<p>DH and I recently attended a Retirement Planning course (3 nights at community college) to get ourselves thinking about our own retirement.</p>
<p>One of the things we realized is that if all goes well… there would be some money left in our 401Ks after we both are gone. I intend to investigate if that can be passed on as 401K for children… not sure how that works.</p>
<p>I don’t worry about my kids retirement, that’s their business. If they don’t plan well, they need to spend less when they retire. However, H & I did ok on our retirement and savings. We both have some pensions plus a good 401K and we plan to work more years than we had anticipated(just because we can, not because we need to). I have been contributing to D1’s Roth IRA to encourage her working in her younger years. I also don’t think we will touch our inheritance either so my kids may inherit that. But I do not want them to depend on their inheritance either but to go out and earn the money for themselves. It’s much more satisfying that way.</p>
<p>[401khelpcenter.com</a> - What You Need to Know When You Inherit a 401k](<a href=“404 Error - 401khelpcenter.com”>404 Error - 401khelpcenter.com)</p>
<p>CO_mom, you may want to look at the above. Looks like you’ll need to check your 401K plan documents to see what happens when you die…some plans may automatically kick the money out.</p>
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<p>DD got a summer internship that allow interns to contribute towards 401K account. If she does that then I’ll ask her to contribute all the net pay towards the 401K account and will foot the bill for her expenses during the 3 months. I calculate a total contribution of $8000 can happen for the 3 month period. Company do have a matching plan, if they do it for interns too then it can become a total of $10000.
I think that will go far over the next 50 years towards the retirement and also teach her a valuable lesson.</p>
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<p>Each 401K account has provision for nominating beneficiary and any left over after the death of the person goes to the beneficiary.</p>
<p>I was told by, Poetgrl, that my W and I, should build a dowery for DS before doing anything else. :)</p>
<p>I started a roth IRA for S when he had his first decently paying summer job through a Vanguard mutual fund. Have told him he’s on his own to continue it. Will do the same for D if she gets a paying job that grosses at least $1K. Will encourage him to max out his employer matched retirement account & a roth IRA; I believe he’s a very frugal saver and will do so. He graduating with money in his savings that he plans to invest. Not quite as sure what D’s path will be, but will encourage her to save whatever she can as well. If we can, we’d like to help our kids buy a place, hopefully in HI so they can return here someday–housing prices are otherwise skyhigh.</p>
<p>My relatives really DO work because they WANT to (including my dad). They already travel as much as they want, golf as much as they want, eat out whenever they want and enjoy going downtown and socializing while doing what work they enjoy.</p>
<p>I agree that defined benefit pensions are definitely a thing of the past, as they have been for many for at least a decade or more. Our kids are relieved that we will NOT need them to support us and we hope & believe we will likely be able to leave them something when we pass away.</p>
<p>Wow, and I thought I was so innovative!
I also opened a Vanguard Roth IRA for DS when he turned 18 and had earned income that year. It was the minimum requirement, $1000.</p>
<p>DS is now a 24 yr old grad student. He has added ZERO additional dollars to this point.
BUT he does enjoy seeing the quarterly statement and may be inclined to add to account after graduation and finding a ‘real’ job.
Even without additional contributions, the acct is now worth about $1500.</p>
<p>I’m with posters above that the example may be valuable to adult children.
DS has heard me speak about the percentage of salary I contribute to my 403B and living below our means. Hope some of it sticks!</p>
<p>I encourage savings and living below one’s means, but I confess that I worry more about the lack of good jobs for the well-educated but unconnected for the duration of a career, as well as a rapidly eroding safety net.</p>
<p>Clarification: I live in a world in which many aging and ill parents and in some instances, grandparents, provide housing, support, and round the clock supervision to adult children and grandchildren with severe disabilities.</p>
<p>I fear that as the baby boomers resist/delay retirement their grandchildren won’t be able to enter the market. But, there’s nothing I can do about that, so I focus on what I can. </p>
<p>As soon as my kids have earned income I will set up IRAs for them and - in the beginning - make a few deposits on their behalf. The rest is up to the kids.</p>
<p>Thought to ponder…Being a consumer driven economy,what happens as we,as consumers,continue to slice and dice our budgets and spending habits???..</p>
<p>Less spending,leads to less revenue for businesses and governments,leads to further job losses,leads to less spending,leads to less revenue…etc etc</p>
<p>Hope that the rest of the world spends more (which they are doing) and then try to tap into that demand. There are economies in other parts of the world that are booming.</p>
<p>Like others I’m a lot more worried about my own retirement. My older son already has a Roth IRA account from summer jobs. It’s nice to think you can work a lot longer, but we watched my husband’s mother get early onset dementia and his Dad had a mini-stroke and also retired fairly young. They were fine, but they didn’t leave us a lot of money. My mother thought she was fine until she discovered that my father’s health care plan didn’t continue for her after he died. She’s now paying ten times what she used to pay.</p>
<p>Along with several others here, we set up Roth IRAs for each of the kids as soon as they had income. With defined benefit plans dying off, we felt it a parental duty to get the kids started toward saving for their own retirements. No regrets.</p>
<p>Still have a defined plan. :)</p>
<p>And a match from company into 401k :)</p>
<p>12 years to go to retirement,hopefully it stays solvent</p>
<p>DD is a miser. I’m quite sure she’ll do fine with her retirement savings; in fact, there are times I wish I wish she’d spend a little more money NOW.</p>
<p>What’s retirement? I’m 35 and I save aggressively, but I assume I’ll have to keep working until I am disabled.</p>
<p>It is interesting in our household–H is retiring from the fed govt to a defined benefit, guaranteed pension with an annuity for us & survivor’s annuity for me as well as health insurance while S is starting to work for the federal government. He will have to fund his 401K, since they stopped having the plan that H has in the 80s when the govt realized it was too expensive. S is a good saver, generally lives well below his means, should be able to command a decent income, and should have good options for himself. D, on the other hand, is much more into art/cinema/creative venues, where it is much more a “feast or famine” situation. Both kiddos have some health issues that we hope will not keep them from maintaining decent jobs.</p>
<p>Frazzled2thecore,
Agree, it is a tough world where there are a lot of disabled folks that need a great deal of care from aging caregivers. That may loom larger and larger, especially as our society ages. HI is having increasing numbers of its people become seniors, with an acute shortage of caregiving options.</p>
<p>I am a BIG worrier and I know you never stop worrying about your kids- but my kids retirement is going to have to be up to them! Too worried about the present and next few years to have much worry room left!</p>
<p>I’m giving up on worrying. It seems I end up being concerned/worried about the wrong things. When we were younger, I was worried when I got my serious progressive chronic health condition diagnosis & then about each kid, as the kids got worrying diagnoses. We also worried about how we would be able to afford to help pay kids’ college, retiring with enough, my folks’ heath, getting another career, and a whole host of things. </p>
<p>Each of the issues is not as bad as we feared and resolving appropriately, so I am working hard to worry less and live more for today & the immediate future. It seems to work just fine this way. :)</p>
<p>Somehow, our kids will find their way. We figure we have given them the best start we could, providing a stable, happy home and a great K-college education, as well as life-lessons on living well below our means and maintaining close friends and family relationships. They seem to have absorbed most of it and seem ready to face whatever life brings their way.</p>