Retirement Savings

[Zyk1]

I currently get a cost to company based package. So I get a lump sum salary and I contribute towards an RA on my own.

I have been contributing approx 13% of my take home salary towards RA's for a number of years (I read somewhere that 15% is the norm in order to survive on retirement).

Due to the increasingly high cost of living and the fact that I did not get a salary increase this year, I am contemplating decreasing my RA contributions to 7.5%. Will do this until I find a better paying job, then increase it again. Or maybe find work at a company that has a pension fund benefit).

What are your thoughts on this?
Who else has done this in order to cover monthly expenses.

 

[skud]

See my post here on high cost of living: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/797578-High-cost-of-living

These days you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. Obviously while maintaining a balance between normal living expenses, saving and actually having a life. If you have no money to enjoy life then what's the point I guess.

 

[Whatzmyname]

Work until you drop dead . That seems to be how things are going these days.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I currently get a cost to company based package. So I get a lump sum salary and I contribute towards an RA on my own.

I have been contributing approx 13% of my take home salary towards RA's for a number of years (I read somewhere that 15% is the norm in order to survive on retirement).

Due to the increasingly high cost of living and the fact that I did not get a salary increase this year, I am contemplating decreasing my RA contributions to 7.5%. Will do this until I find a better paying job, then increase it again. Or maybe find work at a company that has a pension fund benefit).

What are your thoughts on this?
Who else has done this in order to cover monthly expenses.

No 15% actually isn't really enough and it's just the "norm" because that's where the tax limit ends and other investment vehicles make more sense once you hit that ceiling.

You really need 25%+ which is why the tax benefit is being changed to 27.5%.


In my opinion you've made it this far and been just fine...so keep going at it and don't decrease it to free up money that you will spend on more rubbish you don't need.

Especially while you are younger it's important to make that pool as big as possible to score more from compound interest.

If I would do anything over in my life it would have been investing more money from the moment I started working instead of dicking around buying motorcycles and stuff.

 

[Zyk1]

Thanks for the inputs.

 

[supersunbird]

I currently get a cost to company based package. So I get a lump sum salary and I contribute towards an RA on my own.

I have been contributing approx 13% of my take home salary towards RA's for a number of years (I read somewhere that 15% is the norm in order to survive on retirement).

Due to the increasingly high cost of living and the fact that I did not get a salary increase this year, I am contemplating decreasing my RA contributions to 7.5%. Will do this until I find a better paying job, then increase it again. Or maybe find work at a company that has a pension fund benefit).

What are your thoughts on this?
Who else has done this in order to cover monthly expenses.

See if you can cut other expenses first, then this, and then insurance.

Anyway, 15% is the minimum one should contribute, I'd say 20% is OK and 25% to 27.5% best.

 

[mountainboy]

Its rough but this should be one of the last items you should be cutting

 

[senyetse]

Just make sure there will be no penalty for reducing RA contribution. I thought about it and it came at quite a substantial penalty so I left it.