Flash forward to my hubbie- he invest in his 401k to the max, but the numbers still don’t make us feel comfortable. My income goes to savings as well, but it will take a great great deal of work to have the retirement my GF and FIL have had.[/quote]
As someone who’s a boomer by the definition above, but not by other definitions… (I’m 52 – my parents were born AFTER the greatest generation, dad served in the Korean conflict, not WWII, etc… )
I can offer this hindsight on retirement savings.
Saving early and maximizing doesn’t make big impacts in the early years… but once you reach a certain point, the compounding really kicks into gear. It took a REALLY long time to save my first $100k in my 401k. It was quicker to double it to 200k. Then it doubled again… etc. At some point the gains are bigger than the contributions, and your money is making money for you, not just increasing by the savings.
All that is a way of saying, don’t give up on maxing out the retirement savings. You’ll get there. I’m so glad I didn’t give up… I’m hoping to retire no later than 55…
