How much do you need for a decent retirement? (1 Viewer)

[steelerfan1]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

I gotta work until i die then

and quite possibly after...

 

[dgreen]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

I can't imagine needing that much to retire. We all have different plans, though.

Are you factoring in that your retirement savings will still earn money after you retire? For example, let's say you have $5m when you retire. You could put $2.5m in a safe investment and live off that for 10 years at $250k per year. You could then leave the other $2.5m in something aggressive and likely have that turn into $5m after 10 years. In other words, starting retirement with $5m doesn't have to mean that's all you have throughout retirement.

ETA: If you plan on spending $5m in retirement, then you don't necessarily need $5m to start your retirement.

 

[fantasy stud]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

I can't imagine needing that much to retire. We all have different plans, though.

Are you factoring in that your retirement savings will still earn money after you retire? For example, let's say you have $5m when you retire. You could put $2.5m in a safe investment and live off that for 10 years at $250k per year. You could then leave the other $2.5m in something aggressive and likely have that turn into $5m after 10 years. In other words, starting retirement with $5m doesn't have to mean that's all you have throughout retirement.

ETA: If you plan on spending $5m in retirement, then you don't necessarily need $5m to start your retirement.

lol, I'm planning on having a couple of hundred thousand and rely on my pension/social security. Can't imagine having much ambition to do much when I'm old anyway.

 

[Gally]

deleted

 

[Gally]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

I can't imagine needing that much to retire. We all have different plans, though.

Are you factoring in that your retirement savings will still earn money after you retire? For example, let's say you have $5m when you retire. You could put $2.5m in a safe investment and live off that for 10 years at $250k per year. You could then leave the other $2.5m in something aggressive and likely have that turn into $5m after 10 years. In other words, starting retirement with $5m doesn't have to mean that's all you have throughout retirement.

ETA: If you plan on spending $5m in retirement, then you don't necessarily need $5m to start your retirement.

It was just an off the cuff round number that I have been throwing around for many years that if won the lottery or something and had $5M I would retire that day.

In all seriousness, there is no "right" number. It is so individual specific because everyone has a different idea of what they want to do in retirement so depending on what you want to do that number will vary greatly.

 

[Sand]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

I can't imagine needing that much to retire. We all have different plans, though.

Are you factoring in that your retirement savings will still earn money after you retire? For example, let's say you have $5m when you retire. You could put $2.5m in a safe investment and live off that for 10 years at $250k per year. You could then leave the other $2.5m in something aggressive and likely have that turn into $5m after 10 years. In other words, starting retirement with $5m doesn't have to mean that's all you have throughout retirement.

ETA: If you plan on spending $5m in retirement, then you don't necessarily need $5m to start your retirement.

It was just an off the cuff round number that I have been throwing around for many years that if won the lottery or something and had $5M I would retire that day.

In all seriousness, there is no "right" number. It is so individual specific because everyone has a different idea of what they want to do in retirement so depending on what you want to do that number will vary greatly.

5M for a 40 year retirement is probably 200k a year safely. Probably more. That's a super baller retirement spending number, at least in my eyes.

lol, I'm planning on having a couple of hundred thousand and rely on my pension/social security. Can't imagine having much ambition to do much when I'm old anyway.

The NPV of your pension and SS likely put you at a significant amount. I'd love a pension to pick up baseline expenses.

 

[Sand]

and quite possibly after...

If my heirs can squeeze greenbacks out of my corpse good on 'em.

 

[NutterButter]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

I can't imagine needing that much to retire. We all have different plans, though.

Are you factoring in that your retirement savings will still earn money after you retire? For example, let's say you have $5m when you retire. You could put $2.5m in a safe investment and live off that for 10 years at $250k per year. You could then leave the other $2.5m in something aggressive and likely have that turn into $5m after 10 years. In other words, starting retirement with $5m doesn't have to mean that's all you have throughout retirement.

ETA: If you plan on spending $5m in retirement, then you don't necessarily need $5m to start your retirement.

lol, I'm planning on having a couple of hundred thousand and rely on my pension/social security. Can't imagine having much ambition to do much when I'm old anyway.

Yeah its gonna be more like kids set up a vacation for the whole family. You pay for your airfare. The rest is on me. We'll see how that goes. Trying to knock most of my travel goals off before I retire and while I still have the energy in case I just want to just sit around and do nothing during retirement.

 

[Peggy]

I haven't read the entire thread, but if it hasn't already been stated, you should definitely put a budget spreadsheet together. I'd recommend:
Budget (3 tabs)

• baseline budget tab projecting costs for housing, transportation, medical (insurance cost, copays, etc.), food, discretionary (e.g., non-essential such as Netflix, travel), etc.
• actual budget tab where you track what you actually spend on each line item
• delta tab (i.e., budget - actual) to see how you're doing

Investments
tab that allows you to project out what your income (pension, SS) and investment earnings will be in the out years
my columns for this tab are

• age
• year
• income required (i.e., budget and don't forget taxes!)
• income (multiple columns for SS, pension, any other sources)
• shortfall (i.e., income required - total income)
• portfolio value beginning balance (1/1)
• portfolio value end balance (12/31) = (beginning balance - shortfall) x (1 + CAGR) where CAGR is your expected portfolio real rate of return

I also have tabs for cash flow (because I'm borderline maniacal about keeping the smallest possible balance in checking), medical (to track HSA spending and investment performance, plus keeping track of EOBs can be a nightmare) and taxes.

You'll need to make a whole host of assumptions, but I've found this to be a very effective way of managing retirement.

Let me know if I can assist should you (anyone) need help.

I've been using PearBudget spreadsheet for budget tracking for many years before retirement. Use the previous year to set up the next years budget. It's set up is great, much better than I could generate on my own. It's free if you google "pear budget excel" so you just get the file instead of the website that's trying to sell the online version..

 

[opensourcebeer]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

$5 Million

"Well, you don't need a million dollars to do nothing, man. Take a look at my cousin. He's broke, don't do ***t"

 

[JohnnyU]

After 40+ years in the work force it hit me like a ton of bricks today and I decided I am going to retire in June. It will be strange for sure, but I’m ready. My wife and I ran the numbers and it’s time. I’m excited. I think back when I was young and you don’t see this moment in time ever getting here, but here I am. I’ll turn 66 next June.

So how much do you need for a decent retirement?

While I won't go into specifics regarding dollar amounts, I will say that it includes, my pension, my wife's pension, my 403b, my wife's 401k, my social security, my wife's social security, and our savings, which is good enough, I owe 100K on my house, no car payments, or credit card payments, or any other debt. We meet with a financial advisor on 10/31. I'm pretty sure everything will be good enough for me to hang up my cleats next June.