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Comment by prionassembly | Hacker News Reader

Debt is one of those "gradually, then suddenly" things.

Saving money is also that way as well.

When does the suddenly start? Hasn't for me.

Takes about 15 years of consistent saving and investing. Then all of a sudden you're wealthy. But as you're saving and investing you still don't have a wild standard of living.

"Fifteen percent of your household income is going into retirement," Ramsey said. "That will make the typical family a millionaire in 14 years." https://www.today.com/money/dave-ramsey-how-retire-early-pay...

Household income of 100,000 (higher than typical) gives 15K per year, or 1250 a month. 8% interest gets you to $376,000 after 14 years. No where near millionaire status. And this is assuming a tax differed investment path such as 401(k), and you still owe taxes out of that when you withdraw (assume 20% for fed/state, if you don't draw it out all at once, gives you around $300k).

Of course, add another decade and you are at millionaire status. Or don't contribute any additional funds, and wait 12 years, and you hit millionaire.

Yeah the numbers there don't add up as their savings plan changes once people pay off their mortgage, have a rainy day fund and have the kids education fund ready.They tell people to max out savings at that point. So it's starts out at 15% but ends up being much higher.

I've been saving 20-25% for 10 years. I'm nowhere close to that sort of money.

Same here, a lot of this financial advice is given through rose colored glasses of people getting windfalls from tech stock options in past decade.

Based on the numbers for average account balances and stuff, it seems like retirement is a luxury for the current generations. Evens the social support systems are being underfunded, which is likely to lead to inflation or economic downturn as the taxes increase to cover them.

Even as someone who is better off than others my age, it seems like retirement will be a long way off and tight. I was interested and looked up how I stacked up and it turns out I'm around top 25% for income by age and about top 1% (that's alarming) for savings. If it's shakey for me, how is anyone else going to make it? Property values and taxes aew sky high. So is medical care. Other stuff like groceries or parts/labor for home repair are rising.

So yeah, it does not look good in my eyes.

https://dqydj.com/retirement-savings-by-age/

https://cdn.dqydj.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/income-by-a...

I don't understand. If your income is that high and you're saving 25% after 30 years you should have more than enough to retire?

What rate are you modeling your investment returns at?

Dividends and Distributions

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