Well you might have noticed I put a little progress bar on the right hand side of my blog to track my goal of having $100,000 put away in retirement accounts by the time I reach age 30. Well by putting that stupid little chart over on the side of my blog really got me to thinking about this goal, more as in – can I actually achieve that goal. Up till this point I just thought it would be a nice goal to achieve but by having it staring me in the face every time I look at my blog it makes me wonder if I’m going to make a fool out of myself by trying to achieve what appears to be a lofty goal.

Edit: some of the spreadsheet have been changed since original post as I found out my 2004 401k contributions were much lower than I stated and that my 2005 contributions were actually higher. Actually lowered my contributions by $567

I mean I’ve only got 3.5 years to go from $30,000 to $100,000 and my living expenses are constantly going up which will make achieving this goal even harder. Also I had originally planned on having $100,000 in principal put away (ignoring investment returns), but after switching solely to Roth IRA & Roth 401k, both post-tax I think this goal is now out of my grasp. Anyway I need to know more, so I figured I should do some more detailed analysis on this goal to see if it is possible given my current savings rate and what rate of return I need to achieve this goal.First I am just going to look at reaching $100,000 solely on principal

Year	Age	Roth IRAs	Traditional 401k	Roth 401k	Employer Matching Contributions	Total Contributions
2004	24.5	$6,000	$1,146.68	$0	$0	$7,146.68
2005	25.5	$8,000	$8,286.10	$0	$300	$16,586.10
2006	26.5	$8,000	$0	$8,000	$2,000	$18,000
2007	27.5	$8,000	$0	$8,000	$2,000	$18,000
2008	28.5	$10,000	$0	$8,000	$2,000	$20,000
2009	29.5	$10,000	$0	$5,000	$0	$15,000
Totals	30	$40,000	$9,432.78	$21,000	$6,300	$94,732.78

Holy crap, I thought I was going to fall way short. I guess I was assuming I would have to lower my 401k contribution by moving to a Roth from a traditional, but so far I have been able to keep it at the same dollar amount. In fact I have actually considered bumping up my 401k contribution. Well I’m kind of thinking out loud here, but I don’t think this $100,000 by age 30 is going to be very difficult at all if I continue with my current rate of savings, in fact I’m coming so close that I may go ahead and just concentrate on reaching it on just principal payments. Basically I would just need to bump up my savings rate by $1500 a year and I would be able to make it. The only real wildcard in this whole picture is the matching contributions as they are not set it in stone at all, but recently my employer has matched $1 for $1 on contributions. In the past I was told it was usually up to 6%, but lately due to the employee base growing at such a rapid rate it has been closer to 4%. Regardless I should not count on any of this money. Which then leaves me $10k short or almost $3k per year and probably an unachievable goal.

So again thinking out loud here I am going to modify the timeframe slightly and I think it will give me a goal that is slightly out of reach given my current savings rate, but could be attainable under a best case scenario. Instead of requiring that I have the money in hand by my 30th birthday I am going to say by December 31st of the year in which I turn 30. Normally I don’t like making exceptions like this, but I think in this case it will give me a better goal to shoot for. Also because I’m kind of cheating by extending the timeframe I am also going to remove Employer contributions from my total. So here is how I will fair under my current savings plan.

Year	Age	Roth IRAs	Traditional 401k	Roth 401k	Total Contributions
2004	24.5	$6,000	$1,146.68	$0	$7146.68
2005	25.5	$8,000	$8,268.10	$0	$16,268.10
2006	26.5	$8,000	$0	$8,000	$16,000
2007	27.5	$8,000	$0	$8,000	$16,000
2008	28.5	$10,000	$0	$8,000	$18,000
2009	29.5	$10,000	$0	$8,000	$18,000
Totals	30	$50,000	$9,432.78	$32,000	$91,432.78

Here is an altered savings plan to meet the goal

Year	Age	Roth IRAs	Traditional 401k	Roth 401k	Total Contributions
2004	24.5	$6,000	$1,146.68	$0	$7146.68
2005	25.5	$8,000	$8,268.10	$0	$16,268.10
2006	26.5	$8,000	$0	$9,380	$17,380
2007	27.5	$8,000	$0	$11,424	$19,424
2008	28.5	$10,000	$0	$9,710	$19,710
2009	29.5	$10,000	$0	$10,281	$20,281
Totals	30	$50,000	$9,432.78	$40,795	$100,227.78

Changes required:
2006 – Go ahead with proposed increase to 17% for Roth 401k starting next quarter and keeping that in place for the entire year

2007 – Bump Roth 401k percentage up to roughly 20% (could be 19% or lower if I get a raise)

2008 – Roth 401k percentage at 17%, but need to come up with additional $2K for Roth IRAs

2009 – Roth 401k percentage at 18%, and continue to max out Roth IRAs

To be honest the above proposals will hurt financially and I will likely have to come up with ideas for additional revenue streams in order to meet this goal, but I guess that’s what goals are for. If it causes me to think of new ways to bring in money then regardless of whether or not I meet the goal it has served its purpose in my opinion. Anyway wish me luck, I’m pretty sure I am going to need it.