Retirement Saving Benchmarks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think once you get to high HHI's the benchmarks no longer apply. I make 400K, I don't need 400K annually when I retire. I need like half, even less than half that.
We are calculating our retirement number based on expected annual spend once we retire, with an expectation that we will live to 90.

If you don't mind me asking how much is goal and at what age?

[Anonymous]

For us, we are mid 40's and for the last 20 years ( we had a late start due to grad school, immigration to US) we always save a % of gross income. At minimum 25%-30%. As our HHI went up, we have started saving 35%-40% of gross. When we get closer to retirement in another 7 years, we will start tracking our expenses more closely to see when we feel comfortable hanging up our boots. We both work in tech, high but not super high HHI, and honestly age discrimination is real. We may not even get to choose our retirement age, so we try to sock away as much as we can without compromising too much of enjoying the present.

My recommendation is that if you are decades away from retirement, chose a high % of HHI as savings goal (gradually up the goal every year, pay yourself first!). Choose an asset allocation stocks/bonds, Intl/US. Set it and forget it.

5-7 years before planned retirement, go to a fee only advisor. Get a detailed breakdown of money streams in retirement (social security, 401K, brokerage, Roth, any deferred comp plans, rental etc.) with projected tax brackets, longetivity estimate (you will have a better estimate based on your health status, and other members of family). This should help you course correct if needed to.

[Anonymous]

Depends on when you retire. I am at an age half my of people are already retired. My wife does not work. But I am putting 48k a year away.

My accounts even if smaller will be larger than my retired friends.

So when are you retiring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depends on when you retire. I am at an age half my of people are already retired. My wife does not work. But I am putting 48k a year away.

My accounts even if smaller will be larger than my retired friends.

So when are you retiring?

I am at an age when half of my people are still working. I'm retired but wife still works and puts away $70K/year. Thank god for women's lib and their right to work.