March 26, 2004

They're changing companies to handle our 401K plan at work, I hate change. They have someone comming next week to get us settled in. I'm betting that what ever company they are choosing won't carry our company stock. We don't get stock options in any other way, we have been fighting to keep stock in our own company with our 401k.

Saving for retirement is pretty mind boggling even though it's 20+ years away. I would immagine no matter how much I save it's never really going to be enough. If I plan to live an additional 30 years after retirement then they say that I can only withdraw 3% of my savings per year.

The statements I get from Social Security say that if I continue earning the same amount I am earning now I'll only get about 900.00 per month from them and that's if they are still around by then. With inflation and taxes figured in I will have to have an enormous amount of money saved up in order just to get by on the national poverty level.

I would hope that social security will only be a small percentage of my retirement income so chances are good that I will have to work until I am really old unless I find some way to save very aggressivly over the next 20 something years.

I don't think about these things very often at 41. Guess it's just on my mind a lot right now because we are going to be going through these changes next week.

I think people like me with only a 401k, as a rule are pretty passive regarding their investments. I do know that allocations should be split 40% bonds, 60% stocks and should be adjusted accordingly each year to ensure buying low and selling high, but I do not always take care of that like I should.

I do have a goal of increasing to saving 17% of my income in 401k and I do increase some each year with my annual salery increase. I still have a ways to go before I reach that goal.

I am also a little slow jumping in to open a Roth IRA that I keep telling myself I will open. I know that they are not tax deductable or tax deffered. I would be investing after taxed dollars. I am pretty sure that I would qualify to open a Roth and that my money would compound tax free for as long as it remained in the account with the added bonus of neither the money or the gains being taxed upon withdraw unlike the 401k where both are taxed. 401k's could also possibly inflate your income so much that you end up paying higher taxes on social securitie benifits but I guess that would be for someone with a lot more income that I could possibly hope to generate between now and then.

Grrr ... I do hate change and I do hate thinking about this kind of stuff.

*** Coy ***

¶ 4:59 PM