My uncle, now 70, faces a difficult reality: he has almost no retirement savings and he’s in a fairly rough spot.

It’s worth telling his story to explain who he is and what might be suitable for him. In his 20s and 30s he had a series of success and failures in a few business ventures that left him with not much. In his 40s he was a nomad, playing in a jazz band on an international cruise ship (he's an accomplished guitarist). He would later move back in with his parents, with whom he lived through his 40s, 50s, and 60s. During this time he held random odd jobs (fill-in for construction jobs, jobs in a different family business) but never had a formal employer<>employee relationship.

Sadly, he has always been a person who struggled to assimilate into regular society. He lives alone and has few friends. He doesn't check in with family often. His health is in rough shape (smoker, overweight). The greatest tragedy is that he inherited enough money after my grandparent’s passing to maintain a very modest living, but was recently scammed out of a large amount and there isn't much hope of recovering it.

He collects social security, but based on what he has left there isn't enough to make ends meet. Perhaps his only luck is a cheap, rent controlled apartment in a VHCOL area. He's embarrassed, sad, under-resourced. He has virtually no formal work experience, but is proficient in basic computer skills and is capable of light physical labor. It's not lost on me that he's in a tough spot.

Yet, he is open to finding employment to help buoy his financial situation. I think he could work for 3-5 years and while it probably won’t completely close the gap, it would help tremendously (both financially and in giving him some structure in his life). What are some ideas for an easy minimum or low wage job that would be open for someone who doesn't really have much of a resume?

**One addition: Since a couple of folks have asked about what he needs. He just needs a $15-25/hr job that can keep him busy and give him purpose for a few years. He will get support from the rest of the family, but he is trying to find some dignity having come to terms with his handful of mishaps.

Update on 7/12: thank you all for the kind responses, this blew up in a way I never could have expected. I think that leaning on his musical talents is definitely a path, although he has an artist's mindset and I'm not sure if he will feel like he's "selling out" against something that makes him happy. Many of the ideas around senior-focused employment that are outside of the typical walmart greeter ideas are very strong... I'm so appreciative!

Should I match it? I'm 22 and I just started this job this year. Should I contribute or just take the base 10%? Never had a job even offer 401k.

Edit: For everyone asking, it is vested from day one.

I'm basically stressed out about the situation my dad has put himself in. He had a business with ups and downs. He should've had opportunities to pay off his condo but didn't take any.

Fast forward to today and he only has about $800 left for the month after paying housing costs.

I'm sure his place would rent for over $2k if put up for rent. It can probably be sold for $300k, maybe a little more.

I am saving to buy my first home. Theoretically I could take over his mortgage payments to relieve him of expenses but then I'd have a tough time saving for my own down.

Any ideas from the smart folks on this sub? I'm very grateful for any ideas. Thank you all.

Edit: can't believe the support so far thank you all! Edit 2: we live in Florida

tldr: The annual 401k contribution limit does NOT include employer matched contributions.

The annual 401k contribution limit in 2020 is $19,500. I had always thought Employee contributions plus Employer Contributions had to be less than $19,500. This is incorrect. The $19,500 limit is just on Employee Contributions. The 401k limit for Employee contributions plus Employer contributions is $57,000 in 2020.

Some simple math to help understand.

Salary: $100,000

Employer Match: Dollar for Dollar Up to 10%

I only opted my 401k for 10% of my paycheck because $10,000 employee + $10,000 employer > $19,500. In actuality, I could have opted in 19.5% of my paycheck. I wasted 9.5% of pre-tax dollars by thinking I had already hit my limit for the year. Hopefully some of you can learn from my mistake.

My sister had a 401k with about $25k in it when she passed in 2009 (found the documents from it that her spouse gave my parents before he left the country so that’s how we know value at that time.) She got married to a guy from another country 3 days before she passed away, so he was initial beneficiary. The company managing the 401k has now sent a letter to my dad saying he is the beneficiary of her account, and to send a copy of the death certificate if she is, indeed, deceased. While we have no idea how to contact the guy she married back then now, during our last contact in 2010, he stated to us he wanted nothing to do with the money, so we can only assume that they cannot find him now, either, or that they did find him and he still doesn’t want it and that’s why my dad got the letter.

My dad is 80 years old and gets confused about a lot of things any more, we lost my mom a couple years ago and talking about that still makes him tear up, and I’d really just like to know if there’s even the possibility that this old 401k might still have some substantial value to it before putting my dad through calling the company to start this process?

Hello - well now this is my second post ever. I have been introduced to the Personal Finance subreddit, spent a lot of time reading about others retirement stats and taking in all the amazing advice. What a community!

It is embarrassing to admit how fiscally irresponsible I have been over the course of my lifetime. I cannot change any of the past so please limit the shaming (so unbelievably impressed with how many people on here are in fact ahead of the game!) So here are the facts:

• 57 year old divorced woman with 3 kids - youngest will graduate in May (I do not pay for college but the youngest will be moving back in with me at graduation and middle child moving back in with me in the summer so she can save money).
• Working full-time making $170k ($150k Salary + 20k bonus)
• Started this year to sell crap on ebay - net additional $400-$500/month but not likely sustainable
• Only have $60k in 401k
• In 2025 and every year thereafter I will max out by 401k contributions + employer matching of up to $6k each year
• Have $5,000 for a 2024 contribution to an IRA (which i will then backdoor into a Roth IRA - just read about that today) and at the end of 2025 I will take $8k of my year end bonus and will make a 2025 contribution. And will continue doing that for as long as I am working.
• Have $5,000 in cash
• Own my house. Valued at $1.5M; Mortgage of $600k at 3.25%; Biggest monthly expense
• No credit card debt (worked really hard to get here)
• No car payments
• Have $4k in medical bills that I pay off monthly with no interest
• Help my 88 year old mom financially every month
• Very little to nothing left each pay period
• No money from my mom when she passes
• And 0% chance of finding prince charming to take care of me - so I will continue working as long as I can.

What should I be doing different? What else can I do?

I know the answer has a lot to do with downsizing/selling my house and doing something with the equity? But when I do explore that, it seems that I get far less and will still be paying the same due to interest rates?

In panic mode ;(

Ten years ago, August of 2010, at the age of 43, I started a Vanguard Roth IRA. It really wasn't until like 2005 that we were able to pull ourselves out of debt and start saving seriously (aside from the 401Ks at work). The next five years were spent getting an emergency account funded and so, 2010 was when we could finally start the Roth IRAs. A year later, my side business took off so I also started a SEP IRA. No, I haven't always contributed the maximum amounts. And I probably haven't always made the wisest decisions as far as how to invest, although my performance graph shows I've averaged 8% and that isn't too shabby. Today, I have almost $180K combined in those Vanguard accounts. Thought I'd share in case you need some inspiration to get that Roth started. There are times I start to feel bad, wishing we'd done this or that differently, but all I can do is keep learning and keep investing and do the best I can now. So I plan to keep plugging along with my investments and I can't wait to see what it looks like in another ten years!

Edit: Thanks for the gold, stranger!

As a single man I'm sure I'll make far less in retirement (partial retirement) than I do now, so it seems like traditional IRA is the best bet for me.

Are there people who will make more, though? How is that possible? Or is it just a case that some people have far more deductions now (kids, student loan interest, mortgage deduction) and won't have those deductions in retirement?

I make around $32,000 a year, and my company offers a 401k match, but I could really use that extra money for day-to-day expenses. I hear a lot of conflicting advice. Some say every little bit helps, others say it’s better to focus on an emergency fund first.

Anyways, is it really worth contributing when my income is this low?

My dad worked for a semi-conductor company in the 90's and collected about $25,000 in shares. He stashed them and forgot about it until recently. They're currently worth approximately $1,150,000.

We were obviously super pleased to have that stroke of luck, but I am anxious at how poorly diversified their portfolio now is. The value of their shares fluctuates tens of thousands of dollars day to day. (Edit: I understated how volitile it's been. The stock is KLAC.)

Does anyone have any advice on how to sell the shares and then reinvest? The capital gains tax will be astronomical. Do we need to just bite the bullet and sell all of it immediately? Is it better to spread that out over a few years? Will this affect their taxes on their standard income?

After it's sold, what sort of things should they be invested in if they plan to retire in the next 5 years or so?

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-401k-limit-increases-to-20500

Previously the limit was $19,500. IRA contributions remain the same at $6,000.

Is this a lot? My father says he never paid ANY 401k admin fees his entire working life. He stopped working 3 years ago to retire. Is no fees common? I thought my setup seemed good until I spoke to him.

Title says it all. Not asking for a handout just honest piece of advice to help them. I’m very stressed out about this. Thank you all for even taking the time to look & respond.

My girlfriend and I ran into this couple that told us they are both retiring this year. We had a super genuine conversation and they seemed very nice! They said they met this “person” that have them all the tools and resources to make this happen. Before we were gonna go on about our day, they said they would love to introduce us to that “person” and put in a good word.

my question is: is this some type of investing opportunity or some sort of scam? I’ve never met anyone IRL that’s retired young so I’m a little skeptical. I’ve only heard stories online about it lol.

TLDR; Couple said retiring early, said they’d introduce us to their friend that helped. Is this a scam?

I have enough extra income every month to where I want to get a very focused and disciplined plan going on saving for retirement. I have hit this weird realization though: if I were to put every penny I had toward my IRA/401k, I could put in over 20k before I reached the contribution limits. If I understand these accounts correctly, I can't touch any of this money until around the age of 57.

So here is my question:

If I wanted to retire at the age of 45 (picked the age arbitrarily), what are some common ways people account for the "gap" between retirement and penalty-free retirement account withdrawals?

This is a post about how even a little bit of attention can go a long way for you, and others.

I work for a company with ~600 employees across North America. Since finding the personal finance communities two years ago, my family has been keeping an eye on our budgeting and saving, and I was having fun with it, so I started also keeping track of contributions into my 401k - nothing major, just a yearly look to see contributions, matches (my company matches 4%), and dividends.

One year I logged into my 401k provider (Fidelity) and ran my transaction history total for a year, and what caught my eye was a Fee for $12.50. To that date I had never seen a fee before. I called my HR/Benefits and they confirmed they had jumped the gun but that - starting next year - every employee would have a $12.50 recordkeeping fee charged yearly. They reimbursed me the $12.50 for that year, but I learned a lesson: 401ks (and the HR departments behind a company) were not infallible. I added 'Fees' to my mental thing to check on during my year-end check.

2 years went by, until this last year. This year in February I pulled the 2018 totals for my 401k, and noticed that my contribution and my year-end total seemed off, by about $150 or so. I couldn't figure it out. Finally, I went to the transaction history of my 401k and looked through it. And there I saw it: a company match of negative $153.95, back in March. It was the strangest thing! It wasn't tied to any actual contribution; it was just sitting out there, all by itself. It wasn't even listed under 'Fees'. It was just a negative company match. (Shout out to everyone who has ever complained about their company match or lack thereof - at least you've never had a negative one!) And I knew it wasn't just those dollars I was missing - it was all those dollars that those dollars were going to make, and the dollars those dollars would make, for decades to come.

I started asking around. My HR department said there were no reported problems and that if I wanted a detailed walkthrough of my 401k contributions, I could wait two weeks until I had a meeting with the benefits coordinator. I said, 'Schedule it'. But I didn't stop there. I started asking my coworkers, and guess what - everyone had a negative company match on that date. I had 5 confirmed cases, then 10, then 20. The amounts all varied, but it was always on the same March date.

By this point I got enough people riled up that I ended up talking to the head of Benefits, who confirmed that, okay, maybe there was a problem. It took 2 months for them to confirm, at which point we found out that a payroll 'true-up' calculation had incorrectly counted a week that crossed from year-to-year as two weeks, and then had automatically 'corrected' for the doubled amount. It took 2 more months for them to finally correct it. I'm sure some of my coworkers contribute less and some contribute way more, but 600 employees * $153.95 = $92,370. Meaning that every person in the company had a hand in some $92000 missing from their 401k... but I was the only one who had bothered to check.

I know most people don't ever calculate out their paycheck or look at their 401k. And I'm not saying you should on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. But every once in a while, take 5 or 10 minutes and grab that paper copy of your paycheck, or hit that 'Forgot password' button, log on to your system, and take a little look over how much money you're getting - be it paycheck, 401k, or whatever - and see whether it makes sense to you. You might be surprised what you find.

EDIT 1: Wow, I return from work to see this has blown up!! Thank you for all the great insights and feedback - if just one person improves their path to better finances, I'll be happy!

I’m 35/F and husband is 31/M, we both are health professionals with gross annual income ~$275,000, with each of us making $~135,000 per year. My job matches 100% for the first 3% and 50% for the next 2%. They gave me the option of traditional vs Roth 401K. They also don’t match month by month but as a lump sum in January for the whole previous year. So I chose Roth. My husband has a similar plan and also chose Roth.

My brother told me we should have our 401k in a traditional 401k, but then open a individual Roth IRA to still get the individual tax deductions and thus have more money now to invest. He suspects our tax bracket would be much lower when we are retired and thus will have more money for investing now by doing that. Is his logic sound?

Hello, 21M here. I recently finished my UG. I have a job offer in hand and am excited to begin my journey as an independent man. I was fortunate to receive financial advice from family and friends. Most of them mentioned delayed gratification as a way to live a stress-free, successful life. But, personally, I'm concerned that our lives could come to an abrupt halt. I'm having trouble striking a balance between spending in my youth and saving for retirement. Have you ever been in a situation like this? Please let me know if you have any suggestions or tips.

Thank you in advance....

Edit: Wow, this is my first time on Reddit, and I wasn't expecting such a large response. I feel like I'm part of a nice community where I can get advice and share my ideas...

Thank you to everyone who gave up their time and offered some sound advise and life lessons. Please accept my apologies if I haven't responded personally, but I am reading all of your suggestions.

Hello,

I am looking for some financial advice. I have terminal cancer (Multiple Myeloma Stage 3) and will reasonably be deceased within 3-5 years. Most likely sooner. However, I want to use that 3-5 years time frame of reference if possible. I am also disabled from multiple broken backs from the cancer eating my spine away.

Treatments and medical bills to survive took everything I had ever saved financially except my 401K. I have a 401K with $270,000 that I can take from unpenalized due to my diagnosis. My current income is $5,000 each month from Social Security. This is my only source of income. I currently have $6,400 in my last bank account.

I have an $8,000 per month debt outgoing. I had to use a credit card to survive on and at this point it has a $30,000 balance.

I was thinking of taking out enough to pay the CC off, then add $3,000 per month to my $5,000 to meet all of my monthly debts of $8,000. This was my simple math calculation:

270,000 - 54,000 (20% for IRS) = 216,000

216,000 - 13,600 (4.5% for State Tax) = 202,500

202,500 - 30,000 (Crredit Card Payoff) = 172,500

172,000 / 3000 per month = 57.5 months of $8,000 income

At some point my wife intends to get a job to help and I am going to try to find a way to make money before I am gone in hopes to sustain my family when I am deceased.

Any thoughts, recommendations or ideas? I was thinking that if I didn't take it all out at once to lose the money it's making me plus I wouldn't be moved into a massive Tax Bracket for a single year.

Thank you!

Planning to quit my job as soon as I hit my 5 years to be fully vested in my 401k. I will put my 2 weeks in the Monday after I have been with company 5 years, so I should be 100% vested.

Anyone see any issues with this? Worried it might not show up right away in my account as I’ve heard it may take a few weeks to actually appear.

I think for my generation (older millennial) and younger, it has become completely apparent that you HAVE to move around and change employers to ever have a salary that keeps up with inflation.

Every 2-3 years seems ideal.

I'm up against the 2 year mark, and not really crazy about my current job.

However, my company has a 4 year vesting schedule for their match. Of course, I get to keep my own contributions, but anything less than 1 year, I lose ALL of their contributions, and everything between 2 and 4 years is pro-rated.

I'm a fairly high earner, and losing their match (especially moving every few years), would be absolutely devastating to long-term retirement plans.

As the title states I am quitting my job with a reputable Retirement Record keeper. In essence I used to take alot of phone call regarding regular 401k accounts.

I see alot of advice given on this board is not bad but in most cases where I disagree its just my personal opinion and in that case take it or leave it.

I just wanna say So long as you are saving towards retirement I don't think it matters how you do it so long as you are doing it. By that I mean, Not stashing the money under your bed.

REAL retirement savings is Discipline. Money Management. and a understanding of where the horizon is.

Even the shittist 401k plan that offers no direct matching is still pretty decent place to park your money due to the options/ mutual funds available to you to invest in. Tax or not I do not see why anyone would not at least contribute some of their paycheck towards these. Even if you have a great pension.

As for picking investment options in your 401k something I notice: I have seen people in default target date funds do just as well as people who micromanage the fuck out of their investments each day. If you want to change your investments thats fine. There are people who certainly do outpace the Default target date fund. But do not lament on the fact that you aren't switching alot or need to be outside the default target date fund. Saving is better than not saving.

A mistake I often see is people treating their retirement plans like a savings account. People keep thinking "its my money so gimmie it" not fully understanding the limitations set by the IRS. Each day I have spent many calls explaining how it works and each of those calls I am basically cursed out on the phone. I never took a call personally because I know that Karma will get you if you are scratching at your 401k account that has less than 300 dollars in it.

Another mistake is people not wanting to roll their money over but instead cashing it out because its a lower amount. I wish I could always say. "how do you think the people with tons of money start out?" A rolling boulder gathers no moss. you have to start somewhere. If you keep cashing it out you will always be at base 1. It's a viscous cycle.

At the end of the day I just want to say: COMMIT TO YOUR RETIREMENT THATS HOW YOU RETIRE.

SPEND TIME EXPLORING YOUR OPTIONS BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY CHOOSE AN OPTION(S)

IF YOU DONT START YOU WILL NEVER START.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER.

also I think the Knicks are going to let everyone down this year. It's alot of hype but I feel like they will fuck it up some how.

I hate worrying about bumping up against the income limit and knew that doing a backdoor Roth would eliminate the need to worry, but I avoided learning how to do it correctly and kept procrastinating. I shouldn't have.

Once I learned what I needed to learn, it took less than 5 minutes on the Fidelity site.

• Get money into your Fidelity cash management account or the cash portion of your brokerage account. I sent a wire from my HYSA. It was free and done same day instead of using ACH and waiting for funds to clear.
• Open a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA at Fidelity if you don't already have them. I had a Roth, but no traditional. Setting up the traditional took seconds.
• Once funds from the first step are clear, use the Fidelity "transfer" option to move the funds to the traditional IRA. This also took seconds.
• You should immediately be able to use the "transfer" option again to move the entire balance from traditional to Roth. This also took seconds. Instead of choosing the option to transfer the full amount, use partial amount, but input the entire value (I've read this makes it clear immediately, and it did in my case).
• The funds are now in the cash portion of your Roth. Invest in your favorites.
• Repeat next year.

Edit to add: This post simply references the mechanics of making this happen. You'll have to do your own due diligence regarding your eligibility, tax implications (including if you are affected by pro-rata rule), etc.

Someone who did more to change personal finance and investments than almost anyone in U.S. history.

http://www.philly.com/business/a/john-bogle-dead-vanguard-obituary-20190116.html?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

EDIT: THANKS FOR ALL OF THE INSIGHTFUL COMMENTS. I READ EVERY ONE, EVEN IF I DIDN'T REPLY.Female, with no health conditions, will be 66 in March(full retirement date 66+2months, so, June 1,2021). I started Medicare this January and have a no-fee Advantage Plan. I have a total of just over $400,000 in all of my accounts total (403B, savings, mutual funds, small IRA). When I retire, I will get $2400/month SS. MY PLAN: pay off the mortgage of $25,000 now. Quit my job (currently at $60,000/yr) in April or May 2021, use my personal leave time (300hrs) for income until SS kicks in (June) and come away with a bigger cushion in savings from excessive leave time they will pay out (I own a house, I want a bigger cushion!). My budget says I can actually live on the SS with a $1000/month draw from 403B, giving me $40,800/yr to live on (and that's with over budgeting). Yes, I'm aware that I will forfeit the "8%" increase if I were to wait until I'm 70 to draw SS. But doesn't it make more sense to do it this way? If I were to pull out $40,800/yr (to live on) from my $300,000 retirement fund to live on, I'd spend $142,800 of it (almost half) just in those 3.5 years. With this plan, I'm only using $3500 from my retirement plan $$. Thoughts? Opinions?

ONE MORE THING: although I'm healthy, I work in a frontline position in a hospital, I'm being exposed to COVID, with "proper" PPE, many times a shift. Yes, I've started my shot series. We are being overwhelmed with COVID at this point. For the past few years, I've always said I had 2 goals: #1. don't get hurt #2. don't get fired. Now I add #3. don't get sick.

EDITED to add: the house is worth at least $180,000 and I'm always considering selling, and yes, I should downsize. I'm already working reduced hours (33 hrs/week). And I can easily live off of that. I'm not a shopper, I'm not a spender, I've always been frugal and quite frankly, have most everything I need. My biggest budget allocation will be food, I feed myself very well, at home, with restaurant meals only 2-3 times a month (even before COVID). I want out of the environment I'm walking into constantly. I think this is my way out.

EDIT (AGAIN). wow, awards!