If I make it 23 more years with the state I can retire at 56 with 60% of my final average salary. Any other savings I have on top of that (IRA, 457) will help towards topping out at 100%. Gizmo should be out of college by then too. DH will still work probably. He loves working.
My grandfather worked until he was in his late 80s (and he didn't have to) and FIL still works (he's 86 and still gets funding for his lab).
I think the better question is why you would want to retire so late.
Not working is awesome.
There are numerous studies that find working longer keeps you alive longer. Working doesn't have to be full-time but working some keeps the mind active.
I'm not really sure why you are shocked that you can't reach 100% of your preretirement income if you retire at 55. Compound interest is a wonderful thing and if you retire at 55 time just isn't on your side. Personally, I don't see how you can live on 57% of your income retiring at 55 and spending 2-3 months a year traveling, but if you believe you can more power to you.
In theory, DH can retire at 53 and as it currently stands he would lose money by working more. But we aren't planning for that as we expect the retirement plans to change at some point in the next 20 years.
I wasn't shocked but a little disappointed. I somewhat thought we had a good chance to reach 100% at 55 since we're saving above recommended savings rate and well above the 1x at 35 guidelines. .
But the recommended saving rate is recommended for people who want to retire at 67 and live off 80% of their income. Why would you think that by following it you would somehow be over indexing it by 40%? That's like thinking, "I've been saving $10 a week, for the entire year, but I'm disappointed that I don't have over $520 saved. I would think that following that plan for every single week, I would at least be hitting $800." Math doesn't lie.