Curious what you plan on / want to have saved in your 401k/IRA for retirement?

54 and 1.7 million? I'd be gone by 55. easily live off the interest till SS kicks in. Take this job and shove it. 

Dwigt

you mean you want medicare--? socialized medicine?? are you a commie or somethin ???  shocked, i tell you i am shocked

Thats why I do a roth IRA

I am 39

135k in my roth IRA

400k in my 401k

plan on retiring at 60.5 using the roth to bridge to 65.

Interest currently being paid by safe sources is in the 1 to 2% range. That's $17,000.00 to $34,000.00 per year interest. You might be able to live easily off that, but you will be living at a paltry level even if you are debt free.

If you've got 1.7 mil you've got cushion to ride out market fluctuations. It's not 100% guaranteed, but really nothing is. Run a Monte Carlo simulation and broaden your horizon. What level of risk are you comfortable with?

But unfortunately my fortune came to a screeching halt when my high maintenance wife of 12 years sucker punched me with divorice papers on the first day of my 14 day GOM hitch.  I've been struggling ever since. 

might want to get very defensive about that 1.7, and real soon.

My plan is $0 I want to be homeless . pennyless hopeless and useless,,, and Retire on all the nice Gov handouts. 

Lots of questions first. 1) are you debt free? 2) If not, how long will it take you to get there? 3) How much do you have now? 4) Any other sources of income?

I have a retirement from a previous career so my investments can remain untouched. My first advise is to get a professional financial advisor. They will guide your finances and maximize your investments. This is so critical in the ups and downs that occur. Further, stats show that those who use a professional will earn 4-8 percent more than those that go it alone. Great return for about 1.18% fee.

If you have minimal debt, you could do it with a million using the 4% rule and still grow your money. In my example, I started with about 600K when I started using a financial advisor. 7 years later it is nearly 2M and remains untouched. I'll draw SS next year and will start pulling a few percent from investments. 

You can do it. Be smart. Get rid of debt and save. Good luck.

If you are a complete novice with money and investing and the choices are use a financial advisor or deposit your money in a high yield savings account or a CD, then yes, I believe using a financial advisor is the right choice. Also, if you're comfortable with investments but you have no willpower to stick to a plan and you know that you'll end up buying high and selling low then by all means, use a financial advisor.

Otherwise take a look at the 2020 SPIVA report:

https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/spiva/spiva-us-year-end-2020.pdf>

My financial setup prioritizes flexibility, therefore I have a few options when it comes to retirement:

Now (34 yrs old) If I didn't contribute another penny to my retirement accounts I'd have around 1.5 mil @ 55 given a 7% real return. I'd have enough in accessible tax free or post tax accounts for me to do a roth conversion ladder and get me to 60 without having incur fees or penalties. At a 3.5% withdrawl rate it'd be about $52k a year tax free which should be enough to cover expenses (house should be paid off by then) with a decent cushion. 

If I keep working/saving until 50 I'm looking at around 2.5 mil in today's dollars, again assuming a 7% real return, so inflation is already baked into these numbers. Using a 3.5% withdrawl rate that'd be around $87k a year which far exceeds our current expenses, even with multiple trips a year and living a pretty good life.

If I kept going until 65 I'd generally see myself as a failure in that I must not have cultivated a life outside of work rich enough to bring me any satisfaction and I probably have full blown Stockholm Syndrome.

Give financial advisor a little north of 862,000 in 2018, was 59 and half, now have 1,190,000 and change.  Avg. return 11 to 13 % . He put it in growth and income. Not going to touch  it until I turn 65.  

Do some of the big companies like Metro, AMC, Med Trans, etc allow you to leave you 401k with them after you leave there employment?

I've had good luck with my company 401K and am thinking of leaving where it is when I jump ship and change companies for a base closer to home.

What are the pro or cons of leaving you 401k behind with old company?

Wish someone had given me this advice 30 years ago. I've had to make up for lost time.

Roll it into a self-directed IRA. Then you control it and have many more (and better) investment choices to select from that pay you, instead of paying excessive fees to your former company's brokerage. Typical employer provided 401(k) plans and their limited fund choices are set up to benefit the employer and that brokerage, not you.

No tax or penalty hit if you do a direct rollover to an IRA. I recommend determining your risk tolerance (expressed as an asset allocation....stocks vs bonds) and then invest in low-cost index mutual funds tracking an appropriate financial index (S&P500, etc.) accordingly. (VTSAX (0.04% ER) and VBTLX (0.05% ER) are a very popular example).

Vanguard was the pioneer and most well known brokerage for this type of self-directed index approach and can help you make the rollover. Fidelity is another good one if you don't like Vanguard.

Runs on autopilot, just check in and rebalance to your chosen asset allocation ratio once or twice a year. No need to stress about the daily ups and downs. You're in it for the long run.

You won't "beat the market" (because you are buying a mutual fund that mimics "the market"), but full-service fee-based brokers rarely do, either. Not over time, anyway. So why pay their fees? And "only" matching market returns is really not that bad. Somewhere around 10% for the S&P500 since inception, for example.

Good luck!

Thanks to 'Set it and forget it', for that great advice.

Just remember, if you already have another IRA(including a Roth) you can only contribute the same amount in total to all IRA's. Meaning, you can only put in 7,000 total if you're over 50. Not 14,000 between 2 IRA's. If you still have a 401k you can invest more money or just invest in an individual portfolio which has no limits but doesn't have the same tax advantages. Also, be aware of IRA contribution limits based on income...

no, no but

talking about rolling over a dormant 401(k) from a previous employer. that was the topic, not ongoing annual IRA contributions. that's a different conversation.

Thanks, I just learned some things the hard way which was my fault for lack of research.