How's your 401(k) lookin' upside your peers?
Do you think you're in line w/ Joe the Plumber? Or how about that co-worker to your left? Well now's the time to find out buster ;)My boy Hank over at Own The Dollar found some pretty sweet graphs from USNews.com the other day, and I just couldn't hold it in. Y'all know I'm addicted to them 401(k)s!
And not only do these bad boys show the average amounts per age group, but it's broken down by account balance, job tenure, & even asset allocation so you can closely hit your target niche. It would be better to see how it ranks among locations too, but I guess you can't have everything all the time ;) Here's a little on how it was compiled (via USNews):
"The numbers come from an analysis of 21.8 million participants in 56,232 employer-sponsored 401(k) plans done by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Investment Company Institute, as of the end of 2007."You can see all the age groups on the USNews site, but today I'll just be showing the 20's and the 30's group since they're the closest to me...in fact, this is my last year as a 20 y/o! Guess I'll have to own up to the 30's next year and face it like a man - bleh. So here's what we got for the 20's:
So let's see here. My salary range is @ $60k-$80k, my Job Tenure @ 5-10 years....YUP, sources say my $43k in 401k is rockin' it! It doesn't necessarily mean I'm a baller or anything (we all have our own situations going on and all), but it SURE does help in the motivation department :) Just gotta keep doing my thing and trying to stack those funds as best as possible.
Now, as your age increases (and your liver gets better from not as much partying! *tear*), naturally so should your 401k. Sooooooo, here's where you should be at w/ the 30's crowd:
Looks like I'll have to step it up next year, eh?! Whew that's quite a jump. Perhaps by then the economy will recover and start doubling my funds w/out me having to do anything ;) In the meantime, I better start pumping myself full of coffee and get back to my "real work" over here...this 401k sure ain't gonna fill up on it's own!
Labels: 401k
posted by J. Money at
9:32 AM
9 Comments:
What is it with you and your coffee? Every time you mention it, you make me go brew some more.
Our 401K is very sad right now, but we have to make allowance for the fact that Mr. 444 has only had it since July 2007. And we did (hold the lectures) take out a loan from it around last September. But we did switch the allocation within it to something very aggressive so that when the market sags, we get creamed, and when the market pops, we... well, I'll hold the analogies. You are motivating me to create a 401K performance chart and post it on our page. I created my blog with the idea of not holding people back from peeping into our various ridiculous investments. That'll be a good project for this weekend.
Wow, those are some impressive numbers! I feel like I'm way behind, but I guess considering my employer didn't offer a 401K until this past July, and they don't match it, it's going to take me a lot longer to really build up substantial funds.
I got brave and re-allocated my funds back to their original position, which could lose me some money right now but will probably pay off in the end.
Since I just started my job in January, I have my $100 in my 401(k) in the Short Term Fixed Income Fund, as it is the only fund that isn't losing money. It isn't making any money at 0.1% interest, but at least it isn't losing.
Interesting to look at, but it's probably more relevant for someone who has been contributing more than 8 months. I'm totally going to beat the job tenure averages though. :) I do think it would be better to look at total retirement investments though.
The guide says we should have $37,500 and we have $55,000. But it used to be $75,000 last year.
Kinda weird to watch, but I see it as buying on sale. :)
J,
Thanks for the mention man. You rock!
If my 401(k) hadn't lost 40% of its value last year (heaven knows how bad it is so far this year, I can't bear to look), then I would have been right on target! Small solace, haha.
This is really very useful information. Thanks for compiling this.
Yeah, something to also point out here is that these #'s are a year or so old too. SO, in reality, we're all probably even MORE closer to what we should have ;) Woohoo!
Calculate your 401k with an extra 30-40% of what's in there now, and see if you're better. And I'll keep my eyes open to see if it gets updated again after including this Crazy Economy! haha...Happy Weekend y'all!
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