How much do you think you need for retirement, salary and age (and when you expect to retire)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If my wife and I keep working all the way to 65ish, and keep saving at the rate we do, and have raises that merely keep up with inflation, and have investments that return 5% after inflation, we would have something like $7M plus a ~$55k/year pension plus, I don't know another $50k per year in combined SS.

That's waaaaay more than we will need in retirement, so I think we'll probably hang it up a few years early. Maybe at about age 50-55 if things go well.

We're currently in our mid 40s.

I like your math but because of compounding it will be between 55 and 65 that you will have the greatest dollar growth, not between 45 and 55. And it will be a lot of years before you can collect your full SS and maybe your pensions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my DH retired from full time at 61 he had a 5 year goal of continuing to work to cover our costs so that we didn't have to dip into our retirement savings. He had some consulting and advisory work that kept him pretty busy but with enough free time to enjoy life. Since we never took money out of any investment accounts he achieved his goal and our investments have done very well with the booming stock market up at least 50% in those five years. He's now 67 and still works part time (but less) but we are now collecting pensions that pay around $100,000 a year and in two years we will start collecting SS at which point he may fully retire. Our retirement accounts are now in great shape and the income stream is excellent. We started saving for retirement when we were very young and it really paid off. As an "elder" it is the best advice I can give.

Your husband isn't retired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my wife and I keep working all the way to 65ish, and keep saving at the rate we do, and have raises that merely keep up with inflation, and have investments that return 5% after inflation, we would have something like $7M plus a ~$55k/year pension plus, I don't know another $50k per year in combined SS.

That's waaaaay more than we will need in retirement, so I think we'll probably hang it up a few years early. Maybe at about age 50-55 if things go well.

We're currently in our mid 40s.

I like your math but because of compounding it will be between 55 and 65 that you will have the greatest dollar growth, not between 45 and 55. And it will be a lot of years before you can collect your full SS and maybe your pensions.

That is all true, but already baked into my plans. We'll see what happens. My guess is we'll retire somewhere between 55-60.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my DH retired from full time at 61 he had a 5 year goal of continuing to work to cover our costs so that we didn't have to dip into our retirement savings. He had some consulting and advisory work that kept him pretty busy but with enough free time to enjoy life. Since we never took money out of any investment accounts he achieved his goal and our investments have done very well with the booming stock market up at least 50% in those five years. He's now 67 and still works part time (but less) but we are now collecting pensions that pay around $100,000 a year and in two years we will start collecting SS at which point he may fully retire. Our retirement accounts are now in great shape and the income stream is excellent. We started saving for retirement when we were very young and it really paid off. As an "elder" it is the best advice I can give.

Your husband isn't retired.

He would disagree with you but I wouldn't. But he doesn't feel the pressure of full time work or the need so he is far more relaxed which to him is being retired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my wife and I keep working all the way to 65ish, and keep saving at the rate we do, and have raises that merely keep up with inflation, and have investments that return 5% after inflation, we would have something like $7M plus a ~$55k/year pension plus, I don't know another $50k per year in combined SS.

That's waaaaay more than we will need in retirement, so I think we'll probably hang it up a few years early. Maybe at about age 50-55 if things go well.

We're currently in our mid 40s.

I like your math but because of compounding it will be between 55 and 65 that you will have the greatest dollar growth, not between 45 and 55. And it will be a lot of years before you can collect your full SS and maybe your pensions.

That is all true, but already baked into my plans. We'll see what happens. My guess is we'll retire somewhere between 55-60.

Good for you! Make sure you have enough to really enjoy retirement!

[Anonymous]

Currently DH and I are 40 and have 750,000 in retirement. Hope to have around 2,000,000 when we retire at 55. Will also have local government pension of about $6,000 a month with health benefits, albeit at a increased price (around $700 a month). I think this should be plenty for us to sit on our jammies all day, watching hulu and netflix and eating take-out....

[Anonymous]

Our goal is $4 million with house paid off. We are 45 and 47 and currently have about $2.5 million and house is 1/2 paid off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Currently DH and I are 40 and have 750,000 in retirement. Hope to have around 2,000,000 when we retire at 55. Will also have local government pension of about $6,000 a month with health benefits, albeit at a increased price (around $700 a month). I think this should be plenty for us to sit on our jammies all day, watching hulu and netflix and eating take-out....

That's my kinda retirement!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When my DH retired from full time at 61 he had a 5 year goal of continuing to work to cover our costs so that we didn't have to dip into our retirement savings. He had some consulting and advisory work that kept him pretty busy but with enough free time to enjoy life. Since we never took money out of any investment accounts he achieved his goal and our investments have done very well with the booming stock market up at least 50% in those five years. He's now 67 and still works part time (but less) but we are now collecting pensions that pay around $100,000 a year and in two years we will start collecting SS at which point he may fully retire. Our retirement accounts are now in great shape and the income stream is excellent. We started saving for retirement when we were very young and it really paid off. As an "elder" it is the best advice I can give.

Boy, what a nice way to ease into retirement. Most of us have to go cold turkey which means no income and tons of free time....overnight!

[Anonymous]

I am 51 and DH is 62. We have $1.5M in investments, and rental property that nets $5000 per month before taxes. We also have about $500K equity in our home.

I'm planning to retire early in three years, with a retirement income of about $120,000, made up of an initial 3% withdrawal rate from our investments, coupled with rental income and DH's social security. When I turn 65 we'll drop the withdrawal rate to <2% and make up the difference with my social security and Federal pension (~$50K per year).

[Anonymous]

No clue. We're in our mid-30s and have aggressively saved and invested our high incomes, because we know they may not last forever and you gotta make hay while the sun shines. Currently 36/34 with a toddler and an infant and we've got about $500k in retirement accounts plus another $150k in a brokerage account. Really have no idea how much we'd need to retire (and at what age), but I think if we stay the course we'll have options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our goal is $4 million with house paid off. We are 45 and 47 and currently have about $2.5 million and house is 1/2 paid off.

What is your hhi? That is an important part of this equation because people living on upward $300k hhi in their 40s may expect a higher standard of living in retirement than those of us with much lower hhi. Also very important are whether you will have any pension and whether any of your health care will be covered as part of a retirement package.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If my wife and I keep working all the way to 65ish, and keep saving at the rate we do, and have raises that merely keep up with inflation, and have investments that return 5% after inflation, we would have something like $7M plus a ~$55k/year pension plus, I don't know another $50k per year in combined SS.

That's waaaaay more than we will need in retirement, so I think we'll probably hang it up a few years early. Maybe at about age 50-55 if things go well.

We're currently in our mid 40s.

I like your math but because of compounding it will be between 55 and 65 that you will have the greatest dollar growth, not between 45 and 55. And it will be a lot of years before you can collect your full SS and maybe your pensions.

That is all true, but already baked into my plans. We'll see what happens. My guess is we'll retire somewhere between 55-60.

This is pretty much us, although I can't see convincing DH to retire and I want to start my own business, which may radically derail our plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our goal is $4 million with house paid off. We are 45 and 47 and currently have about $2.5 million and house is 1/2 paid off.

What is your hhi? That is an important part of this equation because people living on upward $300k hhi in their 40s may expect a higher standard of living in retirement than those of us with much lower hhi. Also very important are whether you will have any pension and whether any of your health care will be covered as part of a retirement package.

Not necessarily. Many of us with High incomes are spending most of our income on 529s, mortgage and retirement savings. We won’t have any of these costs in retirement. We make 425k HHI and I calculated we spend over 80 percent on our mortgage, 529, retirement savings, and taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are both retired and have more money than we need for retirement (we are very blessed!) but one thing we have discovered is that we spend far more in retirement than when we were working. We are both healthy and in good shape and with a ton of leisure time available to us a lot of it is filled in with different sports and travel both domestic and international. We have the luxury of being able to do all of this but you really need to factor in what you would like your life to be like in retirement. Do you want to travel, do you want to escape the winters or awful summers, do you want to take up a new hobby? All of this costs money and is often not in one's current budget. Our travel expenses are probably 3-4 times what they use to be and our overall expenses are likely up 25% or so because when we were working we were not spending money!

There can be a happy medium though too. My parents, for example, work out at the gym a few times a week for about two hours which is relatively low cost. They also take classes at the community college for free and go for walks/light hiking which is a minimal cost. They also meet up with friends and play cards or other board games (ok board games sounds kinda boring but they really enjoy it, maybe I will when I'm older too). My dad does some volunteer work that he likes and that keeps him busy. They do some traveling too and enjoy various Caribbean destinations. They have the money to live larger than they do but they seem very happy with their current lifestyle.

That's a good life.

Agreed. That sounds like a goal.

For real! That's awesome!