Yahoo! Finance had an article about early retirees and I thought it would be helpful to compare myself and see where I am.
1. Do you save for retirement outside of just your workplace plan? I save, most of my retirement fund is from my work though, because I'm trying to pay down debt first.
“69% of early retirees do this vs. 60% of those who plan to retire after 65 and 49% of those who say they'll never retire.”
2. Do you defer a high percentage of their salary into a retirement plan? No. I feel like I'm already failing at this article.
“Early retirees defer a median of 10% vs. 6% for those who plan to retire after 65 or don't plan to retire.”
3. Did you start saving at a young age? I started saving awhile back! This is something that I did not fail at. I expect all of my debt (besides my mortgage payment) to be done in a couple of years, and then I will start heavily saving and investing.
“The median age early retirees begin saving is 25 vs. 30 for those who will retire after 65 and 31 for those who never plan to retire.”
4. Do you have a thought-out retirement savings strategy? No I do not. All I've really thought about is that I want to retire.
“71% of early retirees have either a written plan (16%) or a non-written plan (55%), while just over half of those who plan to retire after 65 do and just one-third of those who will never retire do.”
5. Are you very involved in managing and monitoring your retirement accounts? I monitor them all the time. Nearly everyday.
“71% of early retirees say they are very involved vs. 58% of those who will retire after 65 and just 45% of those who say they will never retire.”
6. Have you saved the same amount or more since the recession began? I have saved more. Considering I was only around 18 when the recession started, of course it's more.
“71% of early retirees are doing this compared to 61% of those who will retire after 65 and just over half of those who never plan to retire.”
How are you doing? What are your retirement plans?
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Holly says
October 27, 2011 at 7:04 amThis is something to seriously think about! I think I'll run this post by my husband later. Thanks, Michelle :)-Holly @ Eight Six Eleven
saving for travel says
October 27, 2011 at 7:53 amYou sound like you're doing great. We are paying off the mortgage. Saving for retirement will begin in earnest in 2013. But I do have a great teacher's pension (at the moment-changes afoot) and we do pay into pension accounts too.It all helps.Sft x
Ashley says
October 27, 2011 at 9:06 amSuch an important post! Thanks for sharing!
Stephanie says
October 27, 2011 at 9:12 amYay, I've done all of these except #4! The extent of the plan is just to save 10% of our income since most calculators I've used say we should have about a million dollars in our accounts if we continue at our current rate. I'd love to bump our savings up to a little bit more than 10% though, just for a little extra cushion. 😉
The Happy Homeowner says
October 27, 2011 at 10:20 amThis has nothing to do with your (great) post, but congrats on winning Money Rabbit's giveaway!!
Brittany says
October 27, 2011 at 10:48 amThanks for sharing this! I need to start doing some of this!
Jane says
October 27, 2011 at 12:40 pmHey – great list!! It looks like I'm doing ok!
GLAMOURMOES says
October 28, 2011 at 1:28 amGreat post, but I'm not thinking about retirement yet! I have to start work fulltime so, it's not something I'm thinking of but I will definitely start saving money!
Michelle P says
October 28, 2011 at 3:29 amThanks everyone!
Rafiki says
October 31, 2011 at 6:50 pmI feel like I am doing pretty good although a pretty quick rough calculation show I only save 5.6% of my gross salary.Other than that, I think I have nailed everything else although I only started my retirement account this year so roughly before 21.