How are you planning for retirement at this point in life?
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What is the average retirement savings by age?
Knowing how much your peers have saved for retirement can help you determine if you’re on track with your savings. Take a closer look at average retirement savings by age.
finance.yahoo.com
Pitiful...
What is the average retirement savings by age?
Knowing how much your peers have saved for retirement can help you determine if you’re on track with your savings. Take a closer look at average retirement savings by age.
Good thing, if you only have 200K or 300K, you can always relocate overseas and be comfortable. Sell or rent your house, you can coast.
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For Gen X, retirement bites
New surveys suggest the MTV Generation is regretful about past financial missteps, anxious about the current economy and fretful for the future.
www.usatoday.com
For Gen X, retirement bites
For Generation X, retirement beckons. And reality still bites.
A raft of new surveys suggest the MTV Generation is regretful about past financial missteps, anxious about the current economy and fretful about the future.
Many Gen Xers sense they haven’t saved nearly enough to fund a comfortable retirement. They wish they had started saving sooner. They fear outliving their savings.
Gen Xers also worry the stock market is about to crash, a scenario with which they are all too familiar, having survived the Great Recession of 2008.
Generation X, born between roughly 1965 and 1980, will be next to retire after the baby boom. Some Gen Xers are retiring now.
It’s a generation largely defined by financial uncertainty. Generation X was the first to cope without ubiquitous workplace pensions, relying instead on a new savings tool called the 401(k). The Great Recession stands as the generation’s defining economic event.
The oldest Gen Xers turn 60 this year. They may not be ready for what comes next ...
Full article - https://www.usatoday.com/story/mone...tirement-bites-savings-inflation/86365380007/
13 page .PDF document from Northwestern Mutual ...
The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company – Milwaukee, WI
2025 Planning & Progress Study
Spotlight on Gen X – Nearing Retirement
The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company – Milwaukee, WI
2025 Planning & Progress Study
Spotlight on Gen X – Nearing Retirement
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@DC_Dude
I was talking to a friend of mine at another work location. He's in his early-50s, as are a few other of his weekday co-staff. All long-term at over 20+ years on the job. They work 8 hour shifts during the week. The weekend staff at their place work 12-hour shifts. Either 7am - 7pm, or 7pm - 7am. The 2 main guys doing those shifts are in their early-70s. They each have close to 20 years with the company too. The day staff guy apparently has some financial troubles, that's why he's sticking around. The night shift guy is well-off and has no debt, and owns 2 properties. He also has a weekday job that he works, so he's essentially working 6 - 7 days a week (at approx' 72yo).
My friend noted him and his fellow weekday coworkers wish those guys would just retire. They don't do much while there, and are lazy by nature. Plus there are slight shift differentials in pay for weekend work & night shift adjustment, which creates quiet resentment with the weekday people.
I know the weekend day worker as he used to work with us in the mid-2000s. I competed against him interviewing for a former position, and told myself the whole time "I'm not losing the job to this guy" and luckily I got the job. He was the kind of guy who would lie about sleeping on the job (awake hours) when people would catch him in the act.
The night worker is a former classmate and college graduate with me. Good dude. Soft-spoken and heart of gold, so I don't have any issue with him. Just wish he'd retire and actually enjoy retirement. He's got a wife, kids in their 40s and grandkids. Is he working just to help support them as well? As he's already leaving behind NO debt & 2 properties paid in full.
* All that to say ... coworker friend at the other location agreed with me in that there's limited jobs within the company as is, and a high retention rate (which is a good thing). People are happy enough with the organization. Though it's hard to retain oncall / auxillary staff when there's limited hours available, and PT / FT job position openings are rarely available. They would rather have more motivated / enthusiastic people working those positions (say in their 20s - 40s) compared to 2 guys in their 70s who are just "hanging on" to the jobs.
I was talking to a friend of mine at another work location. He's in his early-50s, as are a few other of his weekday co-staff. All long-term at over 20+ years on the job. They work 8 hour shifts during the week. The weekend staff at their place work 12-hour shifts. Either 7am - 7pm, or 7pm - 7am. The 2 main guys doing those shifts are in their early-70s. They each have close to 20 years with the company too. The day staff guy apparently has some financial troubles, that's why he's sticking around. The night shift guy is well-off and has no debt, and owns 2 properties. He also has a weekday job that he works, so he's essentially working 6 - 7 days a week (at approx' 72yo).
My friend noted him and his fellow weekday coworkers wish those guys would just retire. They don't do much while there, and are lazy by nature. Plus there are slight shift differentials in pay for weekend work & night shift adjustment, which creates quiet resentment with the weekday people.
I know the weekend day worker as he used to work with us in the mid-2000s. I competed against him interviewing for a former position, and told myself the whole time "I'm not losing the job to this guy" and luckily I got the job. He was the kind of guy who would lie about sleeping on the job (awake hours) when people would catch him in the act.
The night worker is a former classmate and college graduate with me. Good dude. Soft-spoken and heart of gold, so I don't have any issue with him. Just wish he'd retire and actually enjoy retirement. He's got a wife, kids in their 40s and grandkids. Is he working just to help support them as well? As he's already leaving behind NO debt & 2 properties paid in full.
* All that to say ... coworker friend at the other location agreed with me in that there's limited jobs within the company as is, and a high retention rate (which is a good thing). People are happy enough with the organization. Though it's hard to retain oncall / auxillary staff when there's limited hours available, and PT / FT job position openings are rarely available. They would rather have more motivated / enthusiastic people working those positions (say in their 20s - 40s) compared to 2 guys in their 70s who are just "hanging on" to the jobs.
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new rule means some 401(k) contributions will no longer be tax-deferred. Here’s who will be affected
By
Jeanne Sahadi
Oct 2, 2025
144
Staring next year, the highest-earning 401(k) participants who are eligible to make "catch-up" contributions will no longer be able to defer taxes on those contributions.
FreshSplash/E+/Getty Images
A new rule is going into effect next year that will affect high earners who make “catch-up contributions” in their 401(k)s or other tax-deferred workplace retirement plans.
The rule, which was created under the Secure 2.0 retirement law, will essentially eliminate the immediate tax break for catch-up contributions that you get for the bulk of your other contributions to a 401(k) — or 403(b), 457(b), Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP) or SIMPLE IRA.
Here’s a breakdown of what will change and who, specifically, will be affected.
How it will work
Currently, if you’re over 50 and max out your 401(k) contributions up to the federal cap (which is $23,500 this year), you are eligible to make additional “catch-up” contributions above that amount if you choose.
The limit on catch-up savings this year is $7,500 (or if your employer allows it, up to $11,250 for participants between the ages of 60 and 63). Those limits are adjusted for inflation annually.
Until now, you could choose for all of your 401(k) contributions to be made tax-deferred. That means the amount gets taken out of your paycheck before tax – thereby lowering your income tax bill today – and the contributions are allowed to grow tax-deferred until you start taking distributions in retirement.
But, starting next year, if you’re over 50 and made more than $145,000 in FICA wages — which is the income subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes — in the prior year, any so-called “catch-up contributions” you make will automatically be subject to income tax. In other words, they will be treated as Roth 401(k) contributions.
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Once invested, your after-tax money will be allowed to grow tax free and be withdrawn tax free assuming certain conditions are met.
The vast majority of workplace retirement plans (93%) do offer employees the option of creating a Roth 401(k), according to the 2024 annual survey of the Plan Sponsor Council of America. But if your plan doesn’t, as a result of the rule change you will no longer be permitted to make catch-up contributions at all even though you’re 50 or older, according to Angela Capek, a senior vice president at Fidelity Investments, one of the largest workplace retirement plan providers.
The net effect of the rule change for those affected
Keep in mind, the new rule will have no effect on the taxation of anyone who is eligible to make catch-up contributions and makes below $145,000 (a number that may be adjusted upward for cost of living changes).
But for those high earners who are affected by the rule change, there are potential upsides and downsides.
On the one hand, being forced to pay taxes on part of your retirement savings now when you’re likely in your peak earning years means you may pay a higher tax rate on those savings than you would if you withdrew them in retirement. (We say “may” because no one can predict where tax rates will be in the coming years.)
And for every year that you opt to make catch-up savings, “you’ll owe more taxes to the federal government now because you lose pre-tax treatment (on those contributions),” said Brigen Winters, a principal at Groom Law Group, an employee benefits law firm that represents retirement plan sponsors, among others.
Put another way, “your take-home pay could be reduced,” Capek said.
But the rule change does offer you some potential advantages. First, the money you invest in the Roth portion of your 401(k) will grow tax free and can be withdrawn tax free assuming you let it stay invested for at least five years and are at least 59-1/2. Plus, thanks to Secure 2.0, unlike with your traditional, tax-deferred 401(k) contributions, you will not be required to make minimum withdrawals from your Roth 401(k) when you turn 73.
And when you do retire, having an amount of money that is free and clear of any tax obligation gives you a lot more flexibility when deciding how to manage your finances since your other retirement income sources — including potentially part of your Social Security benefits — are likely to be taxable.
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