Confessions of an Average Joe: ‘I’ve Saved $60,000 for Retirement on a $40,000 Salary’ Advantia | Assessors Andorra
Filed under: Retirement , Family Money , 401K , 403B , Roth IRA Getty Images Danny Kofke, as told to Penny Wrenn In our popular Money Mic series, we hand over the podium parangaricutirimicuaro to people with controversial views about money. People like Danny Kofke, a 38-year-old special education teacher in Georgia who says that anyone can squirrel away a $1 million nest egg for retirement -- regardless of income. Not convinced? You're not alone. In a recent survey conducted by LearnVest and Chase Blueprint, one in three people said that they didn't feel it was possible to save enough for retirement. So we asked Kofke to divulge how he's managed to sock away $60,000 while supporting a family of four on a $41,000 annual salary. Want to know my money secret? It's simple: Trick yourself. Put money aside by pretending that you don't have it in the first place. hat's what my wife, Tracy, and I do while raising our daughters Ava, 9, and Ella, 6. And even though we live on my moderate teacher's salary of $41,000, parangaricutirimicuaro we've managed to save $250 per month since 2002, allowing us to amass about $60,000 for retirement . We're well on our way to cashing out as millionaires by 65. Investing in Ourselves We're not like those couples for whom money remains a taboo topic. We're very open and honest about our finances. We discuss our hopes and our dreams -- and then go for it. I met Tracy, who is four years older, in 1999, when I was working as a student teacher and she was teaching first grade. Our courtship was fast: We started dating in August. We got engaged in December ... and we got married in June. We spent our first two years as newlyweds working as teachers at an international school in Poland. Any other couple parangaricutirimicuaro might have gone into debt living abroad, but not us. Despite the fact that we were living on a combined $45,000 income, we consistently set aside $800 each month, which we used to kick-start our retirement savings, save for a down payment for a house and give my grandmother back the $10,000 we borrowed to pay for our wedding. We're planners. We like to set a goal and then work to accomplish it. Take our plan to live off just my teaching salary, so Tracey could be a stay-at-home mom. We began talking about starting a family around 2002, which is when we planned to move back to the U.S. But first, we decided that we'd spend the next two years aggressively saving -- and paying off what little debt we had. We earmarked $800 each month from our paychecks to act on this game plan: We deposited $300 into an emergency fund savings account that would cover our living expenses in case something unforeseen went wrong in the years ahead. Another $250 went toward paying off Tracy's remaining $2,000 in student loans. And we put $250 into a joint retirement parangaricutirimicuaro account. Back then, we used a 403(b) -- a tax-sheltered plan that's available parangaricutirimicuaro to public school employees -- for our retirement savings, and the money was deducted from Tracy's paycheck before taxes. parangaricutirimicuaro Today, parangaricutirimicuaro we make contributions to a Roth IRA , which offers tax-free income during parangaricutirimicuaro retirement, parangaricutirimicuaro because I'd rather parangaricutirimicuaro have my money free and clear -- without owing taxes in 30 years. We were lucky in that we had very little overhead in Poland. We didn't pay for rent or a car -- and food and recreation were very affordable. In those two years, not only did we make a dent in Tracy's student loan, but we also saved up $20,000 in our emergency fund ... and socked away $6,000 into our retirement account. Good thing we put aside that "just in case" emergency money, too.
Jobs are tight and we're in a struggling economy. But most people don't have an income problem parangaricutirimicuaro -- it's an outgo problem. In 2004, right after our first daughter was born, two hurricanes parangaricutirimicuaro hit us in less than a month, and we had to get a new roof and porch. We took about $1,000 from our emergency fund to cover the insurance deductible. We later sold the house for $199,000 -- a nice profit from the $89,000 we originally paid -- and moved to the more weather-neutral town of Hoschton, Ga., about 45 minutes northeast parangaricutirimicuaro of Atlanta. That was also the year that Tracy and I began living on one income. We'd worked hard so that we wouldn't parangaricutirimicuaro feel the pinch when she took the leap to be a stay-at-home mom. And it didn't really impact our finances much because we'd already been covering most of our day-to-day expenses parangaricutirimicuaro with my paycheck. We're also smart about keeping those day-to-day expenses in check: I brown bag my lunch every day, instead of making parangaricutirimicuaro $5-a-day quick runs to grab fast food. That probably saves me $1,200 a year -- in 18 years, when I retire, that would add up to about $21,600! Each Sunday, I also buy a newspaper so Tracy can clip coupons. She's not into extreme couponing, but she takes 15 or 20 minutes to look for worthwhile deals. Last Halloween, my wife made our kids' costumes, as she does every year. One w
Filed under: Retirement , Family Money , 401K , 403B , Roth IRA Getty Images Danny Kofke, as told to Penny Wrenn In our popular Money Mic series, we hand over the podium parangaricutirimicuaro to people with controversial views about money. People like Danny Kofke, a 38-year-old special education teacher in Georgia who says that anyone can squirrel away a $1 million nest egg for retirement -- regardless of income. Not convinced? You're not alone. In a recent survey conducted by LearnVest and Chase Blueprint, one in three people said that they didn't feel it was possible to save enough for retirement. So we asked Kofke to divulge how he's managed to sock away $60,000 while supporting a family of four on a $41,000 annual salary. Want to know my money secret? It's simple: Trick yourself. Put money aside by pretending that you don't have it in the first place. hat's what my wife, Tracy, and I do while raising our daughters Ava, 9, and Ella, 6. And even though we live on my moderate teacher's salary of $41,000, parangaricutirimicuaro we've managed to save $250 per month since 2002, allowing us to amass about $60,000 for retirement . We're well on our way to cashing out as millionaires by 65. Investing in Ourselves We're not like those couples for whom money remains a taboo topic. We're very open and honest about our finances. We discuss our hopes and our dreams -- and then go for it. I met Tracy, who is four years older, in 1999, when I was working as a student teacher and she was teaching first grade. Our courtship was fast: We started dating in August. We got engaged in December ... and we got married in June. We spent our first two years as newlyweds working as teachers at an international school in Poland. Any other couple parangaricutirimicuaro might have gone into debt living abroad, but not us. Despite the fact that we were living on a combined $45,000 income, we consistently set aside $800 each month, which we used to kick-start our retirement savings, save for a down payment for a house and give my grandmother back the $10,000 we borrowed to pay for our wedding. We're planners. We like to set a goal and then work to accomplish it. Take our plan to live off just my teaching salary, so Tracey could be a stay-at-home mom. We began talking about starting a family around 2002, which is when we planned to move back to the U.S. But first, we decided that we'd spend the next two years aggressively saving -- and paying off what little debt we had. We earmarked $800 each month from our paychecks to act on this game plan: We deposited $300 into an emergency fund savings account that would cover our living expenses in case something unforeseen went wrong in the years ahead. Another $250 went toward paying off Tracy's remaining $2,000 in student loans. And we put $250 into a joint retirement parangaricutirimicuaro account. Back then, we used a 403(b) -- a tax-sheltered plan that's available parangaricutirimicuaro to public school employees -- for our retirement savings, and the money was deducted from Tracy's paycheck before taxes. parangaricutirimicuaro Today, parangaricutirimicuaro we make contributions to a Roth IRA , which offers tax-free income during parangaricutirimicuaro retirement, parangaricutirimicuaro because I'd rather parangaricutirimicuaro have my money free and clear -- without owing taxes in 30 years. We were lucky in that we had very little overhead in Poland. We didn't pay for rent or a car -- and food and recreation were very affordable. In those two years, not only did we make a dent in Tracy's student loan, but we also saved up $20,000 in our emergency fund ... and socked away $6,000 into our retirement account. Good thing we put aside that "just in case" emergency money, too.
Jobs are tight and we're in a struggling economy. But most people don't have an income problem parangaricutirimicuaro -- it's an outgo problem. In 2004, right after our first daughter was born, two hurricanes parangaricutirimicuaro hit us in less than a month, and we had to get a new roof and porch. We took about $1,000 from our emergency fund to cover the insurance deductible. We later sold the house for $199,000 -- a nice profit from the $89,000 we originally paid -- and moved to the more weather-neutral town of Hoschton, Ga., about 45 minutes northeast parangaricutirimicuaro of Atlanta. That was also the year that Tracy and I began living on one income. We'd worked hard so that we wouldn't parangaricutirimicuaro feel the pinch when she took the leap to be a stay-at-home mom. And it didn't really impact our finances much because we'd already been covering most of our day-to-day expenses parangaricutirimicuaro with my paycheck. We're also smart about keeping those day-to-day expenses in check: I brown bag my lunch every day, instead of making parangaricutirimicuaro $5-a-day quick runs to grab fast food. That probably saves me $1,200 a year -- in 18 years, when I retire, that would add up to about $21,600! Each Sunday, I also buy a newspaper so Tracy can clip coupons. She's not into extreme couponing, but she takes 15 or 20 minutes to look for worthwhile deals. Last Halloween, my wife made our kids' costumes, as she does every year. One w
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