Are You Planning Ahead???

[Rick Buffkin]

Guys....We have all different types of conversations here in the forums. Payplans, stats, ROI, etc, etc! This thread is a little different. This week we had the folks that manage our retirement programs here at our dealerships. It kinda got me thinking alot about it. Most of us in this business make fairly decent money. I was curious as to how most of you are planning ahead. For me, I've been putting a % into savings and contributing to a 401K program for a long time now. Is this good??? Should I be doing this and other things as well??? If I should be doing other things, then what other things should I be doing?? Our most recent visit from our retirement mgmt company recommends investing into a ROTH now. It was something about paying taxes now because who knows what the tax rate will be in 20 years or when we do decide to retire. Anyways... we're not going to work forever. Me personally I want to make sure that when the day comes for me to retire out of this business, I can do it comfortably. I would love to hear you guys thoughts!! Maybe we can get @ddavis and some others to chime in on this thread thats already been down this path.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Great topic Rick :thumbup:

This isn't something I paid a lot of attention to until the last few years. Fortunately for me, I listened to my accountant and maxed out the tax-exempt benefits as much as I could afford over the years. My 401K goal, when employed by Checkered Flag and then Cox, was strictly retirement bound. As I'm now working at DealerRefresh where we don't provide retirement benefits I've moved everything over to a combination of money market savings, *Acorns, and Betterment. Other things like trusts and real estate I don't watch as closely because those are items that are more for my kids than me.

If your employer has a 401K match program I would suggest you put as much as you can afford into that. I would also suggest looking into a savings account that has a higher return than traditional savings. Almost every bank has a money market option that essentially functions the same way but just gets you a bit more every month.

And if I weren't working on firing up a new company (details on that will come later) I would be saving my money for the next housing recession. We are in an economic bubble right now. When this one pops housing prices are going to fall much like they did in 2008 & 2009. Take advantage! Our economic growth is now fueled by bubbles, so be prepared to move with them and you'll profit substantially.

P.S. 401Ks, IRAs, and ROTHs are very personal decisions. Tough to say what's best for you, but I do like ROTHs myself.
P.P.S. *Acorns is friggin cool. You link up all your spending items like a checking account and credit cards to Acorns. It then rounds up any purchase you make to the next dollar and invests that difference. So if you buy something for $1.43 Acorns rounds it up to $2.00 and pulls 57 cents out to put into an investment account for you. I've been using it since December and have about $600 in my Acorns account. It is money you don't miss. Sign up with my link to get you and me some extra dollars: https://acorns.com/invite/PH8PH7

 

[joe.pistell]

"Always keep enough gold under your bed to bribe the border guards"
-Art Chasin,
Director of Floor Operations at UBS