I take it betting a buck on 4 7 11 22 47 and 33 isn't the best options for determining our retirement numbers.

I already know my retirement number.. There isn't one. I am a gen Xer and doomed to work until I die.

Dying earlier is always an option. Just start smoking and drinking and drugging heavily and, if you plan right, you'd be dead and broke at about the same time.

I'm there with tawni.
Unless there is some sort of fundamental change in how the world does business, I'm doomed to work until I die. Fun thoughts for a morning looking for a job, isn't it?

As someone very firmly in mid 20s and with well funded 401k and Roth IRA, I am just going to assume that it is too soon for me to mull over the minute details of retirement planning.

I mean, I don't even know what kind of life/expenses I will have 5 years from now, let alone what the scene will be at retirement.

@MostlyHarmless:

How do you have a well funded 401k and roth at 25? You've only been working like 6-7 years, if you skipped college.

And yes, it is WAY too early to even be worrying about it. Maybe when you are 50 you can worry about it.

I am banking on the whole asteroid apocalypse thing happening in 2035 or thereabouts. Who needs a retirement fund when you have potted meats and toilet paper?

@RandomHookup: Honestly that's what I've been thinking for about the last 10 years of my life. Who wants to live all old and weak anyway?

I started my retirement fund at 18 years old, and at 23, I could feasibly retire on it at 40. Unfortunately, the ROTH IRA rules won't let me touch it penalty-free until I'm 60.

Lame.

@MostlyHarmless: Yeah, we're in our late 20s and I just figure: we're both contributing to our 401k's and getting the employer match that we're still both very lucky to have, and that'll do for now.

I mean, I have no idea if we'll ever own property, if we'll end up with kids, how many if we do, if we'll be putting them through college, if there will be any inheritances... I figure, as long as we sock away something then I can start looking at the details in another 20 years.

@tawni: Um, no. I have as much saved up at 40 as my dad did when he was 50. I'll retire in much better shape than that particular boomer, and he's doing okay.

Are you talking about Social Security? You may not get that. I'm already planning on not having it. But if you're not saving in a 401(k) or 403(b) or IRA right now, that's pretty foolish.

@tawni:

Yeah, I'm resigned to that too. The stock market has been ruined, which in turn ruins 401Ks. And on top of it I'll be paying student loans until I'm 60, so there is not much saving going on. Social Security is going to cut benefits or go bankrupt by the time I'll have a chance to retire.

@Saboth: By "well funded" I mean "are being well funded". Basically, a decent amount of my paycheck goes into those every month.

And 50 is too late. Sometime early 40s would be a good place to start imho. Though you certainly will have a clearer idea of what you need when you are 50, it will probably be too late to do anything in case you realize you are running behind.

@zigziggityzoo: i hate you a little bit.

@tawni: I predict that as desperate gen x'ers come of retirement age with no savings, they will start taking out life insurance policies on the homeless and killing them (ala the Killer Grannies).

I cannot grasp this concept of planning how much money you want to have in the future. I want a billion dollars but that isn't going to happen, so however much I have is how much I have.

@mrgenius: Being the ever generous guy that I am, I am working on creating the Cylons in case the asteroid thing fails.

@zigziggityzoo: Why did you invest in a Roth IRA then? Didn't you read the rules before you signed up?

Retirement is for quiters. I have my retirement money invested in show turtles.

@nytmare: I think that is the epitome of why the American savings rate was about 0 percent recently.

@Saboth: Well funded is relative by age. After 3 years of work, my mom the accountant is quite impressed with how much I have in my 401k. It would be a horrible amount for her, being as she's 56 and doesn't have a ton of years left to work, but for someone with a lot of time to fund it more, it's funded well.

I don't know if I'll retire. If I don't it'd be because I don't want to. My grandparents are self made millionaires and could've retired 20 years ago, but like what they do so they keep doing it. (They are in their 80's) I imagine that's where I'll end up. Maybe scale things back, but not retire until I have to. I can't imagine retiring and sitting at a country club and playing tennis all day.

UNLESS...I become a self made millionaire and build an indoor soccer arena in my back yard. Then, goodbye workplace.

@Tightlines: Yeah.

This is the Nirvana Fallacy at work. Basically, it goes like this: "well, its not going to be perfect. so why even bother."

It is a great way to rationalize not doing anything.

I had planned to start putting money in a 401(k) once I turned 21. Then three weeks before my birthday, my employer cut the matches.

So now the only reasons to contribute are that it takes away from your taxable income and you get a tiny bit of interest on it. Maybe I should look into what these Roth IRA things are.

@PunditGuy: Well easier said than done. I have a college degree that does not get much in a town that does not have any jobs right now. I am back in school and working but barely scraping by so its basic needs or savings and I prefer to live.

I figured when I get there, I'd buy a hut somewhere in Fiji or Macau and raise some goats and farm mangos. It's the good life. Preferably Macau, they have internet...

It's not any easier on us Boomers. Most of our retirement value turned out to be smoke, blown away by Madoff and his friends, and loans against my 401K will be paid off in time for me to be in my '60s, and house poor at the same time. I think we're betting on another set of PowerBall numbers then what Vandelay Import Export mentioned, but that's pretty much my plan as well. What happens in the next few months will determine whether or not medical bills will bankrupt us all as we get old.

@Rusty-Shackleford: A much better value than those racing turtles.

@mrgenius: The Mayans told us it's 2012. Don't you know ANYTHING? ;)

I'm doing reasonably well, I think (I need to run the numbers with the new eroded values in my retirement accounts), for my age, but the problem is that my job is in print media, sufficiently highly specialized that it's not very portable, and it may not last until a viable retirement moment appears. So I think I need to figure out what savings I'd need for retirement at various ages and contemplate moving the pace up in case my retirement sneaks up on me unawares. Feh.

@tawni: This is where myself and most of my peers are. I am old enough that pensions were still the option as I entered the workforce so no early 401k to hang onto. I was also too young to actually get in on the pensions since you had to be there for a set number of years to get back out of that. The economy sucked in the Midwest most of the late 80's. Unemployment was insanely high so those years were lots of temp jobs and other work that offered no benefit and barely enough to live on.
By the 90's I had finished college and started working real jobs. Of course due to the nature of the dot coms you ended up looking for a new job because the company folded or involved in a merger about every year thus losing any 401k if there even was any. I did manage to dig myself out of debt and then everything really went to crap again after 9-11 causing massive layoffs.

The little we had managed to save back into 401k and such was eaten alive when the market crashed. For many of us this isn't a matter of choosing to not save. It is a series of events that always made it just out of reach.

I plan on enjoying my later years putting around the streets of some city where it is warm with my shopping cart, feeding stray cats and shouting at random people.

@Moosehawk: They will have suicide booths on every street corner by then so why worry.

@TCama: I wouldn't call it the only reason to contribute. The reason I do is it is a no thought required way to save money. No transferring money from checking into a savings/investment account or anything like that, just pretend the money never existed, and it's harder to miss it. Now if you are saying no reason to do it over any other retirement savings account, that may be true. It's dangerous for people to not save at all just because no one is matching them though.

@RandomHookup:

I estimate my 401K will be worth enough for about 30 days of drug and alcohol fueled mayhem. Good plan?

@Vandelay Import Export: Strangely, that only seems to work if you live in a state that the trees plus wildlife outnumber humans.

I've actually made back almost every dime I lost last year, plus I have this years contributions. If you pay attention and change your contributions and what they are buying it's not that hard to stay ahead of the bulk of the market.

@floraposte: And they can be converted into soup turtles if the need should arise.

@K-Bo: My employer matches nothing--not charitable contributions, not retirement. On the other hand, I'm still within one of the remaining pension systems in the U.S. I cut my contributions to my 403b when the thing started trying for negative worth and started doing more independent retirement saving, though.

@Saboth: The main thing is to start. Too many young workers turn down 401k's with matching because they don't think it's relevant or they can't afford it. You have to start somewhere.

I funded my first IRA with my first job and just kept doing it every year. Now I'm closer to finishing than to starting my career and I don't have to worry as much about it as most of my peers.

@MostlyHarmless: It's hard to start in your 40s without some major sacrifices. By age 30, you should be saving something.

my plan is do all the fun things that retired people do now while i have energy. when i'm old i'm sure i'll be content with the public library and a part time sit on my ass office job.

Having a retirement account is nice, but owning your own house and car makes it easier to live on less.

@dfens42: Unless you have enough $ to buy a handgun and a bullet at the end (and the ability to use it), you may be too young. This is a tactic best left to the old and miserable.

@dfens42: Ditto. The market has rebounded enough that my 401K is back on track again.

@MostlyHarmless: If Clemson keeps playing like they did last night, i don't think we'll have to worry about retirement, just when our heart gets ripped out for the last time, am i right? :D

@Vandelay Import Export: try 4 8 15 16 23 42

@tawni: HA!I feel your pain and I am right there with you.

@RandomHookup: I don't smoke but I could start when I am 60. Get hookers. Do drugs. I mean, it takes about 20 for that bad-life and karma to set in so that would be just about right.

@MostlyHarmless: Let me tell you,,I am 47 and you're wise not to count on anything. Just let it ride and keep working and don't make plans hastily. I have watch way too many older folks retire and screw themselves and and it takes too much money to retire, lol. For me? I actually like to work but I've managed to gain entry into a government job being older whereas I used to do manufacturing and construction in my 20s. I wouldn't want to do that these days. I do think that our new national health care will benefit you younger folk as it will allow you to have more to rely on, instead of selling your kids to pay off the hospital bill. Fortunately for me, I'll benefit from the health care reform too.