How many years did it take for your 401k to hit 1 million ?

[targatom2019]

After 24 years of MAXING out my 401K with company matching .20 per $1.00 I finally reached over $1,000,000. I am just curious to see how long it took you guys with 401k to hit 1 million dollars. I think the average is around 21 years if you max out every year.

 

[CardsFan]

OK. I'll play.

I don't have exact numbers, but it looks like I hit $1 million in 2008, so about 20 years.

Of course, with the recession, it lost a chunk, and I probably hit it again in 2012.

Now it is double that, and I have been retired 3 years!

 

[Spock]

Never did.

 

[aja8888]

Never did.

Me neither.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Ditto on never.

 

[N02L84ER]

Never did. Even with them combined with my IRAs, I have not hit $1M.

 

[Dtail]

Not me either just for the 401k and being retired will never happen.

 

[targatom2019]

Never did.

Me neither.

Ditto on never.

Did you guys max out ?

so far, 22 years is the average between Cardsfan and me.

 

[ziggy29]

None here, but combined with 401Ks and IRAs for DW and me, we're around $1.1M total.

I started contributing to my 401k plan in 1989, 10% already at age 23. (That made a huge difference, of course.). I think we first hit $1M in retirement account investments in 2014.

 

[Spock]

Did you guys max out ?

Yup. Last few years I even went to 80% of salary to hit the max as early in the year as possible.

 

[aja8888]

Did you guys max out ?

so far, 22 years is the average between Cardsfan and me.

Never had a 401K available where I worked in the first half of my career. Second half I was self employed and used a different savings vehicle, although I did open a Solo 401K late in my work life but it never got anywhere near $1M.

 

[CardsFan]

OK. I'll play.

I don't have exact numbers, but it looks like I hit $1 million in 2008, so about 20 years.

Of course, with the recession, it lost a chunk, and I probably hit it again in 2012.

Now it is double that, and I have been retired 3 years!

For clarification, my company was spun off from MegaCorp in 2005. Converted 401k to IRA and then started a new 401k. So I have combined the two.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Due to being a sSAHM for awhile and then 3 college degrees I didn’t start my career until 40. Then a divorce at 44 and ex hid 90% of our money. I am grateful for my pension. We had a 457 through the state and I contributed to that also.

 

[YakGrl]

31 years to reach $1M

 

[Red Badger]

Another member of the Not Me club. I did not have a 401K option until late 30's. Didn't start maxing out until my 50's. DW was SAHM, so income and portfolio was always solo (or maybe acapella?).

That's okay. Put my (career) feet up at 60. Our "stash," a couple of modest pensions, and decent retiree health insurance makes us golden (by our yardstick). YMMV!

 

[street]

Mine never did.

 

[Spock]

For those with big 401ks (or tax deferred balances in general), be sure to at least look at your after tax savings. It makes a big difference if you can't reach the $ until 59.5
but your boss says you're out at 55. And then there is the tax torpedo issue.
Play with some spreadsheets... if you're in a the middle or upper ranges of a wide tax bracket, do you really think you'll be in a lower tax bracket when you pull from the 401k? (rhetorical question)

 

[Dreamer]

We never did either. DH's was much higher than mine. Government never contributed a penny to mine, since I chose to stay in CSRS.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

20 years for me and that was 4 years ago so nice run since. Grateful for strong company match.

 

[Andre1969]

I started investing in a 401k the last two weeks of 1997, so I'm at a little over 21 years. I've switched companies a few times, so I now have three rollover IRAs and a 401k. Combined, they're around $645K. However, I didn't start putting in the maximum amount until 2005.

I'm about to turn 49, and probably won't touch them until I'm 59.5, so with another few years of additions, until I retire, and then some more compounding, their combined value should easily hit $1M.

 

[CardsFan]

I know the tax torpedo will bite my a$$ at RMD time. So be it. I am converting now, but can't get close to what I would like, without going into the next tax bracket. First world problem.

I guess I would like to encourage newbies to use a 401k, as best they can. But also keep some money outside (Roth or brokerage) to be flexible.

 

[corn18]

Here is how to read this graph.

The horizontal axis is how many years you have been working.
The green line is how much your 401(k) would be worth if you maxed out every year.
The blue line is how much you have contributed.

Note: In our scenario, I have our worker contribute the max contribution divided by 12 every month. To make it simple, we’ll invest in VFINX, the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund.

Assumptions are in this link:

https://retireby40.org/what-if-always-maxed-401k/

Took almost 18 seconds to do a google search.

 

[RobLJ]

27 years.
Caveats:
I never ever contributed the max, although I got close the last three years. I worked for a state plan in which 7% was my contribution; 8.5% the state match. (Made up in part for a very low starting salary.) I started out at 1/5 to 1/6 the max.
2007-2015 I contributed extra, which helped.
I got lucky in 2002 and 2008 with allocation shifts before the crashes. Overall I underperformed in boom years--quite a bit in 2000& 2001 and way over-performed in the crashes.

 

[MarieIG]

Objection to form: assumes facts not in evidence.

 

[Car-Guy]

I don't recall exactly but it probably took about 20 years to hit 1m. The first 10 ten years or so, I just contributed enough to get max matching from the company then later I max'd out to the federal limits. I've been retired about 7 years now and have not touched it yet. (Actually I "almost" forget about it except for the annual statements.) I see no sense it tapping it since it's generating the highest rate of returns of any of my investments.

Probably will wait until RMD's kick-in,,,,, if I make it until then. Or maybe I'll pull it all and have a great weekend in Vegas...