What is your "magic number" for retirement?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We are around $3.5M net worth including home equity of $400k and another $400k in 529. Our HHI rose drastically in the last two years and we are now able to save $250k-$300k per year. Another 10 years to work, we are 44 and 47. So thinking retire with somewhere around $7M net worth after paying two kids college. We both are in tech, so no guarantee that we will continue to be consistently employed or with high HHI.

there's a lot more ageism in tech than in other industries.

We didn't feel ageism (in tech) until we hit our 50s.

Luckily, we saved a lot from our 30s, and so we are planning to retire in our late 50s, early 60s in a few years, with about $4 mil nw.

Maybe I’m too much of a noob at my very large tech company, but I just don’t see the ageism thing. There are plenty of colleagues still going strong in their late 50s and early 60s. Maybe my company’s culture is just that good or that aware of age discrimination? I have no idea. But I’m early 40s and more frequently than not, the youngest person in the room or on the call.

I think there is a difference between something like IBM, 3M or even Microsoft and places like Meta or Tesla or even Google.

Noob here again and I work for one of those companies. So is the former group or the latter group the one that’s discriminating based on age? LOL, I’m clearly clueless about this.

It's the IBMs, 3M, Microsoft type companies that don't have as much age discrimination as the hot, newer companies that try to run young and now lean. Though I was just thinking today that with all their job cuts, I wonder if they are getting older and slower and trying to fix that.

Referring to Google in the bolded.

Got it. I work for one of the former companies and this makes sense. Age discrimination has always seemed like something that goes against the nature of everything our chief executive stands for.

[Anonymous]

10m is our number. We now have 15m. Retiring next month at 60 although I love my job and am paid well. A little nervous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10m is our number. We now have 15m. Retiring next month at 60 although I love my job and am paid well. A little nervous.

Similar situation but haven’t pulled the trigger on retirement. What do you plan to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:10m is our number. We now have 15m. Retiring next month at 60 although I love my job and am paid well. A little nervous.

lol nervous at $10M, no $15M. Lying or ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10m is our number. We now have 15m. Retiring next month at 60 although I love my job and am paid well. A little nervous.

lol nervous at $10M, no $15M. Lying or ridiculous.

I read the “nervous” to be walking away from a job you love.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We are around $3.5M net worth including home equity of $400k and another $400k in 529. Our HHI rose drastically in the last two years and we are now able to save $250k-$300k per year. Another 10 years to work, we are 44 and 47. So thinking retire with somewhere around $7M net worth after paying two kids college. We both are in tech, so no guarantee that we will continue to be consistently employed or with high HHI.

there's a lot more ageism in tech than in other industries.

We didn't feel ageism (in tech) until we hit our 50s.

Luckily, we saved a lot from our 30s, and so we are planning to retire in our late 50s, early 60s in a few years, with about $4 mil nw.

Maybe I’m too much of a noob at my very large tech company, but I just don’t see the ageism thing. There are plenty of colleagues still going strong in their late 50s and early 60s. Maybe my company’s culture is just that good or that aware of age discrimination? I have no idea. But I’m early 40s and more frequently than not, the youngest person in the room or on the call.

I think there is a difference between something like IBM, 3M or even Microsoft and places like Meta or Tesla or even Google.

Noob here again and I work for one of those companies. So is the former group or the latter group the one that’s discriminating based on age? LOL, I’m clearly clueless about this.

It's the IBMs, 3M, Microsoft type companies that don't have as much age discrimination as the hot, newer companies that try to run young and now lean. Though I was just thinking today that with all their job cuts, I wonder if they are getting older and slower and trying to fix that.

Referring to Google in the bolded.

Got it. I work for one of the former companies and this makes sense. Age discrimination has always seemed like something that goes against the nature of everything our chief executive stands for.

yep, google's layoff is about pivoting more resources to AI. Companies that survive on new tech need younger talent.

[Anonymous]

This does make me feel very nervous, actually unprepared for retirement although I have some time. In early to mid 40s and total 401k is 500k and another account for $80k. Will only have SS income of total 5k. And probably one rental property paid off by then will yield another $2k. Not sure if we are taking right actions to plan for retirement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This does make me feel very nervous, actually unprepared for retirement although I have some time. In early to mid 40s and total 401k is 500k and another account for $80k. Will only have SS income of total 5k. And probably one rental property paid off by then will yield another $2k. Not sure if we are taking right actions to plan for retirement

Keep contributing as much as you can and keep it invested in mostly equities and you will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Have about 8M (3M in 401k. and rest brokerage). No pensions and no mortgage (3-4m in equity in house). 54 and 60 and 2 kids in college covered by 529s but they may go to grad school and we have not saved for that. The 60 yo is no longer working. 54 yo still working and significantly higher income so hoping can save over the next few years. Would love to retire with spouse around 57-58 but am almost certain that I won’t feel I have enough.

[Anonymous]

A lot of folks in this Money and Finances forum skew towards higher incomes and NW.

If you earn $400K-$500K today, what do you think your needs will be in retirement? The rule of thumb of 70%-80% seems way off for a high earners. My guess is it is closer to 40%-50%.

I am curious if any retiree's can weigh in with their numbers. Obviously we all want to travel and we will have to pay for health care etc. But if you aren't socking away $125K into retirement and savings and your kids are launched, expenses should drop significantly right?

[Anonymous]

Our HHI were about $450 before we retired a little more than 2 years ago. Since everything is paid off, including all the rentals, our base annual expenses is about $85k. The rule of thumb of 70-80% of your salary is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

$10m invested is our target.
We currently have $12m assets, ($10m net worth, $2m low interest mortgage), $7m invested ($5.5m brokerage equities, $1.5m retirement equities). DW is 50 and has been SAHM for 25+ yrs, I'm 51 exec so just entering prime earning years $750k hhi working primarily from home. Both kids thru private and graduated college with college paid off . We feel veryfortunate and have no money stress or worries about the future. I'll retire when we wake up one day and say "hey, it's time. How about we go explore Sicily for a few months?" It has been a lot of work and stress to raise the kids and build wealth, i built and sold a business but now we have security and options.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:While you loons are wasting your life away trying to get to $10M, many people are retiring with $600K and a paid-off house, using the strategies detailed in this article:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4661283-how-to-invest-600000-in-2024-to-live-off-of-dividends-forever

this “strategy” requires SS which means i’d have to work until age 67🤮

no thanks. i’m out mid 50s so i’ll continue to power save.

No. The strategy basically says that you can have a much higher withdrawal rate if you focus on high-dividends stocks. Imagine being able to perpetually withdraw 7% from your portfolio instead of 3-4% – that’s possible if you ignore two mainstream pieces of advice:

1). Don’t buy bonds – they’re garbage.

2). Don’t limit yourself to the usual broad indices like the S&P and an international index. While almost nothing outperforms the S&P 500 long-term, in retirement, it is problematic because it pays low dividends and requires you to sell some of your shares. Because of this, you are a lot more dependent on market cycles and the price of stocks (i.e., sequence of returns risk), and you can only withdraw something like 3-4%.

If anyone has ever inherited a stock portfolio you may have seen this. Both my mother and my MIL had similar stock strategies which was basically "all in, all the time, never sell" with no more than half their money in mutual funds/ETFs. Both started investing when there were no index funds. You invested in companies you knew. I'm also an all in, all the time, never sell but with index funds. When I inherited these old timey portfolios and took a few months to see what was what it was the first time I saw what widows knew: A robust portfolio of CAT, JNJ,KO etc lets you live off that income and let your portfolios grow for decades. I dont need the income now, but later on, for sure moving that way.

Great post, thank you.

I ran a backtest on portfolio visualizer on a total stock market index fund vs SCHD. While the TSM portfolio was a little larger, SCHD was throwing off significantly more income per year. At a certain point, portfolio size doesn’t matter if you’re receiving $200,000+ in income a year.

You gave me something to think about.

What does this even mean? A smaller portfolio with less discretion about realizing income subject to taxes isn’t a good thing.

You can always sell off part of your holdings of a mutual fund— there’a no advantage to taking money out as dividends.

This. The obsession with high dividend stocks is such a rookie mistake in portfolio management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$6.4M in future dollars plus about $140k pension (also future dollars).

Kids college will done well before retirement (13 years). House will have about $200K left on the mortgage at retirement, but interest rate is low so not sure if we will pay that off early.

Not everyone got married as children.

[Anonymous]

$15M in retirement.