"Bill Woessner" <woessner@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:2518fe6a-1fd0-464e-bbc5-
>> Bill, I think you'll find the general consensus is that at your age you
>> cannot have saved too much for retirement.
>
> Yeah, that certainly seems to be the case. It strikes me as
> unnecessarily extreme.
The reason it is usually said that you can't have contributed too much at
a
young age is because something might happen to you at, say age 50, when
you
could no longer contribute at all. We simply can't predict the future. If
you do a good job now while you're able, then you can re-evaluate
everything
at increments nearer retirement itself.
Most folks don't find they've saved too much for retirement. Most folks
wish
they'd saved more when they were younger. If you put it off now, when
you're
in your 50s the amount you'd have to save will be overwhelming.
It is very difficult to balance all the demands on one's finances. Only
you
can decide which demands should have a priority. It might be a good idea
to
just write down all those things for which you expect some future expense.
Put some real numbers with them, then try to divide up what funds you have
available to see how you come out.
Maybe you'll decide to back off retirement savings from 10% to 6% and
tem****arily forego any IRA contributions in order to build up a cash
reserve. Maybe you'll decide that you can't pay cash for a car in 2 years,
but that you could do it in 4.
You don't mention children. Will you have some future need to be saving
for
college? How will that fit into the picture? Will your wife's income be
reduced in order to have these children, or the cost of raising them
affect
your discretionary income? And, Bill, it's these future demands on your
finances that tell me your $95k in current retirement savings have been
excellently deferred.
Elizabeth Richardson
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