I subscribe to the John Bogle school of passive index fund investing (Rebalancing once a year) - Currently have a 401k that I max out using Vanguard funds. I'm also working on saving a 12-month 'emergency' fund. When the emergency fund is complete, I'll move on to adding more funds to my taxable account that I have with Scottrade.

For whatever it worth, my current asset allocation is:

Vanguard Institutional Index VINIX 25%

Vanguard Extended Market Idx Instl VIEIX 15%

Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Index Inst VFWSX 35%

Vanguard Inst Total Bond Market Index VBMPX 25%

I use the following site and forums for my investing questions and info:

http://www.bogleheads.org/

I've found it to be very informative and the forum participants to be helpful.

I'm skeptical of the Roth IRA.

I think many people will get along on a lowered income in retirement and will be paying taxes in a lower bracket than they do as working people. This is an argument against the Roth (compared to a traditional IRA).

Tax rates are likely to go up in the next few decades, which is an argument for the Roth. On the other hand, if the tax burden shifts from income taxes to a VAT or a national sales tax, then the Roth might come out equal or a loser compared to a traditional IRA. I think a VAT is likely.

There's also the possibility of retirement accounts being regulated in terms of what investments are allowed. For example, requiring a certain percentage of your account to be in U.S. government bonds. These ideas have been floated around Washington a little bit. This is a minus for both the Roth and the traditional IRA.

I still invest in my SEP-IRA (which is hella good if you want to really sock it away) and a little bit in my Roth (hedging), but I don't max either of them out any more.

I'm 39 now. I saved obsessively (single, crap apartment, very little days off, no vacations) between 2001 and 2007, buying almost exclusively gold stocks. It seemed to me that gold being at <$300 / ounce was a no brainer (which it was), but I decided to invest in mostly junior explorers.

All went well for a while, I had amassed a net worth of aprox $1 Million, and then the bottom fell out in 2008....all my stocks dropped on average 80%. (I'm not joking, 80% was performance for the index).

Meanwhile, gold itself did a little headfake for a few months, and continued to resume hitting new highs. Stocks didn't follow, although they are finally getting a bit better, Maybe someday I'll break even! :)

Anyways, this is just my story to the OP. I had been ranting about the unsustainability of the system for years, but when the shtf, it was my stocks that got creamed, and I went from net worth 1 million to literally 0 (because I had some leverage.

Oh well, thats how she goes. So, let it be a lesson to use a financial advisor, even if they don't know what they're talking about (which they probably won't).

No.

I lost the retirement account in the divorce.

Then again, I kept the businesses.

So, I am planning for retirement by creating businesses with recurring passive income.

No.

I put as much money as I possibly can into my student loans, and I leave everything else in my checking account. If I carry a balance from one month to the other, then I win. If not, then I try again next month.

Eventually, I'll dump my excess income into my savings account, and once I'm done with paying off my loans, I'll start dumping the money I used to dump into my loans back into my savings.

Disclaimer I am a Canuck I have chosen to invest most my saving in income generating Real Estate. This is counter to what a lot my peers in my generation are doing.

I invest in residential properties either suited bungalows or condo townhouses. Even with the economic downturn they have been doing quite well for me.

I plan to grow this portfolio as a side project of sorts while I hack on software during the day. Over time it should be a solid source of "passive income"(investing in real estate is rarely ever truly passive).

I'd like to ask the question "when do you intend to retire?".

My father is 64 and although he's had an era of poor health a few years ago (since recovered) he has no interest in retiring (he's a highly sought after executive consultant in his field).

He's probably the first generation to actually question the whole notion of stopping work at 65 and quietly going off to die. Like most of us on HN, he is able to work in a career he enjoys that isn't labor intensive (thus capable for older people)

The WorldBank says the average life expectancy in USA is 78 (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?cid=GPD_1...) so if you finally gave up work at 73 that's only an average of 5 years you need to live without an income - and that for most successful professional workers this is probably manageable through savings and/or reverse mortgage on a reasonable sized house.

The pension industry hasn't really changed in 50 years yet the way we live, work, and end our lives has changed (and continues to change rapidly). If the shift is towards us working longer that means we need them less, so there is no reason for them to adapt.

The singularity is my retirement plan. It sounds risky but I really can't think of any scenario where it hasn't arrived by 2040.

Personally, I'm re-investing everything in to my company. It's high risk, sure, but eh, I'm still under 30, there's time for me to try this several times.

Also, I don't really buy the idea of retirement. Yeah, having enough money would be pretty nice, but I have enough money now. I like working, and I don't really see the point of depriving myself of working capital just to set myself up to live the last years of my life in a nursing home.

I've been saving 20% of after tax income into a savings account until I get to 5 months living expenses.

After that, my corporate IRA match will have kicked in (just started a new job a couple months ago) and plan to save 15% overall into retirement accounts, with the other 5% to put into paying down the mortgage and/or starting education funds for the kids.

I'm following the Dave Ramsey "baby steps", by the way.

I would stay away from IRAs of any form at this point.

It is quite clear that even if you manage to hold on to your money, there will be additional sales taxes which will be imposed.

As well, the times that people I know have cashed in or taken a distribution were times that they were not earning much and thus they didn't avoid a high tax rate.

I am saving for retirement in the form of actual physical items such as silver and other property I can hold (and possibly some real estate later), and my emergency fund is a number of $100 boxes of nickels - tough to steal, immediately liquid, but just difficult enough to cash in that it forces you to only use it if you have to.

A business can serve as a great way to prepare for retirement, which is what I am focused on at the moment.

I started working full time in 2004 and I put money in the company's 401k back when they matched, but since I change jobs roughly every 15 months (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1706920) it gets annoying having to roll it over into a new 401k. That, plus the fact that companies have stopped matching these days, made me decide to go the Roth IRA route. I think the Roth IRA is the way to go for young people because you put in after tax money (at a lower rate because your salary is lower early in your career), and you take it out tax free (a savings, since we'll all be in a higher tax bracket by then, right?).

I zero out at the end of the month so for the time being no. I'm 25 and with my next salary most likely from a job move I'll start saving then. However its more like that the money will be used towards funding my own business. I am an entrepreneur at heart and do not take the thought of a bootstrapped business lightly. The romantic nature in which viral startups are portrayed do appeal to me but I am a realist and understand that I'll need to do something that charges from day one.

To those who are responsible and do put away a bit of money every month. Smart, very smart.

Yes, though no retirement accounts yet.

- Deposited to a high interest savings account until FDIC limit

- 8% of savings held in physical gold and silver

- Rest of savings invested in large, old companies that issue good dividends (DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, Excelon, GE...). Many of them bought at very low points, making the dividend yields over 5% per year.

I've only had an income since 2004 (25 y/o), but I lived frugally and used what I made to pay for college and save rather than buy fancy cars, a big house, etc. I have a savings target I'd like to reach, before swit

I started with a SEP-IRA years ago since the limits are much higher (~20% or 25%) than with a regular IRA ($5k). When the Solo 401k came out I got one of those as well as the limits are even higher than with the SEP (100%). The main catch with the Solo 401(k) is that you have create it before the end of the calendar year whereas with the SEP-IRA you can create it up until April 15th.

Put away college money for the kids with the Dell buyout. Put the proceeds from the Silicon Valley house sale into a farm in Iowa. Worth about $1M if it doesn't turn into a swamp or desert (pick your global-warming scenario).

Money in the retirement acct never did anything for 15 years, should have put it into gold, buried in a mason jar in the back yard, for all the good the stock market ever did me.

I've been contributing to a Roth and 401k since I graduated from college. I'm invested in mostly index funds and bonds, along with one or two emerging markets mutual funds. I figure that if the stock market totally tanks and never recovers in 40 years, then I'll have much bigger problems than an unperforming retirement account.

The rest of my savings goes to an online savings account.

no. i spend all my money. not because i am incapable of saving, but because i like taking advantage of what resources i have while i'm relatively young (22). i'm confident i can defer saving until i'm at least 24 without feeling wasteful.

i know this is irresponsible, but i'm making up for my years of passing on irresponsibility in high school. just kidding. kind of.

I put $10K a month into a savings account until it reached the FDIC limit, then I opened another savings account.

No, I'm betting on my future performance. If I'm broke then so be it. I've been broke before and I'm still here!

I work for a small startup with retirement plan. I just move 10% of my monthly income into a Roth.

The harder question now is what to invest the Roth in? CDs are terrible, T-bills would require like a 5 year investment to see decent return... index funds? I'm stumped here and my old CDs are about to come up soon.

I have been saving since I was a teenager in a regular 401(k) but then I realized that I can get a much better return on investment if I invest in myself. Now I keep it all and am investing it in my business endeavors.

My husband and I both have IRAs (don't quality for ROTH) with ShareBuilder, into which we put very little money monthly. I recently started working at a company with 401K matching and do the full match on that.

I think the better question is not "where are you putting your money?" but "are you putting money away at all?"

6% of my income finds its way to a very conservative (mostly bonds) Simple IRA.

Yes, I'm contributing to my Roth IRA, as well as my wife's Roth IRA.

yes! i've been rolling my raises into a 401k. it has grown surprisingly, but i've been doing to good thing and not looking at it unless i have to :D

Yeah. I found out that if I deposit 30k in a 12% growth account I'll have $2m by 65.

into my startup!

Retiring? Never!

http://www.loansavingsusa.com

    This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and