies).

We don't have IRAs, either, as the limits for our income bracket are kinda small. (Which, of course, means we should have but we didn't.)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I also make a ton of money, though since I am in the midwest maybe not quite the same "ton". Ha! I save 13% and my employer puts in 7% as profit sharing. I still worry that I am not going to have enough money put away to be able to pay for everything when I retire. I think this might be mostly in my head.

You mean Roth IRAs? I don't have one of those, that is what is causing my current freak out. I could fund it easily if I didn't want to travel at all this year. I keep thinking I should since it won't be long until I am over the income limit.

[ex-ciannait.livejournal.com]

Well, your money's going to double in the market about every ten years. If you invest it in the market, you're going to do fine over time. The economy looks bad right now, but maybe when you retire it'll be in the middle of another boom, you can put all that stock market money into bonds, and be set for life.

Don't use your 401(k)s "stable fund" option; that earns you absolutely nothing. The only money it makes is the money you put in. The big 401(k) houses have "lifetime" funds. If you're going to retire at 62, for example, and you're 30 now, maybe pick a 2040 fund. They automatically start out aggressive and then re-distribute into stable options like bonds as you reach your retirement age.

If you're saving now, you're doing better than most people. But remember, the #1 rule of saving for retirement is: Don't touch that money. Don't use it for loans or for withdrawals. Even if you're going to use it for something allowed for under law, like a house down payment, don't do it. You have to let it work for you if you want to have a nest egg to retire on.

(I should disclose that everything I ever learned, I learned from a rather sexy guy named Rob Black (http://www.robblack.com/), who until recently had a thrice-weekly TV show at 10am to talk to people about nest eggs, retirement, and various stock questions. He still does a podcast I believe.)

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I think my problems is just the whole "you can do better" aspect of my personality. Because you can always do better with investing.

I learned everything from my parents. My family is really open about money so they showed us what they were doing with what they had as we grew up.

[joeylemur.livejournal.com]

I just had to slash-and-burn my IRA, to get the money to pay my taxes for 2007. Damn contracting work.

I'll be able to retire by 2115 at this rate.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

That sucks. Things like that freak me out.

[joeylemur.livejournal.com]

Well, 2008 will be all W-2 work, so the only thing I'm going to have to worry about next year is paying the taxes/penalty on the money I withdrew from my IRA.

Seems damn stupid that you can't withdraw money from it to pay your taxes without getting hit for penalties. The only way you can do it is if you get the IRS to put a lien against it... and I'd just rather not go there.

Oh well. I just have to deal with the cringing and popping antacids for this year...

[melissa-maples.livejournal.com]

I don't really understand what "retirement" means. What I do isn't really "work" as much as it's just "following my path" (god that sounds tree-huggy), and I don't see how one would retire from that... it's not like I'm just going to kill myself at 65 in order to get it to stop. :-)

Although, that would take care of the money issue.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Money = Control for me so I tend to follow the money. I like working, I don't know where I would end up so maybe I should just stop worrying. However, then I read the internet and find places where people are all about squeezing the last dime out of everything and I feel like I am wasting money on things and not my retirement.

My dad laughs at me a lot.