All My Kids Have Moved Out
This post is Part 1 of a series I’m documenting on my Kids moving out & starting life after college/trade school.
We are empty nesters for the first time, I am 50 years old & my wife is 46. It’s been a year since our last kid left home & here is how it’s going.
My oldest graduated this past May, currently is doing side gigs & searching for work in computer animation, that’s a work in progress at the moment.
The middle child will soon join a bank & will be given all the benefits afforded to her position including 401k.
The youngest finished Tech School & is now as a server tech in a very busy data center working for a large company.
There are many things I’ve shared with them on how to proceed with life & among them is how to protect their future, here we go:
- Max out your 401k, whatever percentage of matching your employer contributes, make sure to max out your contribution to that same level. Example; employer matches 100% up to 6% of your salary, then contribute 6% of your salary. 2x your contribution with every paycheck.
- Select to have your 401k invest in funds that follow the S&P 500 Index.
- Open an account with any brokerage firm then add a brokerage account, Roth IRA account & a free checking account.
- Be sure to have 20% of your paycheck go towards your retirement, subtract what’s already being added to your 401k & then contribute to your Roth IRA the remaining until you have 20% of your salary put away between 401k & Roth IRA.
- Once you have maxed out your Roth IRA at $7,000 contribution per year, start adding the remaining money in to your Brokerage account.
The task of having them all with their own investment accounts is done, they have already bought many stocks/etfs (low priced ones) & are harvesting gains via dividends & capital gains. As a Dad this makes me happy because I now know that they will make it & I will be there to help them out & see them thrive.
On my next post I’ll break down how I advised them to invest .. stay tunned.
