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@jedeve: I would count the company match as part of your savings. And what the heck does, "as a woman" mean?

I'm not positive what your financial planner is trying to say, but to be on the safe side, I'd save the 10% of your income yourself (so that would be 13% total with your company's match).

Although I'm not really sure where your planner is coming up with that percentage. What does being a woman have to do with it? And is that an across-the-board 10% or is that specific to YOU and how much YOU make?? For me, I don't feel like saving 10% would be enough, though for some people making more than me, 10% would probably be plenty!

I would probably count it as 7%… but its not like this is law! In general putting away more is better than putting away less, but you have to balance savings and quality of life, and just periodically re-assess what you are able to do!

@pui: That's true, but I don't like these general 10% rules when you're not taking into other things into consideration (i.e., when you started saving, when you expect to retire, what type of pension plan you have if any, etc.). In general, people are living longer and starting their savings much later.

Yes, you yourself are saving 4% but i would take the company's match into consideration when looking at your total savings.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread!

@Freckles: I'm not saying that 10% is perfect by itself without taking other things in to consideration, I was just trying to explain the "as a woman" part.

I say the total should be 10%, with the company match. Our financial planner said we both should be doing 10%, not sure what gender has to do with it!

I think it’s fantastic that your financial planner made the “woman” comment. So many women (here and IRL) take a couple years off from the workforce when they have kids….well, one of the consequences of that will be you’ll have several years missed income for social security calculation purposes; most women are not making 401k payments while they SAH for a period of time so you miss out on that straight money plus the compounded investment growth. And women live longer on average, so you need to prepare for those extra years. Plus, the not so subtle income division between men and women. . .

I would personally count it as 7%, but I also am putting $ towards other retirement vehicles so I am not uber-vigilant about my 401k.