My partner and I earn $300,000 a year, but we don’t have a firm retirement income goal: how should we plan?

Do you really need a firm retirement plan? How detailed should your retirement plan be? Do you still need a plan even if you plan to work during retirement? These are some of the more interesting questions that online financial “experts” and retirement guides don’t ask for. Fortunately, some people have the answers.

Key Points

• Contributing to your 401(k) plan is usually enough for most people to retire.

• You must meet certain criteria to qualify for a solo 401(k) plan.

• Retiring early is possible and may be easier than you think. Click here now to see if you’re early or late. (Sponsor)

A freelancer was looking for answers to these questions and took their concerns to members of the r/fatFIRE community on Reddit – a group of people obsessed with financial independence and retiring early with “a big stash” of money. Keep in mind, of course, that their advice is their opinion and they will be hyper focused on making money and not much else. You should always speak to an expert before making a retirement decision.

The Question

Retirement planning.

The author of the post claims that he and his wife are in their 20s and earn around $300,000 a year. They have no significant debts and have significant savings (“a few hundred thousand dollars”) in stocks and cash. However, they do not have a retirement savings or income goal since they want to continue working as long as they enjoy it and plan to work until retirement.

They wondered if anyone in the community had looked into self-employed retirement plans or solo 401(k) accounts. They admit they haven’t done much research on the topic themselves, but wanted to see if these were realistic options for someone in their situation.

The community response

Saving for retirement.

Community members were quick to point out that to qualify for a solo or self-employed 401(k) plan, you must meet a number of requirements, the most important of which is being self-employed. In the details listed by the author, they would not be considered self-employed and therefore would not be able to obtain a solo 401(k) account.

However, because they are in their late 20s and have far more assets and money than most other people, they will likely end up doing just fine, even without a retirement plan. If they start contributing to a retirement account through their employer or on their own, there should be no problem saving enough to retire comfortably.

The most important advice given in the thread was that the author should talk to a CPA if they have questions like this and if they start planning their life around a financial future that doesn’t is not possible. You should do the same if you’ve started looking into retirement accounts but I don’t really understand what you’re doing.

Of course, many people are gradually realizing that they will not be able to retire and will have to work until sunset. The fact that this couple is choosing to do this voluntarily is nice because they will have the company of people who weren’t so lucky.