I'm also jealous of those watching GA. it should be at home on my Tivo, but the whitefont is taunting me.

Hmmm, retirement. Well, in our case, Joe can "retire" in another 5 years. From that point on he will get 50% of his base pay as a "pension." Our medical is (mostly) included in that, although I think we only get 80% covered if we don't use military medical facilities. Still, it's pretty good, I guess.

I have a 401k in which I'm fully vested, with a company match up to 4% of my salary (which I take advantage of), and a company-sponsored retirement plan that doesn't provide a whole lot but has so far not been taken away. No IRAs or anything else. No point in socking away money at ~4% return when I've still got debts that I'm paying 9% interest on. When those are paid off (this year, I plan) I will get a Roth IRA.

But good on you, flea, for funding your own IRA since you were 23! I wish I had been so wise; I didn't start seriously saving for retirement until I was 37.

I've got bupkis other than Social Security, and I haven't contributed to Social Security in ten years. When I quit my job when Ben was born (10 years ago), I took my pension money, so we'd have the down payment for a house. Dh also took his. We paid a higher tax rate penalty-ish thing, but we never would have been able to put 20% down on our first house, otherwise. Dh has a 401K he's been contributing to (and a %age of which is matched by his employer) for the past 10ish years, though. Still, we're very far behind for our ages (almost 42--him; almost 39--me).

I got a small windfall from my grandmother and decided I needed to educate myself about what to do with it. I had no debt except deferred student loans (I was in gradual school) at the time, so an IRA seemed like a smart choice.

I have a pretty small 401k, which I didn't stay in the job long enough for the employer match to vest. I really need to get back into the 401k at my current employer, but haven't yet.

Paul's got something somewhat like you do, Flea, and I, personally, have nothing but SS. I've never been in a good position to set anything up, even though I know I need to do so.

Paul had a 401K that he had to raid post-baby so we could eat and pay bills.

I have a 401(k) that I'm fully vested in (took five years). The company puts in (usually) 6% of my salary once a year (2004 profits sucked so badly that they only put in 3%, but they went back up to 6 for 2005). As for my own contributions, I'm with Zenkitty in that my credit card payments are a hell of a lot higher than the return I'd be getting with the plan. Once I finally get them knocked out, I'm hoping to start putting something into it. We used to have a full pension, but that got eliminated when the company went from family-owned to Dutch-conglomerate-owned back in 1996.

I probably won't have nearly enough when I turn 67, so I'll be relying on Social Security.

I had forgotten that the looniversity doesn't match 403(b) contributions for biweekly staff --- eccch. They match after a (couple of?) years' employment for salaried, which is good for my sorry-assed ass that didn't save a thing before I was 33, and still doesn't save as much as I could.

(The hub saves not a cent, in spite of availability of plan and occasional pointed reminders; I really hate that he doesn't, but also really hate being the finance ogre, and the latter usually wins because I so hate nagging. Le sigh.)

I have miscellaneous 403(b) funds floating around from past jobs, but that's it. I don't even know if I'll be able to get that money back. Lame.

In progress news, I just emailed about 10 people, asking them to help me in various ways. One was someone I don't even know! I love email -- I would have procrastinated way longer if these were phone calls.

I just made brownies from the cookbook. Mmm. I can't remember whose recipe it was as my flatmate's run off with the book for the moment, but I promise I'll give compliments later. Many compliments.

I think I have my dinners for the next week decided on already.

Also it's just fabulously put together - well done to the team.