Am I too far behind to start saving for retirement?
Missing your early saving years causes deep shame that leaves you unsure of how to even open a 401(k) or Roth IRA. This feeling of having zero history makes people either paralyzed about where to start, or pushes them into high-risk strategies to aggressively boost their balances.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Seeking out high-risk investments to rapidly boost account balances.Did this help you?
- 2Reading wiki guides on fund selection and three-fund portfolios.Did this help you?
- 3Following step-by-step financial frameworks like the Prime Directive.Did this help you?
- 4Opening a Roth IRA and putting the money into a targeted retirement fund.Did this help you?
- 5Focusing heavily on investing as much as possible at the beginning to catch up.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“i’ve been struggling with finding any passion in life and i always thought id die by 23. now im 30 and i didn’t save up anything or start any 401k or roth iras.”source ↗
“i feel shameful to post this but i don’t know where to start.”source ↗
“Clearly, haven't had a history of paying into my retirement but am in a position now where I can start to more regularly.”source ↗
“Feeling behind, I haven’t had a lot of experience with any kind of retirement strategy”source ↗
“I’m interested in fairly high risk to try to boost my balance as much as possible, knowing it’s never a guarantee.”source ↗
“i’m more so asking about how to set myself up for a better future once im past the age of working i suppose”source ↗
“I started only around 5 years ago, at age 29, and I feel like I'm in a decent place financially.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 19Should I lower my retirement contributions to save for a house?
- 4How do 401(k)s and retirement accounts actually work?
- 2How do you plan for retirement when your spouse isn't a saver?
- 28When can I safely retire?
- 28How to balance saving for retirement and enjoying your 20s
- 3Should I sell brokerage investments to max out retirement accounts?