A 37-year-old woman recently turned to Reddit’s r/personalfinance for help after a workplace retirement advisor told her to stop saving so much for retirement and start enjoying her life more.
She makes $54,000 a year, has no debt, and is single with no plans for marriage or dual income. She rents, doesn’t expect to afford a home anytime soon, and maxes out her Roth IRA while also contributing 23% of her income to her 401(k). Her current retirement savings sit at $198,000, and she has an additional $30,000 in a high-yield savings account.
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Is She Saving Too Much?
She said that according to the retirement calculator, she could have up to $1.5 million by the time she retires. “Realistically, it’ll be lower,” she wrote, adding, “I’m not counting on social security.” She also shared that she hopes to travel more in retirement, ideally taking one international trip per year along with a couple of smaller domestic getaways.
Her advisor suggested she back off the heavy retirement savings and focus on “saving for a house and to have more money just to enjoy life.” But she’s hesitant.
“I'm approaching my peak earning years and I don't expect to be making much more salary in my career,” she explained. “And again with the current housing market, interest rates, housing maintenance/upkeep, etc., I won't be able to afford a house anytime soon.”
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Most commenters thought she was doing just fine. One top-voted reply asked, “Are you happy with your current standard of living? If yes, then you should not listen to him.”
Another added, “You're essentially living on ~$40K. So really, $1M in retirement is gonna get you that fairly safely. $1.5M isn’t exactly overkill.”
Several echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that she may be over-saving. One user said: “The advice I’ve been following is to save between 20-25% of your income for retirement. Certainly understand the financial advisor's point of wanting to make sure you're enjoying life now.”
Still, many pushed back on her view that she doesn't want to own a home due to rising property taxes in retirement. “You'll have increasing rent,” one commenter pointed out, while another said that rent will increase much faster than property taxes.
Others said owning a home can be part of a long-term retirement plan. “If OP takes out a 30-year mortgage right now and only follows the payment schedule, she would be basically paid off by retirement,” one person said.
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More broadly, the thread turned into a discussion on quality of life and balance. “Don’t put off absolutely everything,” one commenter warned, sharing her breast cancer diagnosis at 44 and regrets about not spending more earlier. Another wrote, “You could say you want to save to travel when you retire, but odds are you can do more things while traveling now than when you are in your late 60s.”
Still, not everyone was ready to abandon the aggressive savings path. “Nobody ever wanted less money in retirement,” one person said. Another wrote, “The earlier you start saving for retirement, the easier it will be to actually retire, due to compounding growth.”
Some found a middle ground, advising her to reallocate a small portion of her retirement contributions into a taxable brokerage account. “Maybe just budget in an extra trip every year?” one commenter suggested. “I think you're doing great!”
In the end, the advice she received from Reddit was that if she’s comfortable with her lifestyle now, there's no harm in continuing what she's doing. But if she wants to travel more or increase day-to-day enjoyment, a slight rebalancing of her savings goals wouldn’t hurt.
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Image: Shutterstock
