One year of Gross Income in 401k!

[Slow&Steady]

I checked my 401K today (as I do more often than I should) and as of today I have 1 year of gross income in there!  I crossed that mark about 2 or 3 years ago but then my income grew faster than my 401k did.  I am happy to have crossed that milestone again, this time I will remember to increase my contributions when I get those raises.

[Dezrah]

That's fantastic! Good for you!

I also like to keep track of milestones in terms of gross income because I like to use Fidelity's rule of thumb as my"normal" retirement worst case scenario. We actually missed the 1x gross goal for age 30 but that was also because of new jobs.

[Slow&Steady]

I hit it at 30 and now at 33 again.  Hopefully we can blow the 35 goal out of the water, this time including the raises.

[twood80]

For anyone wondering what those Fidelity rules of thumb are:  https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-money-do-i-need-to-retire

The scary thing is that this is a quietly revised version of what I'd previously found in 2013, and it is significantly increased from those estimates, eg if you were keeping up per the old guidelines now you are instead significantly behind, or for this community if you were ahead before you are no longer ahead as much (or at all).

[Slow&Steady]

For anyone wondering what those Fidelity rules of thumb are:  https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-money-do-i-need-to-retire

The scary thing is that this is a quietly revised version of what I'd previously found in 2013, and it is significantly increased from those estimates, eg if you were keeping up per the old guidelines now you are instead significantly behind, or for this community if you were ahead before you are no longer ahead as much (or at all).

I had noticed the bolded part. Like Dezrah I plan to use that rule of thumb as a worst case scenario so not keeping up with it over that last couple of years was a huge wake up for me.

[TheAnonOne]

Does it have to be in a 401k?

Our incomes grew at a very fast rate from 22 @ 80k to now at 26 @ 200-225. It is basically mathematically impossible to get 200k+ into my 401k by 30. Though we ALREADY have more than 200k in TOTAL investments, taxable+IRAs+401k

[runningthroughFIRE]

For anyone wondering what those Fidelity rules of thumb are:  https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-money-do-i-need-to-retire

The scary thing is that this is a quietly revised version of what I'd previously found in 2013, and it is significantly increased from those estimates, eg if you were keeping up per the old guidelines now you are instead significantly behind, or for this community if you were ahead before you are no longer ahead as much (or at all).

I attended a 401(k) plan meeting last year and HR brought in a Fidelity rep.  Apparently they're advocating a 10-15% savings rate now, which is actually pretty good if you're planning on a standard 40 year working career and you're consistent.

[Dezrah]

Does it have to be in a 401k?

No.  My understanding is it simply has to be pledged retirement money.  It doesn't really matter whether it's in an IRS sanctioned retirement account or not.  So you could count your after-tax investment accounts you started because you maxed out your IRA and 401k but you wouldn't count the equity in your house.

I attended a 401(k) plan meeting last year and HR brought in a Fidelity rep.  Apparently they're advocating a 10-15% savings rate now, which is actually pretty good if you're planning on a standard 40 year working career and you're consistent.

I've played enough with the spreadsheets to see that contributing about 15% over 45 working years with a 7% annualized return very closely meets the all the 1x, 2x, 3x, etc milestones.  It's not a coincidence.  The milestones are nice though because it can either wake you up and make you more aggressive or give you permission to ease up if you've had some really good years already.

[randommadness]

I hit this milestone in the past month or so as well, feelsgoodman. Now let's speed on to the next multiple!

[TheAnonOne]

I hit this milestone in the past month or so as well, feelsgoodman. Now let's speed on to the next multiple!

The first one is the hardest. By the time you get to the 10th the 11th will make itself in 1ish years....(without anything you add to it!)

Pretty cool!

[letired]

Hmm, a very interesting development. Thanks for posting this!

Before I found MMM, I saw an infographic with the old multipliers, and I set up a bunch of 'goals' in Mint with the old multipliers with my 'official' retirement accounts to act as intermediate, more achievable goals. I'm trying to decide if I want to update them or not. If I count my total investments, I'm still ahead with the new numbers. I'm definitely only barely scraping success with the new numbers and only retirement accounts. This might call for a spreadsheet instead of Mint goals since then I be more flexible about what counted for what. Seeing myself 'ahead' of these milestones is a very artificial success, in many ways, but it's still pretty motivating for me.