On May 7, 9:43 am, Bill Woessner <woess...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> we've tem****arily stopped all those contributions to allow time
> for our savings to recover.
If any part of your 401(k) contributions are matched by your employer,
I hope that you will continue to continue to contribute enough to
capture all of the match. Not doing so is just like giving away money.
> In retrospect, it seems pretty clear that we have contributed too much
> to our retirement accounts over the past few years.
My wife and I are 65 and 64, and we are glad that we contributed to
our retirement accounts years ago. You'll be glad, too, when you
retire. In that sense, it probably isn't possible to contribute too
much to retirement accounts. Just consider that you are on track to a
successful retirement.
> Another consideration: Large purchases. Certainly the new house
> qualifies, but what about things like a new car? My wife's car is 4
> years old. It runs perfectly and doesn't have any problems. However,
> I suspect she'll be interested in getting a new car in, say, 2-4
> years.
I have decided that what I want in a car is reliable trans****tation
with reasonable comfort. To me, a car is not a status symbol, so I
pick reliable cars and drive them at least 8 years (we currently drive
a Camry and a RAV4). You are right that it is nice to pay cash, so
save the equivalent of a car payment every month and accumulate the
money in advance.
> Sure, we don't HAVE to use these retirement vehicles, but we
> get slapped with higher taxes if we don't. It really seems like a
> government-created headache to me.
Just accept the complexity of having multiple retirement accounts with
different rules as one of the things you have to accomodate, learn
enough about the rules to get along, and go with the flow. Take a
couple of aspirin if the headache gets too bad. :-)
Dave
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