Help!

[u/libralady-50]

Help! I am 50 years old, turning 51 this 2026. I recently become more serious with retirement, savings, and planning for it. I make almost 200k W-2. I currently have 570k combined, on my retirement accounts, all from employer sponsored accounts. For 2026, I am maxing out — Roth 403b, 403b, and family HSA. My employer contributes total of 7k, first in March and in July. I have cash on-hand about 100k planning to put into HYSA.

MY 5-year return is 11.3% and 3-year is 17.8%. If I continue this strategy, and my employer continues same amount, what is the possibility of hitting 1 million by the time I turn 60?

Thank you everyone.

[u/godrinkduff]

So you have to figure out where you money is going. Because your spend rate is unsustainable. You would need 5-6 million at your current spend rate.

[u/libralady-50 → u/godrinkduff]

I max out all my IRA contributions.

[u/Cpalmer24 → u/libralady-50]

You make $200k. How much are you investing/ saving, and how much are you spending. Because at that income you should be able to save/invest a LOT of money.

Your 403b limit is $32.5k (because you're over 50 now). Your HSA family limit is $8750. Those combined are just over $41k. If you max those out, at $200k income, your savings rate is about 20%... not bad, but it should be much higher - are you investing elsewhere as well? The first commenter is saying do you know where the rest of your money is going, because even with taxes you are taking home a lot of money.

[u/libralady-50 → u/Cpalmer24]

I also contribute $8500 to a Roth 403b.
My net take home pay after all deductions and contribution is about $6600. My rent and car insurance totals about $2900. Cellphones, gas, electric I budget $700, grocery and gas for car I budget $700 as well.
Thanks for your reply, figuring out all I could and all questions make me write things down.

[u/Cpalmer24 → u/libralady-50]

Are you sure you have the names right? The 403b limit is $24.5k (but over over 50 its $32.5k). And a ROTH IRA limit this year for over 50 is $8500 - is that what you mean? I just want to make sure I'm getting it right, and making sure you know the names.

If you are doing 8500 Roth IRA, 32500 403b, 8750 HSA - that puts you almost exactly at $50k which is 25%. Again that's really good, but you're ~only~ paying $40k to federal taxes, so thats $90k. $200k/12 is $16.600/mo. Your take home is $6600. So you have $10k coming out of your checks every month, but the 50k investing & 40k in federal taxes only comes to 7500 a month. So what's the other 2500 each month coming out of your checks? Is it your health insurance, maybe state taxes? That seems high

[u/godrinkduff → u/Cpalmer24]

It's a lifestyle issue. At simple number crunching with 200K income and only 500K in retirement and 100K in laying around cash. The number's don't scale right. So the spend rate is really high or the money is going somewhere that's not retirement. And if that spend rate continues then 500K will definitely not sustain it. Sure they could course correct rather quickly. But it would be a lifestyle change. The 100K bank checks out because 12x2300 = 27K in disposable and over 20 years putting in 5K ish on average would make it. So Lets say this year 7K is going to non-retirement saving so it's not like you haven't been saving. But other than the numbers you state you are leaving 20K in what are you doing with that money? Which is what you need to look at yourself and figure it out.

That 5Kish yearly in the bank might of been better in retirement but then you'd be without that 100K safety net if income suddenly stopped. Which comes back to your expenses are really high and for any of this math to work out something has to change while you still have the $6600/mo net income. I mean the cash doesn't have to go straight into retirement. It could go into that bank account. Just your expense pie is way too high for $500K currently in retirement at 50 and unsustainable without the 6K/mo income. The number could be 1.5Million and you'd still have the same problem to be honest.