re: How old are you, and how much is in your 401K?

quote:

---

Ahead of this chart (get your primary residence paid for folks!)

---

THIS!

We bought our house about 10 years ago. For a while, we were "house poor." I just turned 50 and I've been maxing out my 401k for about 6 years, including the increase for this year.

We kind of looked at the house as an investment and we bought it with the idea that we'd downsize when we got older and the difference would be part of our retirement. Given that the first $500,000 of gain on the home is completely TAX FREE, we viewed it as being a better investment than anything in a 401k.

Right now, we're not really close to the $500k in gain, but given what we've paid off and the increase in value of our home, we could sell right now and buy our next downsized house for cash. But, we're going to hang onto it until the earlier of the date we retire or we get up to $500k in gain. If things continue as they have in the past, we'll probably sell about 5-10 years before we retire.

58 next month, $1.3 million in mine and $740k in my wife’s. As a 23 year owner of a business that has a safe harbored 401k, I’m allowed to put in extra. That plus the “catchup” allowed to us semi-elderly has enabled me to save a ton since I started at age 30.

I posted earlier in this thread that we were at combined $1.8 million. That was from memory, but I checked, and it’s actually more. Good thing my wife is an accountant.