Include anything your employer puts in.

We've been doing 10% for years.

(Removed personal info after thread was old.)

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Good for you.

I thought we were doing good just boosting ours to 4%. Dh's company will contribute 7% if you have 4% going into retirement. So I guess technically we are getting 11%. Dh also gets profit sharing contributed every year. For many years he had strictly profit sharing going into his retirement, but as we get older we have added more. We need to plan for retirement, but not so much that we cannot live on what we make now.

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~Happiness is a large family~

Right now we aren't able to put much away, we have an emergency fund set up, but all our extra money goes to paying medical and cc bills. Our goal for 2008 though is to be actively contributing 10%.

Not sure if I did this right but I put 16% - maybe it is 10% if it's my actual money.

5% of my check goes to my IRA and my boss puts in 3%. Same with DH at his work. Also, DH has an IRA that we try to put at least $1,000 in a year. So, I'm not sure what the calculation would be LOL

We're at 12% right now, I ALWAYS keep it above at least 10%, we were at 18% for a while and I recently lowered it to help pay off a business debt of DH's, once I get a raise in July I'll probably bump it up another percent or 2 and then once I have our CC bill paid off another %....until we're back up to 18% again. This percent is for just the money I put in, doesn't include my company match.

I voted 6-10%. Right now we are only putting 6% away because we are putting 20% into paying off hubby's car, and then in June once the car is paid off, that 20% will start going into savings for a down payment on a house, for 24 months. At the end of that time, we will not be so aggressively saving for a house anymore and will put between 15-20% away for retirement. At least, that's the plan we have worked out right now.

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~Vicki~
Mama to Hailey, 4 and Ella, 2

It always amazes me to hear that people don't take advantage of employer matches when saving for retirement or investing in 401Ks.

18% sounds great... but just be sure you will really need that money when you retire. Some people can actually save TOO much for retirement. It all depends on what your lifestyle goals are, what age you want to retire, etc. That's why a financial planner is good to have. Sometimes that extra percentage of savings is better invested in accounts that are more easily liquidated without a penalty.

It's been said here before, but there's a fine balance between living for today and saving for the future.

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We're at 9% with an additional 6% employer matching (so 15%). DH gets a bonus every year and 20% of that goes in. Also we have a Roth IRA and the college funds for the kids which require money...

I agree with Kim saving too much is a bad thing too....

My main reason for wanting to get it back up to 18% is that DH has NO retirement fund at all, he gets no benefits or 401k through his work. He had an IRA, but busted into that when he started a new business, so that's gone. So my retirement account is the only one we have and will have to support both of us.

Maybe I'll get it up to 15% and then put the extra 3% into other investments, that are not solely for retirement. I guess my problem is that if I put it into an account, like a CD, then I know when it's going to come due and I think to myself hmmmmmm....a CD is coming due in May so let's plan a trip or use it for a purchase. Where with my retirement fund I know I can't touch it. Poor discipline I guess.