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Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

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Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#51
Anyone else around here that does not have a pension account?

On the basis that technology will have changed the economic system (for good or worse) in such fundamental ways so we either have greatly expanded life span, "free" handouts such as basic income, or major financial busts that have wiped out most pension savers.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#52
post #20

I wonder what percentage of 401k contributors has an IRA. General rule of thumb is to contribute enough to 401k to get maximum company matching and max out your Roth IRA contribution first. IRA is generally preferred because you can choose your own fund (e.g. Vanguard) and has more flexibility in certain situations. By having both pre-tax (401k) and post-tax (Roth IRA), you would be also diversifying your tax liabili…

This also makes sense if you do not have access or have limited access to low cost funds (i.e. Vanguard) in your 401k/403b portfolio.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#53
post #20

I wonder what percentage of 401k contributors has an IRA. General rule of thumb is to contribute enough to 401k to get maximum company matching and max out your Roth IRA contribution first. IRA is generally preferred because you can choose your own fund (e.g. Vanguard) and has more flexibility in certain situations. By having both pre-tax (401k) and post-tax (Roth IRA), you would be also diversifying your tax liabili…

One problem with the Roth IRA is the income phase out limits. If you're single, if you AGI is >117K, you can only contribute some percentage of the $5000 allowed for the Roth. If you're >132K, you can't contribute anything. For a married couple, those limits are 184K/194K. Granted, you can reduce your AGI by contributing to a 401K first, which allows you to take $18K off the top.

I know this doesn't affect many, but for the high-paid tech crowd, these limits right around the point in your career where you want to be pumping in money.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#54

I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to tap into it, and I'm also not planning on having any kids to bail me out when I go senile, so yeah I'm putting a lot into my 401k. I think a lot of people my age (turning 30 next week) are feeling the same way, so I wonder if it's younger workers driving this trend.

> "I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to tap into it" You need to change that attitude or your complacency will allow politicians to take it from you. The fact is you pay ~16% of your paycheck into social security and medicare, it is designed to be like a pension. It is not an entitlement, it's your money.

If it was actually your money, paying into it would be optional.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#55
For self employed, it is even better. You can put up to 54,000 for 2017 [0]. If you are self employed and can afford to do this, do it. It usually splits in 2 parts:

- Employee portion: $18,000 that you can put as an employee.

- Employer portion: Up to 25% of W-2 wages.

The total of the 2 above cannot exceed 54K for 2017. One more thing, you can make contributions for employer portion until the calendar year end which is March. So even for 2016, you can still make the employer portion if you were enrolled in a self employed 401K. Another thing is that the employer portion can be shown as an expense of your business as well.

If you use Fidelity or Vanguard, stick most of it in an index fund and you have the S&P 500 returns by doing nothing.

I highly recommend any self employed to read this IRS publication.

[0] https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-participant-401k-pl...

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#56

I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to tap into it, and I'm also not planning on having any kids to bail me out when I go senile, so yeah I'm putting a lot into my 401k. I think a lot of people my age (turning 30 next week) are feeling the same way, so I wonder if it's younger workers driving this trend.

> "I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to tap into it" You need to change that attitude or your complacency will allow politicians to take it from you. The fact is you pay ~16% of your paycheck into social security and medicare, it is designed to be like a pension. It is not an entitlement, it's your money.

> It is not an entitlement, it's your money

That's not how social security works. Every dollar you pay in flies out to fund promises made in years past. "Your" social security money needs to be earned by our children.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#57
post #44
post #20

I wonder what percentage of 401k contributors has an IRA. General rule of thumb is to contribute enough to 401k to get maximum company matching and max out your Roth IRA contribution first. IRA is generally preferred because you can choose your own fund (e.g. Vanguard) and has more flexibility in certain situations. By having both pre-tax (401k) and post-tax (Roth IRA), you would be also diversifying your tax liabili…

Note that Roth IRA has an Income Limit. Ex. You can't contribute at all as a single filer if you make more than $131k. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roth_IRA#Income_limits

If your employer 401k plan allows it, you can roll over after-tax 401k contributions to a Roth IRA (a.k.a. mega-backdoor Roth IRA).

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#58

I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to tap into it, and I'm also not planning on having any kids to bail me out when I go senile, so yeah I'm putting a lot into my 401k. I think a lot of people my age (turning 30 next week) are feeling the same way, so I wonder if it's younger workers driving this trend.

> "I'm not planning on Social Security being around by the time I'm old enough to tap into it" You need to change that attitude or your complacency will allow politicians to take it from you. The fact is you pay ~16% of your paycheck into social security and medicare, it is designed to be like a pension. It is not an entitlement, it's your money.

It is your money that they spend now instead of properly invest. Regardless of what should be, there is little hope that it will be worth much to us in the future.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#59
post #5

Having a somewhat paranoid personality, I find myself wondering if auto-enroll and (especially) auto-escalation - which my job has - are designed with the employee's well-being in mind, or just a ploy to prop up the stock market?

See koolba's comment:

>Companies auto enroll people into 401(k) programs because of participation requirements. For "highly paid employees" (i.e. executives) to be allowed to contribute to a 401(k), there requires a minimum level of participation from the rest of the workforce at the company.

Re: Americans Are Putting Billions More Than Usual in Their 401(k)s

#60

If they take away my social security... I want my payments back.

Easy to accommodate: either continue your SS with a benefit of $100/mo; or take away your benefit and return you your inflated dollars.

The ROI on future social security payments for most tech workers is already ~0%, so inflated dollars would be an improvement on that.
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