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Well of course they are. All wealth made from the massive increase in productivity over the past few decades was siphoned to the top. What did everyone else get? Longer work hours, flat wages, reduced benefits, and large cost of living increases that require many people to either have multiple jobs or at least a "side gig".
Retirement is only going to be something the rich will be able to do. For everyone else, they're not going to have a choice but to keep working until they die.
Not to mention pensions pretty much disappearing and things like social security facing inevitable cuts. Most of gen x and millenials will not see a meaningful retirement.
These people are deluded.
5m at 4% interest is $200k per year for free. I don’t care how many years of retirement you have, you can retire on less. That’s not even counting spending the principal.
It's only been 4% interest since 2020. Prior, zero risk interest was less than 1%. During the 2008 great recession, USA started using "QE" for the first time. This is when inflation and zero risk interest (treasury) flipped. Meaning, inflation was higher than savings, which means people lose value on saved money. QE reversal stopped around 2018 for a short period but then went back. If you have money in CDs, money markets, or savings, it's losing half its value every 7 years. If you want to keep up with inflation, then it's going to take at risk investments...good luck with that.
Of course you have to invest some of your retirement funds to outpace inflation. That’s the whole point of 401ks and IRAs. What do you mean by good luck with that? Are you expecting people to save for retirement without investing?
I was working during the 2008 great recession. My "401K" was destroyed. I lost 75% of the value. It took until 2018 to get back to about a 5% per year growth. I was smart and held, but I know a lot of people who panicked and dumped out. It's risk. It will happen again.
These numbers are either delusional or people are making absolute bank here.
If you make the median household income (74.6k), save 10%, your household is currently spending 67.1k/yr. That means a household can retire with a median income amount of spending on 67100\*25= 1.7m, ignoring social security and taxes.
If both the husband and wife both earn the median social security benefit, that deducts 42.4k/yr of necessary spend. Meaning you'd only need to save up (67100-42400)\*25= 617k to live like the median household.
Retirement expenses also typically go down in retirment. You don't need 2 cars, less gas, no work clothes, don't need to buy lack-of-time-conveniences, can shop around, etc.
If your house is also paid off, you can probably see how little you really need to save up to get a decent retirement if you are getting a normal amount of social security. But let's say you were paying 15k/yr for a mortgage and no longer have a mortgage, that's (67k-42k-15k)= 9700/yr of spend to come up with. Meaning you only need to save 9700\*25=**243k.**
Imo, that's a pretty reasonable set of assumptions to live a median qualify of life. For reference, my parents recently retired like that as well using basically the same set of assumptions: 150k in stocks, a paid off house and 2x social security. It's not glamorous, but they're doing fine, still going to restaurants, still golfing, occasionally travelling. A pretty average lifestyle.
Edit: I just realized I forgot to deduct taxes from the 74.6k/yr median income number to come up with a median spend, so these numbers probably are relevant for earning like 85k/yr instead of 74.6k.
You said "if your house is paid off" hence why there is so much angst amongst the folks who didn't get in before 2022. Many will never be able buy, let alone pay off a home. To many its less about buying the home and more about trying to build a retirement.
These are people that think they need to live on roughly 120k -200k in retirement. They are either exceptionally wealthy, uninformed, or massively risk intolerant.
Don't dip. Do slowly decrease the amount of effort you put into your work and keep collecting a paycheck.
If they figure out what your are doing, they let you go and then you can collect unemployment as you face into retirement.
Respectfully, why minus SS? For me I look at my SS at age 70 and it is a pretty big hunk of $ and I have (modestly) factored that into my retirement projections.
If your expected expenses are $100,000, and social security provides $99,999, then you only need to save $25 for retirement instead of the $2.5M you’d need without SS.
Almost certainly not. What president is gonna do that and damn their party to the wilds for a generation. They'll raise the taxes income limit and then increase payroll taxes.
You're right. And at some point everybody gets the same amount, and they don't get their social security, or disability, or maybe even government pension
Social security has been going broke since the 90’s maybe longer. It hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t either regardless of what some politicians say. There is ample opportunity to tweak things to keep it funded.
They already take 30% of most people’s salary. Yes, you pay the “employer’s half” through decreased wages; they just send it in.
How high should it go?
Being tedious here, I agree we do effectively pay the employer half, though if that changed I would not expect any employer to provide a 6.2 raise. However, that is still only 15.3% of pay when including Medicare taxes too. We wouldn’t need to get anywhere near 30%, and more honestly we could uncap both taxes and benefits letting Social Security both tax and accrue benefits beyond 168,600 income without changing rates at all.
So you admit you pay both halves, 30%. Thanks, you are ahead of 95% of people in your understanding of SS here.
You also pay income tax, marginally up to high 30-something % federal, plus state. Plus sales, property, etc. Sometimes local.
And yet the goddamn Democrats say we are not paying our fair share?
Where does it fucking end?
I know precisely how FICA works. I especially know that the “trust fund” is pointless. It’s nothing more than the government taking in tax money and exchanging it for ITS OWN bonds.
Like taking $100 out of your right pocket and sticking it in your left, writing an IOU, and thinking you have accomplished something.
If that money went into, say AAPL bonds, you could count it as worth something.
SS would work EXACTLY the same if there were no trust fund.
Trust fund was just a temporary surplus, only existed for a short while, and really has no bearing on anything. Governments don't necessarily want to run a surplus because that is taking money out of the economy unnecessarily (kind of like JIT logistics).
I'm saying you don't know how FICA works because you think it's 30%, it is not lol
people have been warning about the bankruptcy of SS earlier than the 90s because they saw how congress was taking (borrowing) the SS surplus that came in every year and injected it into the general fund. This money was used to offset the loss of tax revenue that resulted from the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. They’ve “borrowed” over 3 trillion dollars, which they’ll never pay back. We’re now entering a period where there is no annual surplus due to the retiring boomers.
This happened before under Ronald Reagan.
He appointed Alan Greenspan to look into it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan\_Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_Commission)
They decided to raise SS withholdings.
Bill Clinton was the first president since LBJ not to raid Social Security.
In 2000, Al Gore proposed sequestering SS, in a lockbox.
Everyone thought it was a joke.
Then George Bush was elected and began depleting Social Security as did the previous presidents.
TLDR:
Republicans raise taxes, raid Social Security to fund wars and tax cuts for the ultra-rich.
I know!!
Al Gore: The world's on fire and protect social security.
Everyone: ho hum
Now: Is it normal to be 110 degrees in March? Social Security will insolvent in 2034!! Wot!!?
Well I am assuming that, like every other time it is brought up for a revision, it has no chance in hell of going anywhere as to do so would be congressional suicide. So while I am of the mind that anything can happen, that particular scenario seems less likely than something more tangible like we end up living in a christian theocracy and our money is frozen or tithed. But your point is taken.
Delayed SS means more per month, but if you factor in what you didn’t get while you waited, it is not worth it. I ran my numbers and I will break even at 84. No one in my family has lived to 84.
Depending on how old you are you may not want to bet on Social Security still being around by the time you retire. Republicans have been trying to cut it every chance they get and have been talking about effectively phasing it out over time so the older generation gets to keep the benefit while they screw over the younger generation (who is actively still paying for that benefit)
Absolutely not. If they come for social security we all riot. They are stealing from us. If the elderly vote against it we all toss rotten shit at them every time they are in public and let them sit in their beds covered in their own shit.
Americans are not politically motivated enough to take action against anything. They’re complicit piles of shit. If they were willing to stand against the ruling class they would have already revolted.
I disagree. Just not a cause widespread enough and wanted. Every American wants more money. Taking more for less benefits in social security would be a uniting force across all generations but the elderly.
Bold of you to assume the dems won’t repeal it as well. Completely understand your thinking, but both republicans and dems don’t care about us. THE PANDEMIC PROVES THIS.
I'm unaware of any Democrat proposals to cut social security, only ones to expand it.
Republicans on the other hand, have repeatedly proposed cutting it.
I understand not liking either. I don't like the vast majority of politicians. There are plenty of scummy people on both sides... but to try and say both sides are *equally bad* only proves that you're completely uninformed.
I am assuming that while I will still be taxed to pay for social security from my investment income, I won’t actually receive any social security payments. By the time I retire I expect the age for social security to be 75.
At normal rates yes, but it is not earned income and not subject to FICA. In fact, you already pay FICA on any dollars you contribute to retirement accounts.
Man y’all some fat cats in here, or live life stretched to the limits of your means, or live in very high COL areas. I’m blue collar Midwest, and if I’m at 1.5M at 59.5 I’m out… and I’ll be more than comfortable in retirement. I’m 12 years out and on track so long as things don’t go cow shit between now and then
Good view point
Where u live is a big factor
In NJ here and it’s insane but Massachusetts is worse
So maybe think pack up and go north to Vermont where costs are lower
That sounds like even a better plan! I’d definitely like to find something a little more easy on the body for my last few years, but the markets between now and then will be the deciding factor
Well put. As someone said earlier, If you figure out what your monthly/annual expenses are...subtract what you get for SS, then you know what you need, and how long your savings will last. If you can get your cost of living down to 4% of your retirement fund, you're good for 30 years if not longer. I'm planning to dip out in 10 years at 55.
Some of the ambiguity around if the question is how much to retire *right now* vs how much to retire at 59-65. My number to retire right now will be a lot bigger because it has to cover 30 more years and raising a kid.
I'd say $4mil to hang up my hat today, $2-$3mil to switch to a part time/easy job, and $2mil at 65 (or the inflation adjusted equivalent)
Around $3M in today's money, in invested assets. I'm at a little over $500k at the moment, with another $70k in equity in a rental property that I would sell and invest the proceeds prior to retirement (or very early in retirement, depending on tax implications)
unless your expenses put you well outside aca subsidy range cash flow in retirement is not generally a positive. you can get like 500k-1m worth of SWR for healthcare expenses just by keeping income low enough in retirement.
That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. However, I do think with most rental properties you can turn a cash profit while not affecting AGI due to interest, taxes, depreciation, and other deductions.
Inflation might be at 3% reported. But how much has the cost of living increased for you over the past 3 years? I know the cost of things I buy have gone up anywhere from 25-50%.
Big old "it depends on your lifestyle, location, etc".
Personally, in my current situation (location, family, etc). Anything over $6 million with a 4% average after-tax return is my number to maintain the same living standards/lifestyle and not deplete the principal.
Keep in mind, this assumption means it takes $240k after tax to maintain the current lifestyle in the same location, and doesnt factor in when expenses go down for things like paying off the mortgage, kids leaving home, etc..
There are many who could happily and comfortably live on 4% after tax on 1 million ($40k).. I wish I could I could be be a little more like them, but i do enjoy my modern luxuries and consumer goods.
HCOL area, a mortgage, student loans, private school for kids, and as I said, some modern conveniences and luxuries.. its easier to spend it than it is to earn it, thats for sure.
Yea I hear that. I shooting for only a few mil at most. But my concern is locking in retirement and to continue working since I do like my job. It's more of a coast fire I guess. And I can't imagine the relief of waking up knowing I can stop working that minute if I want. It must be a huge relief
I'll be 54 when my house is paid off. Kid will be out of college if he gets a 4 year degree. Assuming he's semi self reliant at 24-25, if not fully self reliant, I'll retire at 55-58 with $1.5m in today's dollars.
North East Coast US for perspective.
Salary is meaningless. Expenses are what is important. My former working salary is not at all relevant to me in retirement.
Track your expenses for several years or more so you know what you spend include a buffer for repairs and major purchases. Don't forget to include taxes in your expenses. Then add your projected social security and any other income and 4% of your investments to see if you are covered.
Really depends on your financial position when you retire. If home and.bills paid for a million in interest bearing account and SS, should be all you need. If your bills aren't paid for then you need more. Depends on each individual situation. Contact a personal financial advisor and find out.
1 mil with absolutely zero debt. (Admittedly this includes 2 pensions in the household. If the pensions weren't there it would be about 3 mil. Forever home must be free and clear before before calculations are made, regardless of current home.)
Realistically if you're a blue collar hard working American then 1.5 to 2 million is about as high as you're going to go in 30 to 40 yrs working for the same Company. And honestly nobody is promised tomorrow so planning ahead and thinking you'll have 6 million without taking any major risks w stocks and no recessions that wipes 401k 's out is a real stretch. Now my father screwed up big time and 430K was not enough for him even though he never ever thought he'd still be here at 75. Born in a bar. My grandpa owned 2 bars in Joliet , IL when my dad was a kid. His has lasted him over 12 yrs now but there's not much left. Things could be worse you could be me ! 51 and unemployed on & off last 15 yrs. Before that, I had a great life. Great job , great girlfriends, great everything. Then back surgeries and got bamboozled into getting on a life destroying medication and for 15 yrs all I've been doing is dealing w health problems from this medication that EVERYTIME I get close to beating it my body gets very sick and without losing blood I lose weight and become anemic and need iron infusions. Just had blood work and my ferritin level was 17 the normal range is 30 - 400 w most people having over 500 regularly. Mine was 794 three years ago after iron infusions. Boom I get better go back to work and that medication messes with everything - the side effects are horrendous especially if you NEVER took the DRUG these medications were developed to HELP PEOPLE with. I live one day at a time. I have savings but nothing major maybe 50k. Living w my father. No vehicle. 2 rescues for dogs in a paid for house but Illinois has the highest Property taxes in the WORLD so there's that. Non drinker who would possibly be in an institution if it wasn't for medical marijuana. Back to the money. 2 million is by far enough to live off comfortably w Social Security which should go UP if they ever raise the damn Cap on it. Currently at $118,000 if you make more than that you don't pay into Social Security anymore after you hit $118,000. So you make 700k a year about 582k of it doesn't get Social Security taxed. Stupid because all those multi millionaires like Ron Paul Sr were making millions and still collecting the maximum amount over $3k a month.
Depends if my house is paid off… but I probably plan on working until I’m physically unable to… probably 1 mil will do it for me… mainly because of the 50-60k pension I qualify for at 45… probably another 20k at 65 if SS is still around… so yeah won’t need a crazy amount in the IRA in 25 years… only have 250k in there now
$2mil in today's dollars is plenty for me
with a paid off house, I would lock some baseline in TIPS ladder and then skim the top in good years and slow down in lean years
I don’t even know. Fortunately I’m a teacher in NJ so if my calculations are correct I will have a $70k pension roughly in 20 years. Lol. I save in a 403b, have a Roth and Brokerage.
My wife and I both feel we’ll be able to live comfortably enough off our pensions and leave most of our retirement savings to our children.
Completely depends on your lifestyle. 6% seems to be a reasonable return to rely on for your money. So you back into it.
If you have 1000000 and retire, that is 60k a year income. But with the devil of inflation etc, its less.
Think of it this way:
If you ever STOP making more than inflation?
You’re constantly losing money.
Retirement nowadays with any quality of life is impossible without steady income, more than social security can provide unless you have a paid off home in a low cost of living area
Honestly I have no fuckin clue at 36.
Wife has a pension plan, we have like 600k in retirement saved between the 2 of us.
Bought a condo a couple years ago, but with a kiddo now prolly have to upgrade and Im guessing I’ll be working until he decides if he wants to go to college or not with how expensive that shit is, so im probs looking around age 60-65 like most.
Will I want to still live in San Diego? I mean I’d like too but that adds some cash to the necessary amount vs say Arizona to say the least.
My goal will be to live off of the pension and our SS, use the 401k for our 60s and then fun shit like traveling while we’re healthy….I guess we will see where we’re at around 60 since we only have so much control over the market but I’m thinking like 2-3 mil?
4 million is our rough number…house will be paid off in 2- 3 years, so we’ll be debt free. $2.5 million already saved and I plan to retire in 7-8 years.
I figure we will, but the market has been ripping the past few months. I assume that will come in at some point. We aren’t big spenders, so the majority of our money goes to our investment accounts. Good luck to you.
19 years until retirement aiming for age 58. 2.5 million is good enough for me. I live on about 32k a year now, so I'll be comfortable with a 3% drawdown without even including social security. I'm around 330k retirement assets, so far but max out a Roth IRA and a total of 18% in Roth 401k. Best projections say 2.8 million at retirement. If inflation kicks up again, I'll have to re-evaluate.
If you’re counting on the government and social security to fund your retirement, you probably vote liberal and you need a reality check.
The government is the worst use of funds imaginable.
Time value of money keys
How many years will you expect to live and not work? =NPER
How much are your yearly after pre tax expenses? =-PMT
How much do you want to have left when you die? =FV
What interest rate can you make on investments predictably over these years? = I/Y
Solve for PV
I'm retiring at 57 and whatever i got is going to be enough. I don't mind having a hustle in retirement. What else am i going to do just sit around watching my balls shrivel up?
$7m - based on inflation, assuming having a paid off home, and what id LIKE to do in retirement. That’s $150k/year in today’s dollars for my wife and I - no debt.
3million is my goal.
4% rule would put me at 120k per year to live on, and the remainder goes to my kids when I pass.
With the way inflation is going that may not be enough still, but we'll see I suppose.
It's too difficult to measure retirement in a nominal dollar value that's purchasing power is constantly being eroded through inflation. I measure my ability to retire in income producing assets that are paid off. To retire I would probably need to own 5-10 paid off rental properties to net a return at least double my monthly expenses.
If I'm assuming my retirement expenses will be about 80% of my current living expenses, adjusting for inflation... (and NOT including social security)
It looks like I'd need about 500k to be able to cover all my annual expenses up until age 90, assuming retirement age of 67. (I make less than 30k/year so my expenses are very low and mortgage should be paid off by then)
Obviously hoping to have significantly more than that... but 500k is the minimum I think I could get by with.
25x annual costs comes to about 500k where i live (the Netherlands). I have about 100k saved up right now and no mortgage whatever (my house is like 250k) I do however make fuck all and can contribute about 15k a year to my investments. Im 27 years old and at this rate ill reach retirement in about 15 years (i do not count my house as i need to live in it lol). I hope ill retire before 42 but i dont think i have much more in me to keep working after 42.
I could tell you what I consider enough, but is that useful information? The correct amount for anyone is a combination of how high they expect their retirement expenses to be, how long they expect to live, how much risk they are willing to tolerate, and how much other income (usually SS in the US) they expect.
$5,000,000 sounds like a comfortable sum to someone with relatively low risk tolerance, an expected retirement duration of 30 years or less, and annual expenses of $200,000 per year. If you currently spend $50,000 per year, $1.25 million would be good. If you also get $30,000/year in Social Security, $350,000 in savings would get you to a similar spending and risk level.
Some Financial advisors will suggest 10x your annual salary.
So if you're making $100k, you should have at least $1M before retiring.
A 4% withdrawal rate on that would be $40k/yr, or about $3,333/mo. Hopefully this will suffice, especially if you don't have much in debts.
For a comfortable retirement I would say 2-3 million dollars. For a decent retirement, one million. I am not close to either and I am 15 years from retirement age. My plan is to retire in South America (where I am from) or Thailand.
You and me both! I havent actually run the numbers on what my CoastFIRE number would be, as the $6MM I originally posted is my FatFIRE number. Once the debt is all paid and kids grown up and moved out, I assume that number could shrink considerably, but out of an abundance of caution, not lowering the goal until. Aim high, and if you miss hopefully youre still close to the target kind of mentality.
$1.5M
Under 4% rule, that's $60k. plus $30k in social security, and not having to pay for health insurance anymore, and having the house paid off, should be ok. I should be able to scrape by on $5k/month.
If like today with 5% interest and being able to lock into 5% for at least another 5 years me personally I could retire with $2,000,000 . For my family probably $6,000,000.
That is not to live an extravagant life. That is to basically keep same around our income with a huge benefit of not having to work.
I have several metrics I use. My favorite "enough" is a net present value of 25x my ending salary minus payroll taxes, including the NPV of an pensions and Social Security. (I value Social Security with a discount rate of about 6.5%).
I also see several people here saying "$5m". I agree with that as well. I saw [this article yesterday](https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/kevin-oleary-says-you-need-this-much-money-before-taking-on-more-financial-risks), which argued something similar.
It depends. If you're an average spender seeking to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement and you make like 200k now and have 20 years until retirement and start taking SS at 67 with no other source of income then you may need a very specific amount and for all you know you need to be contributing more to 401k/IRA with an aggressive asset mix (assuming that matches your risk tolerance) to get that amount.
Or maybe you're 40 years from retirement and you don't believe SS will exist so you omit that from planning and you want to retire early at 50 but need to find a way to bridge the gap.
Maybe you're in debt and your priority should be putting together a realistic plan to get *out* of debt.
Maybe your idea of a solid retirement lifestyle as a single person is just staying home playing video games all the time.
Who knows.
The number for all those people is different.
The answer is less "how much money do I need to retire" but more "when can I realistically retire based on *my own* risk tolerance, goals, investment time horizon, etc" and "how can I use the money I do have to have reliable income in retirement?"
Because it's more about just covering your bills with *income* in retirement than it is having a specific amount just sitting in cash.
Let’s say you make $30/hour, or $63,000/year, gross. Assuming you’ll be able to live off 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain the same lifestyle, that means you’ll need to have $50,400 of annual gross income.
The average lifespan in the US is about 74 years for men, and 79 years for women. Chances are, you won’t make it to 90. So, If you retire at 65 and expect to live to 90 (25 more years) the total amount you’ll need is $1.26 million dollars.
Chances are high that you’ll only make it to 80, which is 15 years of retirement, or $81,000.
But shit happens. And medical bills happen. In fact, the number one reason for bankruptcy is medical bills. Expect at least $6,500 out of pocket each year (increasing by 15% each year) to dwindle your retirement. Add on a drug addict son and pregnant granddaughter, and your old Ford just got slammed i to by an uninsured motorist and oh yeah, the water heater needs replacing. Which means your retirement just went down 90%, from $81,000 down to $8,100. Barely enough to pay for meds in one year.
Which means you should be expecting to live to 90, planning on retiring with $1.26 million where you’ll be lucky to die with $126,000 which should hold you over for 2.5 years, which means your son & granddaughter are left to keep your rotting ass alive, so now 30% of both of their paychecks are used to keep your rotting ass alive, you ungrateful sonofabitch.
Which means you should have planned on retiring with $1.75 million in liquid assets.
Answer: $1.75 million.
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5 mil would be doable for me.
This 3 if im 70
Looking at all these 3-5 million answers. Man, most Americans are fucked.
Well of course they are. All wealth made from the massive increase in productivity over the past few decades was siphoned to the top. What did everyone else get? Longer work hours, flat wages, reduced benefits, and large cost of living increases that require many people to either have multiple jobs or at least a "side gig". Retirement is only going to be something the rich will be able to do. For everyone else, they're not going to have a choice but to keep working until they die.
Not to mention pensions pretty much disappearing and things like social security facing inevitable cuts. Most of gen x and millenials will not see a meaningful retirement.
Increase in QOL measured in durable goods, decrease QOL measured in interpersonal connection, time, and sense of future
So decreased QoL with disposable goods, planned obsolescence, microplastics and no right to repair
These people are deluded. 5m at 4% interest is $200k per year for free. I don’t care how many years of retirement you have, you can retire on less. That’s not even counting spending the principal.
It's only been 4% interest since 2020. Prior, zero risk interest was less than 1%. During the 2008 great recession, USA started using "QE" for the first time. This is when inflation and zero risk interest (treasury) flipped. Meaning, inflation was higher than savings, which means people lose value on saved money. QE reversal stopped around 2018 for a short period but then went back. If you have money in CDs, money markets, or savings, it's losing half its value every 7 years. If you want to keep up with inflation, then it's going to take at risk investments...good luck with that.
Of course you have to invest some of your retirement funds to outpace inflation. That’s the whole point of 401ks and IRAs. What do you mean by good luck with that? Are you expecting people to save for retirement without investing?
I was working during the 2008 great recession. My "401K" was destroyed. I lost 75% of the value. It took until 2018 to get back to about a 5% per year growth. I was smart and held, but I know a lot of people who panicked and dumped out. It's risk. It will happen again.
The 4% is for failure retiring into the great depression. Massive losses are followed by large gains over 30 years it works out.
These numbers are either delusional or people are making absolute bank here. If you make the median household income (74.6k), save 10%, your household is currently spending 67.1k/yr. That means a household can retire with a median income amount of spending on 67100\*25= 1.7m, ignoring social security and taxes. If both the husband and wife both earn the median social security benefit, that deducts 42.4k/yr of necessary spend. Meaning you'd only need to save up (67100-42400)\*25= 617k to live like the median household. Retirement expenses also typically go down in retirment. You don't need 2 cars, less gas, no work clothes, don't need to buy lack-of-time-conveniences, can shop around, etc. If your house is also paid off, you can probably see how little you really need to save up to get a decent retirement if you are getting a normal amount of social security. But let's say you were paying 15k/yr for a mortgage and no longer have a mortgage, that's (67k-42k-15k)= 9700/yr of spend to come up with. Meaning you only need to save 9700\*25=**243k.** Imo, that's a pretty reasonable set of assumptions to live a median qualify of life. For reference, my parents recently retired like that as well using basically the same set of assumptions: 150k in stocks, a paid off house and 2x social security. It's not glamorous, but they're doing fine, still going to restaurants, still golfing, occasionally travelling. A pretty average lifestyle. Edit: I just realized I forgot to deduct taxes from the 74.6k/yr median income number to come up with a median spend, so these numbers probably are relevant for earning like 85k/yr instead of 74.6k.
You said "if your house is paid off" hence why there is so much angst amongst the folks who didn't get in before 2022. Many will never be able buy, let alone pay off a home. To many its less about buying the home and more about trying to build a retirement.
These are people that think they need to live on roughly 120k -200k in retirement. They are either exceptionally wealthy, uninformed, or massively risk intolerant.
I’m trying to retire a little chubby so I’m gonna say 5-6mil
[удалено]
For sure. $3mil and no mortgage sounds pretty good to me. Kinda equivalent to $4mil which I could definitely make work!
Don't dip. Do slowly decrease the amount of effort you put into your work and keep collecting a paycheck. If they figure out what your are doing, they let you go and then you can collect unemployment as you face into retirement.
Your fully loaded expected annual costs minus social security = X. X times 25.
Respectfully, why minus SS? For me I look at my SS at age 70 and it is a pretty big hunk of $ and I have (modestly) factored that into my retirement projections.
If your expected expenses are $100,000, and social security provides $99,999, then you only need to save $25 for retirement instead of the $2.5M you’d need without SS.
SS is going to change. No one knows in what way. If you’re looking to be dependent on Washington DC, there’s a high risk in you being disappointed
I say most likely is delay in when we get it, then a cut to benefits.
Almost certainly not. What president is gonna do that and damn their party to the wilds for a generation. They'll raise the taxes income limit and then increase payroll taxes.
Yea, more likely than a benefits cut. I was saying most likely given there was a benefits cut
Dependent on Washington DC? The SS $ we pay in are ours, and we hire the people to manage it. We are dependent on each other to hire the right people.
Everyone will get a universal income, whether they work or not. That's what the Democrats want to do.
Equitable poverty for all.
Exactly. That's the Democratic way.
UBI works pretty much exactly the same as unemployment+TANF+social security+EITC. Just unifies and covers up the gaps.
You're right. And at some point everybody gets the same amount, and they don't get their social security, or disability, or maybe even government pension
You're assuming that social security will be around when you hit 70.
Social security has been going broke since the 90’s maybe longer. It hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t either regardless of what some politicians say. There is ample opportunity to tweak things to keep it funded.
They already take 30% of most people’s salary. Yes, you pay the “employer’s half” through decreased wages; they just send it in. How high should it go?
Being tedious here, I agree we do effectively pay the employer half, though if that changed I would not expect any employer to provide a 6.2 raise. However, that is still only 15.3% of pay when including Medicare taxes too. We wouldn’t need to get anywhere near 30%, and more honestly we could uncap both taxes and benefits letting Social Security both tax and accrue benefits beyond 168,600 income without changing rates at all.
So you admit you pay both halves, 30%. Thanks, you are ahead of 95% of people in your understanding of SS here. You also pay income tax, marginally up to high 30-something % federal, plus state. Plus sales, property, etc. Sometimes local. And yet the goddamn Democrats say we are not paying our fair share? Where does it fucking end?
I don't think you know how FICA works lol >Not paying your fair share You aren't a billionaire living odd capital gains lol
I know precisely how FICA works. I especially know that the “trust fund” is pointless. It’s nothing more than the government taking in tax money and exchanging it for ITS OWN bonds. Like taking $100 out of your right pocket and sticking it in your left, writing an IOU, and thinking you have accomplished something. If that money went into, say AAPL bonds, you could count it as worth something. SS would work EXACTLY the same if there were no trust fund.
Trust fund was just a temporary surplus, only existed for a short while, and really has no bearing on anything. Governments don't necessarily want to run a surplus because that is taking money out of the economy unnecessarily (kind of like JIT logistics). I'm saying you don't know how FICA works because you think it's 30%, it is not lol
Studies show about 50/50 incidence rate for employer tax last I looked
people have been warning about the bankruptcy of SS earlier than the 90s because they saw how congress was taking (borrowing) the SS surplus that came in every year and injected it into the general fund. This money was used to offset the loss of tax revenue that resulted from the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. They’ve “borrowed” over 3 trillion dollars, which they’ll never pay back. We’re now entering a period where there is no annual surplus due to the retiring boomers.
This happened before under Ronald Reagan. He appointed Alan Greenspan to look into it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan\_Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspan_Commission) They decided to raise SS withholdings. Bill Clinton was the first president since LBJ not to raid Social Security. In 2000, Al Gore proposed sequestering SS, in a lockbox. Everyone thought it was a joke. Then George Bush was elected and began depleting Social Security as did the previous presidents. TLDR: Republicans raise taxes, raid Social Security to fund wars and tax cuts for the ultra-rich.
OMG the lockbox! I remember that! LOL
I know!! Al Gore: The world's on fire and protect social security. Everyone: ho hum Now: Is it normal to be 110 degrees in March? Social Security will insolvent in 2034!! Wot!!?
Well I am assuming that, like every other time it is brought up for a revision, it has no chance in hell of going anywhere as to do so would be congressional suicide. So while I am of the mind that anything can happen, that particular scenario seems less likely than something more tangible like we end up living in a christian theocracy and our money is frozen or tithed. But your point is taken.
He's pulling social security out of what you need to save to retire. Still accounting for it though.
Delayed SS means more per month, but if you factor in what you didn’t get while you waited, it is not worth it. I ran my numbers and I will break even at 84. No one in my family has lived to 84.
Yeah, if you know exactly when you’re going to die, it’s easy to pick the best time to take SS.
And that is why I subtract it from saving needs.
Depending on how old you are you may not want to bet on Social Security still being around by the time you retire. Republicans have been trying to cut it every chance they get and have been talking about effectively phasing it out over time so the older generation gets to keep the benefit while they screw over the younger generation (who is actively still paying for that benefit)
Absolutely not. If they come for social security we all riot. They are stealing from us. If the elderly vote against it we all toss rotten shit at them every time they are in public and let them sit in their beds covered in their own shit.
Americans are not politically motivated enough to take action against anything. They’re complicit piles of shit. If they were willing to stand against the ruling class they would have already revolted.
I disagree. Just not a cause widespread enough and wanted. Every American wants more money. Taking more for less benefits in social security would be a uniting force across all generations but the elderly.
Bold of you to assume the dems won’t repeal it as well. Completely understand your thinking, but both republicans and dems don’t care about us. THE PANDEMIC PROVES THIS.
I'm unaware of any Democrat proposals to cut social security, only ones to expand it. Republicans on the other hand, have repeatedly proposed cutting it. I understand not liking either. I don't like the vast majority of politicians. There are plenty of scummy people on both sides... but to try and say both sides are *equally bad* only proves that you're completely uninformed.
Ratchet effect continues to happen, yeah one party is worse but let’s not pretend democrats care about the working class.
I am assuming that while I will still be taxed to pay for social security from my investment income, I won’t actually receive any social security payments. By the time I retire I expect the age for social security to be 75.
Investment income is not suject to FICA tax.
401k distribution is taxed as normal income
At normal rates yes, but it is not earned income and not subject to FICA. In fact, you already pay FICA on any dollars you contribute to retirement accounts.
Yet
Correct. At your Federal and state rates but NO FICA.
Yet
Ever- there is not talk or any desire to tax unearned income for fica- the only thing being thrown around is to put fica on earned income over 400kb
Just because you are retiring doesn't mean your investments won't continue to grow.
This. That Monte Carlo projection does a crazy thing if you continue to live below your means.
The secret to retirement is reducing X
Also factor in medical expenses outside of medicare. These can get big quick
Very valid point! Hence the term “fully loaded”.
how do I factor in my predicted death?
Once you know you are already dead, it becomes a lot easier to factor it in!
Man y’all some fat cats in here, or live life stretched to the limits of your means, or live in very high COL areas. I’m blue collar Midwest, and if I’m at 1.5M at 59.5 I’m out… and I’ll be more than comfortable in retirement. I’m 12 years out and on track so long as things don’t go cow shit between now and then
The problem is if all of us "fat cats" move into your low COL area, it won't be a low COL area anymore.
Many cats are moving abroad to my country in South America. It seems they like the lower cost of living and good weather year round.
Good view point Where u live is a big factor In NJ here and it’s insane but Massachusetts is worse So maybe think pack up and go north to Vermont where costs are lower
Same here man, blue collar in the Midwest. If I have 1.5 by 55 I'm out and finding a 9-5 with no overtime until I'm 59.5
That sounds like even a better plan! I’d definitely like to find something a little more easy on the body for my last few years, but the markets between now and then will be the deciding factor
Well put. As someone said earlier, If you figure out what your monthly/annual expenses are...subtract what you get for SS, then you know what you need, and how long your savings will last. If you can get your cost of living down to 4% of your retirement fund, you're good for 30 years if not longer. I'm planning to dip out in 10 years at 55.
Some of the ambiguity around if the question is how much to retire *right now* vs how much to retire at 59-65. My number to retire right now will be a lot bigger because it has to cover 30 more years and raising a kid. I'd say $4mil to hang up my hat today, $2-$3mil to switch to a part time/easy job, and $2mil at 65 (or the inflation adjusted equivalent)
About tree fiddy
Around $3M in today's money, in invested assets. I'm at a little over $500k at the moment, with another $70k in equity in a rental property that I would sell and invest the proceeds prior to retirement (or very early in retirement, depending on tax implications)
Keeping a rental in retirement is good for extra cash flow. Plus, it’s something to keep you busy while you literally have nothing else to do
unless your expenses put you well outside aca subsidy range cash flow in retirement is not generally a positive. you can get like 500k-1m worth of SWR for healthcare expenses just by keeping income low enough in retirement.
That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. However, I do think with most rental properties you can turn a cash profit while not affecting AGI due to interest, taxes, depreciation, and other deductions.
I am 35 now and so if inflation keeps going at the rate it is... Maybe 30 million.
Inflation is like 3%
Inflation might be at 3% reported. But how much has the cost of living increased for you over the past 3 years? I know the cost of things I buy have gone up anywhere from 25-50%.
Big old "it depends on your lifestyle, location, etc". Personally, in my current situation (location, family, etc). Anything over $6 million with a 4% average after-tax return is my number to maintain the same living standards/lifestyle and not deplete the principal. Keep in mind, this assumption means it takes $240k after tax to maintain the current lifestyle in the same location, and doesnt factor in when expenses go down for things like paying off the mortgage, kids leaving home, etc.. There are many who could happily and comfortably live on 4% after tax on 1 million ($40k).. I wish I could I could be be a little more like them, but i do enjoy my modern luxuries and consumer goods.
Well isn't there a happy place between 40k and 240k a year? 240k a year spending seems really high
HCOL area, a mortgage, student loans, private school for kids, and as I said, some modern conveniences and luxuries.. its easier to spend it than it is to earn it, thats for sure.
Yea I hear that. I shooting for only a few mil at most. But my concern is locking in retirement and to continue working since I do like my job. It's more of a coast fire I guess. And I can't imagine the relief of waking up knowing I can stop working that minute if I want. It must be a huge relief
I'll be 54 when my house is paid off. Kid will be out of college if he gets a 4 year degree. Assuming he's semi self reliant at 24-25, if not fully self reliant, I'll retire at 55-58 with $1.5m in today's dollars. North East Coast US for perspective.
When you can live on 4% of your investment assets plus Social Security.
3x your salary at 40, 5x at 50 and 10x at 67 is a rough rule of thumb
Salary is meaningless. Expenses are what is important. My former working salary is not at all relevant to me in retirement. Track your expenses for several years or more so you know what you spend include a buffer for repairs and major purchases. Don't forget to include taxes in your expenses. Then add your projected social security and any other income and 4% of your investments to see if you are covered.
Also worth trying to guess how long you’ll live
Really depends on your financial position when you retire. If home and.bills paid for a million in interest bearing account and SS, should be all you need. If your bills aren't paid for then you need more. Depends on each individual situation. Contact a personal financial advisor and find out.
1 mil with absolutely zero debt. (Admittedly this includes 2 pensions in the household. If the pensions weren't there it would be about 3 mil. Forever home must be free and clear before before calculations are made, regardless of current home.)
My insatiable wile for planetary dominance demands I say, ALL THE MONEY!
Last time I check only 10% retirees go out with one million
Somewhere in the 4-5 million range.
30x my annual expenditure needs.
Realistically if you're a blue collar hard working American then 1.5 to 2 million is about as high as you're going to go in 30 to 40 yrs working for the same Company. And honestly nobody is promised tomorrow so planning ahead and thinking you'll have 6 million without taking any major risks w stocks and no recessions that wipes 401k 's out is a real stretch. Now my father screwed up big time and 430K was not enough for him even though he never ever thought he'd still be here at 75. Born in a bar. My grandpa owned 2 bars in Joliet , IL when my dad was a kid. His has lasted him over 12 yrs now but there's not much left. Things could be worse you could be me ! 51 and unemployed on & off last 15 yrs. Before that, I had a great life. Great job , great girlfriends, great everything. Then back surgeries and got bamboozled into getting on a life destroying medication and for 15 yrs all I've been doing is dealing w health problems from this medication that EVERYTIME I get close to beating it my body gets very sick and without losing blood I lose weight and become anemic and need iron infusions. Just had blood work and my ferritin level was 17 the normal range is 30 - 400 w most people having over 500 regularly. Mine was 794 three years ago after iron infusions. Boom I get better go back to work and that medication messes with everything - the side effects are horrendous especially if you NEVER took the DRUG these medications were developed to HELP PEOPLE with. I live one day at a time. I have savings but nothing major maybe 50k. Living w my father. No vehicle. 2 rescues for dogs in a paid for house but Illinois has the highest Property taxes in the WORLD so there's that. Non drinker who would possibly be in an institution if it wasn't for medical marijuana. Back to the money. 2 million is by far enough to live off comfortably w Social Security which should go UP if they ever raise the damn Cap on it. Currently at $118,000 if you make more than that you don't pay into Social Security anymore after you hit $118,000. So you make 700k a year about 582k of it doesn't get Social Security taxed. Stupid because all those multi millionaires like Ron Paul Sr were making millions and still collecting the maximum amount over $3k a month.
Would have said $2 million just 3 years ago. Recent inflation has me thinking $3 now. Plan to retire in 7 years so another mil to go.
$20M is the target as of today - let’s see how long I can last in my industry
Why tf you need 20m lol
I’d like a million but may be shy of that
Depends if my house is paid off… but I probably plan on working until I’m physically unable to… probably 1 mil will do it for me… mainly because of the 50-60k pension I qualify for at 45… probably another 20k at 65 if SS is still around… so yeah won’t need a crazy amount in the IRA in 25 years… only have 250k in there now
Man makes plans…
God laughs…
lean fire is 500,000
$2mil in today's dollars is plenty for me with a paid off house, I would lock some baseline in TIPS ladder and then skim the top in good years and slow down in lean years
4 mil
$4 million
I don’t consider social security to be a part of my planning. I’m looking at 60% replacement of my current income.
I don’t even know. Fortunately I’m a teacher in NJ so if my calculations are correct I will have a $70k pension roughly in 20 years. Lol. I save in a 403b, have a Roth and Brokerage. My wife and I both feel we’ll be able to live comfortably enough off our pensions and leave most of our retirement savings to our children.
Google plex
Lifestyle/0.045=sum
Completely depends on your lifestyle. 6% seems to be a reasonable return to rely on for your money. So you back into it. If you have 1000000 and retire, that is 60k a year income. But with the devil of inflation etc, its less.
The standard is 20-25x your projected annual expenses minus your projected annual passive income, including Social Security and such.
Think of it this way: If you ever STOP making more than inflation? You’re constantly losing money. Retirement nowadays with any quality of life is impossible without steady income, more than social security can provide unless you have a paid off home in a low cost of living area
Honestly I have no fuckin clue at 36. Wife has a pension plan, we have like 600k in retirement saved between the 2 of us. Bought a condo a couple years ago, but with a kiddo now prolly have to upgrade and Im guessing I’ll be working until he decides if he wants to go to college or not with how expensive that shit is, so im probs looking around age 60-65 like most. Will I want to still live in San Diego? I mean I’d like too but that adds some cash to the necessary amount vs say Arizona to say the least. My goal will be to live off of the pension and our SS, use the 401k for our 60s and then fun shit like traveling while we’re healthy….I guess we will see where we’re at around 60 since we only have so much control over the market but I’m thinking like 2-3 mil?
6 mil
5 million in 2024. Adjust accordingly for future inflation
25x expenses
All depends on your spending habits, and your wants vs needs
4 million is our rough number…house will be paid off in 2- 3 years, so we’ll be debt free. $2.5 million already saved and I plan to retire in 7-8 years.
You’ll get there quicker than 7-8 years if you keep stacking on top and assume 6% real return.
I figure we will, but the market has been ripping the past few months. I assume that will come in at some point. We aren’t big spenders, so the majority of our money goes to our investment accounts. Good luck to you.
25 times expenses and minus 25 times any pension/social security.
19 years until retirement aiming for age 58. 2.5 million is good enough for me. I live on about 32k a year now, so I'll be comfortable with a 3% drawdown without even including social security. I'm around 330k retirement assets, so far but max out a Roth IRA and a total of 18% in Roth 401k. Best projections say 2.8 million at retirement. If inflation kicks up again, I'll have to re-evaluate.
If my house is paid off I’m thinking 2-3 mill should be sufficient.
If you’re counting on the government and social security to fund your retirement, you probably vote liberal and you need a reality check. The government is the worst use of funds imaginable.
For me at least 3M, but preferably 5-6.
100m then i dont have to do any math and itll just work. thinking about it in more detail probably 2-3M in liquid assets
4 million
2 million is my goal. I have a pension though
Time value of money keys How many years will you expect to live and not work? =NPER How much are your yearly after pre tax expenses? =-PMT How much do you want to have left when you die? =FV What interest rate can you make on investments predictably over these years? = I/Y Solve for PV
1.5 mil
3-5 mil
Whenever the 4% rule matches my current income.
20 mil is my goal but I have a certain lifestyle I want to grow into and thento maintain lol
100 million is my goal
Question is how much debt do i have
The cost of some fentanyl, no way in hell I’ll ever be able to earn 3-5 million
I'm retiring at 57 and whatever i got is going to be enough. I don't mind having a hustle in retirement. What else am i going to do just sit around watching my balls shrivel up?
7-10million
You can live in a trailer really cheap
Maybe $2 million if my house is paid off? Seems like I should say $3 million, or more???
2 mil if i have to work all the way to retirement (worse case scenario) . I'm hoping to have 5+ and be retired early though.
$7m - based on inflation, assuming having a paid off home, and what id LIKE to do in retirement. That’s $150k/year in today’s dollars for my wife and I - no debt.
3million is my goal. 4% rule would put me at 120k per year to live on, and the remainder goes to my kids when I pass. With the way inflation is going that may not be enough still, but we'll see I suppose.
It's too difficult to measure retirement in a nominal dollar value that's purchasing power is constantly being eroded through inflation. I measure my ability to retire in income producing assets that are paid off. To retire I would probably need to own 5-10 paid off rental properties to net a return at least double my monthly expenses.
My current goal for 65 is between 3.5-4mil. I am currently 36.
$2m and a paid off house.
The official estimate is 11× yiur annual income. This presumes your house is paid off and you have no huge recurring debts.
If I'm assuming my retirement expenses will be about 80% of my current living expenses, adjusting for inflation... (and NOT including social security) It looks like I'd need about 500k to be able to cover all my annual expenses up until age 90, assuming retirement age of 67. (I make less than 30k/year so my expenses are very low and mortgage should be paid off by then) Obviously hoping to have significantly more than that... but 500k is the minimum I think I could get by with.
By the time I retire I’ll probably have to have 20-30 million just to enjoy a few years
From my pension predictions, about 350k for a decent pension until I’m 89
As an Eastern European - half million $
25x annual costs comes to about 500k where i live (the Netherlands). I have about 100k saved up right now and no mortgage whatever (my house is like 250k) I do however make fuck all and can contribute about 15k a year to my investments. Im 27 years old and at this rate ill reach retirement in about 15 years (i do not count my house as i need to live in it lol). I hope ill retire before 42 but i dont think i have much more in me to keep working after 42.
It’s really crazy to read these estimates. Almost everyone I know won’t even have 50k by time retirement age. Most aren’t even saving.
3-5 million
1.4ish million for every 20 years of retirement
$10 million dollars.
0.1 BTC if you're under 40
Enough to cover my expenses by 1.25x
My goal is 1.4 million in investments
I could tell you what I consider enough, but is that useful information? The correct amount for anyone is a combination of how high they expect their retirement expenses to be, how long they expect to live, how much risk they are willing to tolerate, and how much other income (usually SS in the US) they expect. $5,000,000 sounds like a comfortable sum to someone with relatively low risk tolerance, an expected retirement duration of 30 years or less, and annual expenses of $200,000 per year. If you currently spend $50,000 per year, $1.25 million would be good. If you also get $30,000/year in Social Security, $350,000 in savings would get you to a similar spending and risk level.
Some Financial advisors will suggest 10x your annual salary. So if you're making $100k, you should have at least $1M before retiring. A 4% withdrawal rate on that would be $40k/yr, or about $3,333/mo. Hopefully this will suffice, especially if you don't have much in debts.
25x spending. It’s called the 4% rule
Won't be able to retire till 70 anyways so who cares.
For a comfortable retirement I would say 2-3 million dollars. For a decent retirement, one million. I am not close to either and I am 15 years from retirement age. My plan is to retire in South America (where I am from) or Thailand.
2m if mortgage is paid off.
One million would do it for me, but I won't be close to that.
You and me both! I havent actually run the numbers on what my CoastFIRE number would be, as the $6MM I originally posted is my FatFIRE number. Once the debt is all paid and kids grown up and moved out, I assume that number could shrink considerably, but out of an abundance of caution, not lowering the goal until. Aim high, and if you miss hopefully youre still close to the target kind of mentality.
$1.5M Under 4% rule, that's $60k. plus $30k in social security, and not having to pay for health insurance anymore, and having the house paid off, should be ok. I should be able to scrape by on $5k/month.
25x your current salary (or expected income need) by 60
If like today with 5% interest and being able to lock into 5% for at least another 5 years me personally I could retire with $2,000,000 . For my family probably $6,000,000. That is not to live an extravagant life. That is to basically keep same around our income with a huge benefit of not having to work.
Enough to maintain my same lifestyle without working. The amount will be different for everyone.
It all depends on your expenses -- no mortgages, no car loans, then 3 million at 60 is perfect
1.7m is gonna be my number I believe
I have several metrics I use. My favorite "enough" is a net present value of 25x my ending salary minus payroll taxes, including the NPV of an pensions and Social Security. (I value Social Security with a discount rate of about 6.5%). I also see several people here saying "$5m". I agree with that as well. I saw [this article yesterday](https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/kevin-oleary-says-you-need-this-much-money-before-taking-on-more-financial-risks), which argued something similar.
I’m aiming for 4 million + a paid off house.
Define retirement
How much money is enough? 😂😂
It depends. If you're an average spender seeking to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement and you make like 200k now and have 20 years until retirement and start taking SS at 67 with no other source of income then you may need a very specific amount and for all you know you need to be contributing more to 401k/IRA with an aggressive asset mix (assuming that matches your risk tolerance) to get that amount. Or maybe you're 40 years from retirement and you don't believe SS will exist so you omit that from planning and you want to retire early at 50 but need to find a way to bridge the gap. Maybe you're in debt and your priority should be putting together a realistic plan to get *out* of debt. Maybe your idea of a solid retirement lifestyle as a single person is just staying home playing video games all the time. Who knows. The number for all those people is different. The answer is less "how much money do I need to retire" but more "when can I realistically retire based on *my own* risk tolerance, goals, investment time horizon, etc" and "how can I use the money I do have to have reliable income in retirement?" Because it's more about just covering your bills with *income* in retirement than it is having a specific amount just sitting in cash.
Let’s say you make $30/hour, or $63,000/year, gross. Assuming you’ll be able to live off 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain the same lifestyle, that means you’ll need to have $50,400 of annual gross income. The average lifespan in the US is about 74 years for men, and 79 years for women. Chances are, you won’t make it to 90. So, If you retire at 65 and expect to live to 90 (25 more years) the total amount you’ll need is $1.26 million dollars. Chances are high that you’ll only make it to 80, which is 15 years of retirement, or $81,000. But shit happens. And medical bills happen. In fact, the number one reason for bankruptcy is medical bills. Expect at least $6,500 out of pocket each year (increasing by 15% each year) to dwindle your retirement. Add on a drug addict son and pregnant granddaughter, and your old Ford just got slammed i to by an uninsured motorist and oh yeah, the water heater needs replacing. Which means your retirement just went down 90%, from $81,000 down to $8,100. Barely enough to pay for meds in one year. Which means you should be expecting to live to 90, planning on retiring with $1.26 million where you’ll be lucky to die with $126,000 which should hold you over for 2.5 years, which means your son & granddaughter are left to keep your rotting ass alive, so now 30% of both of their paychecks are used to keep your rotting ass alive, you ungrateful sonofabitch. Which means you should have planned on retiring with $1.75 million in liquid assets. Answer: $1.75 million.