Meet Dana
Age: 44
Salary: $7,331/month (combined)
Employment: Bookkeeper
Dana’s main concerns, in their own words:
I’m 44 and my husband is 45. I work as a bookkeeper & my husband is a civil engineer in the construction industry. We have two kids, one a Senior in college and one finishing up Sophomore year in high school. We want to retire early (50-55yrs old) and think we will hopefully have enough money in retirement (approx. $600,000 between the 2 of us) BUT we really don’t have much liquid cash that we can use until we can draw on our retirement accounts. Do we…
- Put the minimum into our employer 401K to get the match and save the rest in cash?
- Put any future retirement savings in a ROTH, or is it too late for that?
- Are we fooling ourselves thinking we can retire in a couple 5-10 years?
Also my husband has had 6 job changes since the economic downturn of 2008. His salary figures have been all over the place and of course really hasn’t been anywhere very long to be eligible nor fully vested in retirement plans. We also need to be funding my sons college and a wedding in a year or two.
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Peter Dunn a.k.a. Pete the Planner® is an award-winning financial mind and a former comedian. He’s a USA TODAY columnist, author of ten books, and is the host of the popular radio show and podcast, The Pete the Planner Show. Pete is considered one of the foremost experts on financial wellness in the world, but he’s just as likely to talk your ear off about bass fishing.