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[quote=Anonymous]You don't tell us your HHI or expenditures or planned expenditures in retirement so we can know what's right for you--but Fidelity estimates that to retire at 67 you need 7x your current household income at 55.  So if your current HHI is around 155k, you're on target--though if you want to retire at 65 instead of 67 you might need a bit more.

Also, healthcare is the wildcard--current average needed for retirement for a couple is 300k for all post 65 health expenses excluding long term care. (But I think that's figured into the Fidelity estimate).

And--just FYI--Social security may not pay off the amount you expect, be taxed at a higher rate in the future or tweak cola increases etc.  Even though you are 10 years away, you are also retiring right at the expected point the SS surplus funds run out (and recent fiscal policy likely will worsen this).  Our advisor suggests figuring SS in at 75% to be cautious.

The thing is also that it's really hard to know where retirement balances will go--but running out of money is way worse than having too much.  So people may die "loaded" but still have saved the right amount to address the range of uncertainties. But your husband may be responding to this with anxiety about spending anything.

All that said, it sounds like you would benefit from a visit with a fee-only financial planner where they can figure out these details AND where you can have a third party likely tell you both that even if you need to keep up your level of retirement contributions, there is still room to buy a couch and paint the house. That neutral, expert voice can help move your husband away from just fear-based invest all the surplus possible.

For what it's worth, our HHI is around 120k, we're 50&55 and have about 1.5 million in retirement assets.  We  feel like it's likely to be a bit more than we need so we're contributing less (15% with the match) and spending a bit more freely now.[/quote]

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