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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If I have a paid off house and federal pension and live in a low tax state, how much will I really need have in savings?
There are certain possibilities like long term health issues, long drawn out medical treatments, stay in a nursing home, etc that there’s no way I can possibly save enough for, and it seems stupid to live on oatmeal now in case those things happen later.
I don’t have expensive hobbies or travel plans. Why would I need millions?
Most online calculators are from banks and finance companies and of course they will tell you to put in the absolute max.
I’m 42 and I have some time. Right now I have significant home equity, a secure remote job, but I did get a late start on retirement savings (was SAHM for a few years, 2008-2009 wiped us out, divorce was costly and I had to use some retirement funds) so I only have 100k in retirement and maybe 25k in cash.
Plan right now is to cash out of NoVa house in a few years, move to lower COLA, and be able to save quite a bit of my salary once kids are done with college.[/quote]

Here's what I'd do to create an estimate..

- Estimate your current expenses; remove items that are childcare related or otherwise won't recur; add in expenses that will replace them (e.g. more travel).  Assume a 3-5% annual inflation for this bucket and project that out to your year f retirement and beyond.  That's your "maintenance" expenses.
- Estimate medical and long-term care costs in retirement and add them in to create a total budget

The above gets offset by pension and social security, both of which I'm sure you can estimate.  If there's a shortfall, it needs to be funded by investments at 25X (e.g. if shortfall is $10,000/yr, you will need $250K in investments).

In addition to all of this, I'd say have at least 10X your annual expenses (1+2) above for the unforeseen (e.g. if annual expenses calculated above is $100K at the time of retirement, you'll need $1M).  Adjust this number as needed.  You'll know more as you get closer to retirement but I recommend planning for 10X as a goal.

You are only 42 and have a long runway to make this happen.    [/quote]

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