Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 47 posts

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#11

Post by ixacto »

220k in Roth, early 30s. Should be about 5-15MM USD in the late 2050s with an inflation adjusted rate of return of ~8% and an annual contribution of about $6000, also increasing annually (math works).

This should take me way beyond the point at which the marginal utility of money tapers off. It's really not that difficult to get wealthy(ish) in this country if you think ahead a few decades, but most people are not going to be able to do this. The secret was getting a decent employer match, and living with my parents for a few years to save >100% of my income.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#13

Post by retirement32 »

Age:32

Networth: $3.5m USD

——

Most of my networth came from investing inheritance and gifts from family. I didn’t separate their contributions from my person ones unfortunately, but I suspect on my own, I’d be at around $800k NW. I have received about $1M in gifts/inheritance that has appreciated.

I also add about $100k/yr to my savings from my employment.

This situation has made me pro-“Tax the rich”.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#14

Post by VirusNewbie »

I'm 39, and have about ~700k in equity on my primary residence (conservative estimate), and my wife and I have about 700k in various investments/savings accounts, split evenly between retirement accounts and non retirement accounts.

Most of my money came from saving. Never worked for a FAANG or had startup equity hit, but I was doing software professionally at 17 and have saved a chunk almost every year since then.

While I could have afforded an apartment in my early/mid twenties, I ended up living with roommates and saving, then later buying a condo in early 2009.

Then I rented a room out. Always bought used furniture, found deals on cars (I did drive entry level luxury cars), was very careful about splurging on technology or entertainment. I did probably spend too much at bars and whatnot though.

So some of my net worth is due to good timing in RE, but a lot was due to working hard (enough) in my early-mid twenties that I was able to get a decent war chest and then invest it.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#15

Post by giantg2 »

admissionsguy wrote: post #10

Early 30s, nothing at all and I plan to live the next 4 years off basic student assistance. The whole notion of retirement has never made sense to me. I remember when I was 15-ish people said I would understand once I grew up, but nope, it still doesn’t make any sense. I have spent maybe 48 months working so far. I can bill about 20k a month when I do work. But it’s such a waste of lifetime to do it, I never work mor…

$20k per month? What do you do?

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#16

Post by VirusNewbie »

admissionsguy wrote: post #10

Early 30s, nothing at all and I plan to live the next 4 years off basic student assistance. The whole notion of retirement has never made sense to me. I remember when I was 15-ish people said I would understand once I grew up, but nope, it still doesn’t make any sense. I have spent maybe 48 months working so far. I can bill about 20k a month when I do work. But it’s such a waste of lifetime to do it, I never work mor…

You could work for like, one year, bank it all and then in about five years you'd be rich... seems weird to not do that.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#17

Post by [deleted] »

giantg2 wrote: post #15
admissionsguy wrote: post #10

Early 30s, nothing at all and I plan to live the next 4 years off basic student assistance. The whole notion of retirement has never made sense to me. I remember when I was 15-ish people said I would understand once I grew up, but nope, it still doesn’t make any sense. I have spent maybe 48 months working so far. I can bill about 20k a month when I do work. But it’s such a waste of lifetime to do it, I never work mor…

$20k per month? What do you do?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#18

Post by aureli »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #16
admissionsguy wrote: post #10

Early 30s, nothing at all and I plan to live the next 4 years off basic student assistance. The whole notion of retirement has never made sense to me. I remember when I was 15-ish people said I would understand once I grew up, but nope, it still doesn’t make any sense. I have spent maybe 48 months working so far. I can bill about 20k a month when I do work. But it’s such a waste of lifetime to do it, I never work mor…

You could work for like, one year, bank it all and then in about five years you'd be rich... seems weird to not do that.

That's what I did. Billed similar numbers for a few years, saved 80% - 90%, and am now financially independent in my late 20s.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#19

Post by admissionsguy »

giantg2 wrote: post #15
admissionsguy wrote: post #10

Early 30s, nothing at all and I plan to live the next 4 years off basic student assistance. The whole notion of retirement has never made sense to me. I remember when I was 15-ish people said I would understand once I grew up, but nope, it still doesn’t make any sense. I have spent maybe 48 months working so far. I can bill about 20k a month when I do work. But it’s such a waste of lifetime to do it, I never work mor…

$20k per month? What do you do?

Run-of-the-mill full-stack + mobile web development + a tiny bit of DevOps. I am decent at understanding and solving business problems, and very efficient (and all around brilliant, let's be honest), but otherwise I don't feel like I'm doing anything special, technically. For the most part. Note 20k is $125/hour at 100% utilization, which I find rather easy to achieve.

I had spent years at $40/h, then upped to $60-70 after joining Toptal, but clients were paying $100+. Knowing who the clients willing to pay that much were, I found it possible to reach similar clients directly, and here I am.

I rather frequently take over really abysmally done work from previous developers. I don't think those developers are generally paid less than myself. So the takeaway appears to be that technical prowess is a minor factor in the whole picture.

Re: Ask HN: How old are you and how much do you have saved for retirement?

#20

Post by admissionsguy »

aureli wrote: post #18
VirusNewbie wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could work for like, one year, bank it all and then in about five years you'd be rich... seems weird to not do that.

That's what I did. Billed similar numbers for a few years, saved 80% - 90%, and am now financially independent in my late 20s.

It does seem appealing to compress it into a few years, doesn't it.

But I don't think it works for me at this point. First, the math. I believe 20k gross is ~10k after tax where I live. My absolute minimum acceptable lifestyle costs 30k/year. Which leaves the possibility of saving 90k/year. So I get three free years for every year worked. Brings to mind the Ciolkowski equation.

Three years for every year worked, neglecting investments, but also opportunity cost, and the fact that I absolutely detest working for others and even a year of working full-time is a dreadful prospect to me.

Assuming life expectancy of 85 and no state pension, I would need to work full-time for about 13 years, no time-off, optimistically assuming no mental breakdown from all that work. So I end up at 45, possibly bald, with no savings except to fund what I considered the minimum acceptable lifestyle at 32. That is not good.

The opportunity cost. I now work for about 2-3 months / year (and benefit from lower tax at lower income), building a quite possibly successful business venture on the side, and devoting lots and lots of time to my hobbies.

Aging. I would not want to sacrfice a year of my 30s for three years of my 50s.

Post reply on HN