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Median 401k Balances by Age

So basically the boomers didn’t save shet. So what about the narrative that boomers are rich? It looks to me like boomers happened to buy a house for $8500 in 1967 that is now worth $3 million and that’s about it.

No wonder so many old farts work as Walmart greeters , you can’t live off social security and you can’t live off a weak tit 401k like this below.

Thank goodness all of us on this board played it better than this.

9 comments

9 Comments

Java

Oct 19, 2024

I confess I am surprised. When I was 21-22 I had 10% of my salary at Pepsi thrown into the 401K and put it in Pepsi stock. After all I was gonna run the company someday. Invest early. I want to say in that year and a half I probably put $4000? $5000? No more than 6K into it. Then I left and left the money right there. When Pepsi spun off the restaurants, I put the money into Corning, thinking they made the glass for cell phones. Had some good runs, some bad. It's now worth $230,000 Not enough for me to retire on, but that was 18 months of saving. I smartly converted that to a Roth in about 1996

I have a second 401K that was tied to a profit sharing thing we had at the business. Probably ran for about 3 years in the 90's . No ide how much the company dumped in for me but I would guess about $8,000 Maybe $10K. It's now worth. Interestingly. $86,000

I have other investments and accounts where I have made the big money but those two? I find it interesting that one was a year and a half of pre tax stuff when I was single and young 18 months. And the other one, equaling the national average, was sort of a company throw in for profit sharing if we had a good year, spanning maybe 3-4 years.

As I look at the national averages I am thinking people must not have been trying very hard or thinking ahead at all. Mine was small but because I did one in my 20's and another a decade later, those numbers add up. Interestingly the investments I picked in the second account kinda sucked. HP, IBM, Intel, PSEC Lot of dead weight there.

BigBallss

Oct 19, 2024

Replying to

I believe Pepsi did indeed match. As I recall from at least one friend that worked there.

My advice for achieving financial independence to the young people in my circle :

Start investing early
Start a business

your post is a perfect example of what I’m telling them. You did both. I hung around the corporate world too long but eventually came around too.

Java

Oct 19, 2024

Replying to

What’s weird is I never seemed like I was making much. Then I woke up 35 years later and it’s like huh. Look at that. I could buy Charlie sheen and flush that little turd down the toilet.

Looking back the initial investment proved timely. I was young. The first business never made much but when it sold I had a few hundred thousand. Owned houses since I was 24-25 and while I was never in a “hot” market. Any market in ca looks good over 35 years. For me I think the two biggest turning points were when the market cratered in whatever it was 2008? 2009? You talk about that often. I happened to have had $200k in a mm account. Either that was the sale of a lot I had dreamed of humming a house on or business sale. Somehow I had it.

And I know you talk about your 401 being gutted. And it happened overnight. In the market. I want to say the bottom was what about a 50% loss? More? Warren buffet said he saw great companies on sale and he was a buyer. Be greedy when others are fearful. And no clue why but I smelled blood and jumped in. My meager 401ks also were hit but so small then I think I just smelled money.

As you know within a year or two the market recovered. And everyone else was like “we got our money back”. But I got in 3 days from the low. And I basically doubled my money. Fast. Like in 18-24 months. I remember it was VFINX. Didnt even know what To invest in to take advantage so I picked an index fund by vanguard. Which turns out was genius out of ignorance.

200k turned into 400k. That had to be about 2011 ish. And then around then it 2012 I dumped all or most into Apple based on being impressed with the ipod and instead rode the iPhone decade. That culminated in being forced out due to a call that I should have wiggled out of and didn’t know how back then a couple years ago. I want to say I originally put $200k into Apple. Maybe more. And was forced out at $3million.

And somewhere in that last decade the business took. Off.

I wish I could write a formula for it. I have offended shuddered. My dad loves investing. Studied it. Brilliant. Used to preach about the benefits of it. And I don’t think he ever made any money in it. Because his era was the 60s and 70s. Perhaps the longest era of stock market malaise. Look back. It sucked. Stuff went nowhere. If you didn’t get dividends you got nothing.

Luckily for him he discovered real estate and development. Apartments. Industrial parks. And make his money the honest way. Glad he moved his life and I lived mine. Not sure I could have had this outcome if I had to do it his way.

Brad Stevens

Oct 20, 2024

Replying to

COUGH/CHOKE! 50% match?! I would’ve moved myself and the ex in with my parents and maxed the monthly contribution for as long as they allowed. 50%?

Is Pepsi hiring? Tell them I can work from home 7 days a week.

Brad Stevens

Oct 18, 2024

Wow, that’s shocking. How do these people sleep at night?

BigBallss

Oct 19, 2024

Replying to

They’re hoping a politician will come along and save them. Not gonna happen

Daystalker

Oct 18, 2024

Boomers are "rich" because they bought their homes (and multiple rental properties through the years) for like 35K, and they are worth about a million each.