Prudential 401K plan

PT Stewie

"Big Fella"
Second job invest 35 % plus 10 % catchup plus 5% after tax plus $30.00 UPS stock per week leaves about $90.00 for pizza ,bait,and greens fees .PS 2 % of day job wich is matched @ 75%
 

Ms.PacMan

Well-Known Member
I read this article that said 401K balances have quadrupled in the last decade so I went through my statements this morning to see. For some reason I don't have the 1997-00 statements to give the yearly totals. My balance now is $285,500 - all stock funds. Feels good that sticking with it has paid off - wish I had started saving a little earlier.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
I read this article that said 401K balances have quadrupled in the last decade so I went through my statements this morning to see. For some reason I don't have the 1997-00 statements to give the yearly totals. My balance now is $285,500 - all stock funds. Feels good that sticking with it has paid off - wish I had started saving a little earlier.

Year
Contributions
Balance
2001
28,278
28,202
2002
36,612
29,844
2003
45,376
48,077
2004
58,040
58,715
2005
71,490
65,617
2006
84,533
90,125
2007
98,783
114,455
2008
112,766
130,414
2009
127,206
101,191
2010
142,190
149,979
2011
158,052
197,842
2012
175,052
262,381

Stock funds? How do you do that? I have much to learn.
 

Ms.PacMan

Well-Known Member
Stock funds? How do you do that? I have much to learn.
The equity index funds. S&P 500, S&P 400, Russell 2000, International. I never invested in the bond or balanced (Bright Horizon) funds.

For the longest time, especially with 2 recessions, it seemed like I was only saving my own money and wasn't making any. I'm glad I didn't panic and left the money where it was in 2009 because it bounced right back.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
I read this article that said 401K balances have quadrupled in the last decade so I went through my statements this morning to see. For some reason I don't have the 1997-00 statements to give the yearly totals. My balance now is $285,500 - all stock funds. Feels good that sticking with it has paid off - wish I had started saving a little earlier.
Wow, I suck. I have just under half that.
 

PiedmontSteward

RTW-4-Less
Pretty convenient this thread got bumped, because I've been looking into 401k contribution and need some advice..

Quite frankly, I can't afford to contribute much. I'm part time and I gross about $400/week, which results in a net of ~$300-315 after taxes, union dues, and DRIVE. After rent, gas, food, etc, there's not a whole lot left over and I've only recently started putting a little to the side in savings. I'd like to start now so I'm at least ahead of the game when and if I go full time. I can really only afford to contribute maybe ~2-3%/week, which is on the pitiful side. But it's never too early to start; I've got a few years before I even hit 30.

However, I have some questions:

If I contribute to the Teamsters/UPS 401k plan, I'm assuming that money is not portable/cannot be contributed to if I break employment from UPS in the next 5-10 years? I don't want to contribute to a fund before I go FT in case a "dream job" comes on my radar (very unlikely, but expect the unexpected..)

If I contribute to a Roth 401k, that money is pre-taxed and portable, correct?
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
I've been maxing it out for awhile now and I only had one child and live in the Midwest.
I think I played it too safe for too many years. I kept too much money in the Government STIF. I've changed that, tho.

And I've never maxed out.

Nice job, Ms.PacMan!
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Pretty convenient this thread got bumped, because I've been looking into 401k contribution and need some advice..

Quite frankly, I can't afford to contribute much. I'm part time and I gross about $400/week, which results in a net of ~$300-315 after taxes, union dues ,and DRIVE.........


Do it, start now! I started with just 2%.
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
Pretty convenient this thread got bumped, because I've been looking into 401k contribution and need some advice..

Quite frankly, I can't afford to contribute much. I'm part time and I gross about $400/week, which results in a net of ~$300-315 after taxes, union dues ,and DRIVE. After rent, gas, food, etc, there's not a whole lot left over and I've only recently started putting a little to the side in savings. I'd like to start now so I'm at least ahead of the game when and if I go full time. I can really only afford to contribute maybe ~2-3%/week, which is on the pitiful side. But it's never too early to start; I've got a few years before I even hit 30.

However, I have some questions:

If I contribute to the Teamsters/UPS 401k plan, I'm assuming that money is not portable/cannot be contributed to if I break employment from UPS in the next 5-10 years? I don't want to contribute to a fund before I go FT in case a "dream job" comes on my radar (very unlikely, but expect the unexpected..)

If I contribute to a Roth 401k, that money is pre-taxed and portable, correct?
If you save $25 a week in a saving account that gets 3%, you'd be rich at 65.
 

Overpaid Union Thug

Well-Known Member
Stock funds? How do you do that? I have much to learn.
The equity index funds. S&P 500, S&P 400, Russell 2000, International. I never invested in the bond or balanced (Bright Horizon) funds.

For the longest time, especially with 2 recessions, it seemed like I was only saving my own money and wasn't making any. I'm glad I didn't panic and left the money where it was in 2009 because it bounced right back.

Oh. I'm in those too. I picked mine based on 10 year track records
 
I have been contributing 10% of my income into the Prudential 401k.
I see that I am being charged about 1% for them to "handle" my account. This seems a little high, considering that I could do far better on my own and or with other companies.

In 1yr and 7 months I am going to up contribution to 20%-30%. I also max out my Roth IRA, and have less then 5 years left on my 10 year mortgage.

What are you guys doing with your 401k? Are you using prudential? Or on your own.

Thanks
I use a little of both! Some in my 401k & I put money in a ROTH for my wife and myself. It has been working pretty good for me so far. I try no to be too agressive or too safe. I spread it out a little bit.(both the 401k & the Mrs.!...lol)
 

BrownCrayon

New Member
When it comes to retirement, i'm not sure how much money I need to put away or where to put it. I'm 35 been with UPS for almost 10 years... driving for 8 of those 10 years. I invested in 401k earlier in my career which is up to about 7800 right now, but I was turned off because they didn't match. So I stopped the 401k and started putting money into UPS stock, as of right now i'm doing $150 a week.. and my stock is up to about 22k. Which is the best way to go when it comes to retirement....

Thanks in advance!
 

Ms.PacMan

Well-Known Member
Pretty convenient this thread got bumped, because I've been looking into 401k contribution and need some advice..

Quite frankly, I can't afford to contribute much. I'm part time and I gross about $400/week, which results in a net of ~$300-315 after taxes, union dues, and DRIVE. After rent, gas, food, etc, there's not a whole lot left over and I've only recently started putting a little to the side in savings. I'd like to start now so I'm at least ahead of the game when and if I go full time. I can really only afford to contribute maybe ~2-3%/week, which is on the pitiful side. But it's never too early to start; I've got a few years before I even hit 30.

However, I have some questions:

If I contribute to the Teamsters/UPS 401k plan, I'm assuming that money is not portable/cannot be contributed to if I break employment from UPS in the next 5-10 years? I don't want to contribute to a fund before I go FT in case a "dream job" comes on my radar (very unlikely, but expect the unexpected..)

If I contribute to a Roth 401k, that money is pre-taxed and portable, correct?

Yes, you can do a rollover into an IRA if you were to leave UPS BUT if you have more than $1000 invested you can just leave the money in our 401K (the fees are very low).

A traditional 401K is pre-tax - the amount will not be counted as income on your W-2 for tax purposes and will be taxed when you withdraw it.

A Roth 401K is after tax - you will pay taxes at the end of the year on that money because it will be included in your wages on your W-2 and when you withdraw it, it will be tax free. The Roth is a better way to go if you are young because the gains will also be tax free.

Contribute any amount - it will add up over time. Play around with this calculator 401k Calculator

I only started contributing to a Roth IRA the last couple years and wish I had done this sooner.
 
When it comes to retirement, i'm not sure how much money I need to put away or where to put it. I'm 35 been with UPS for almost 10 years... driving for 8 of those 10 years. I invested in 401k earlier in my career which is up to about 7800 right now, but I was turned off because they didn't match. So I stopped the 401k and started putting money into UPS stock, as of right now i'm doing $150 a week.. and my stock is up to about 22k. Which is the best way to go when it comes to retirement....

Thanks in advance!
DO NOT PUT ALL OF YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET!!!A little in the 401k A littlemore in the Roth. Some in an aftertax account. Cash is king in a contract year! You wouldnot want to sell your UPS stock if we were to go on strike!!...just saying
 

Ms.PacMan

Well-Known Member
When it comes to retirement, i'm not sure how much money I need to put away or where to put it. I'm 35 been with UPS for almost 10 years... driving for 8 of those 10 years. I invested in 401k earlier in my career which is up to about 7800 right now, but I was turned off because they didn't match. So I stopped the 401k and started putting money into UPS stock, as of right now i'm doing $150 a week.. and my stock is up to about 22k. Which is the best way to go when it comes to retirement....

Thanks in advance!
They don't match because they give us a pension. It perfectly okay to invest without a match. It's also great to buy stock but I think the compounding effect of the 401K is better. You can contribute $17,500 to a 401K and $5500 to an IRA for 2013.

How much should I save and what was my goal, was a hard question for me at first. When I started reading about SWR or safe withdrawal rates (of your nest egg) it made things much clearer. They say (based on past market performance and monte carlo simulators) that a person should be able to withdraw 4% of his nest egg the first year and then 4% + whatever inflation was the year prior in subsequent years and have a 95% success rate making withdrawals for 30 years. 3.5% or even 3% withdrawals are even safer and have a near 100% success rate of not running out of money before you die.

So I looked at my worst case scenario - an early 25 yr, under age 57, pension in CS pays $2000/mo or $24,000/yr. I decided I wanted to at least replace this pension with my own money or double it if I made it to retirement with the pension intact or even better it and used the 4% SWR as a guideline.

If I wanted $24,000/yr for 30 yrs in retirement, only withdrawing 4% (so it would last 30 yrs), it meant that I had to somehow save $600,000. That's where the calculators came in and I began to play around with contribution rates and investment return rates to see what the outcomes would be.

We were making in the 20% range with the old 401K funds in the 90's and I really thought I had it licked and didn't max it out. But the ecomony got tough and I got very serious and decided I would have to live below my means to make my goal. I have a total retirement nest egg of $529,000 now (I also have dividend stocks in a brokerage acct, UPS stock, I bonds, Roth IRA and cash) and I wouldn't trade the security I feel for a bigger house or new car.
 

brownmonster

Man of Great Wisdom
They don't match because they give us a pension. It perfectly okay to invest without a match. It's also great to buy stock but I think the compounding effect of the 401K is better. You can contribute $17,500 to a 401K and $5500 to an IRA for 2013.

How much should I save and what was my goal, was a hard question for me at first. When I started reading about SWR or safe withdrawal rates (of your nest egg) it made things much clearer. They say (based on past market performance and monte carlo simulators) that a person should be able to withdraw 4% of his nest egg the first year and then 4% + whatever inflation was the year prior in subsequent years and have a 95% success rate making withdrawals for 30 years. 3.5% or even 3% withdrawals are even safer and have a near 100% success rate of not running out of money before you die.

So I looked at my worst case scenario - an early 25 yr, under age 57, pension in CS pays $2000/mo or $24,000/yr. I decided I wanted to at least replace this pension with my own money or double it if I made it to retirement with the pension intact or even better it and used the 4% SWR as a guideline.

If I wanted $24,000/yr for 30 yrs in retirement, only withdrawing 4% (so it would last 30 yrs), it meant that I had to somehow save $600,000. That's where the calculators came in and I began to play around with contribution rates and investment return rates to see what the outcomes would be.

We were making in the 20% range with the old 401K funds in the 90's and I really thought I had it licked and didn't max it out. But the ecomony got tough and I got very serious and decided I would have to live below my means to make my goal. I have a total retirement nest egg of $529,000 now (I also have dividend stocks in a brokerage acct, UPS stock, I bonds, Roth IRA and cash) and I wouldn't trade the security I feel for a bigger house or new car.


Probably wouldn't have to save anymore. Just let it grow.
 

Ms.PacMan

Well-Known Member
Probably wouldn't have to save anymore. Just let it grow.
I say that every year but every year I continually think of ways to cut corners and save. I'm not really a material girl but I need to loosen the purse strings a bit. I think I'll just splurge on a very nice retirement home if everything comes together - or maybe not -lol.
 
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