What is your retirement number?

[fryjack2]

How much do you hope to have in your retirement accounts to be confident enough to call in sick forever  

How old do you think you will be when you hit that number?

[mlkgls]

I feel like I’ve gotten widely varying answers from online retirement calculators and I don’t have a solid grasp on a number, other than “way more than my current number”. One of my MM goals this month is to meet with an advisor to flesh out a realistic plan. I’ve enjoyed my job most years, but there’s no way I’ll survive another 20 at this stress level.

In an ideal world I would be able to down shift to part time once I hit 60-62, but we’ll see. I read the MMM forums occasionally and some of their numbers are panic inducing to me as someone with a high need for a feeling of security, but really I have no idea what my $$ goal should be. @@@especially with college tuition looming in 10 years.

[imojoebunny]

48 and Dh is 55. DH retired last week. I don't really want to say what our net worth is, but our number is enough income from investments to cover the amount we have been spending + health insurance for our family of 4, adjusting for inflation, for 50 years. We have several different passive income streams + investments. It is scary, but not really any scarier, than relying on an employer.

[minzy]

This sounds terrible but I don’t know. We haven’t mapped it out that far, though I occasionally encourage my husband to check, especially when he’s worked a long stretch of many hour days, or vacations are postponed, or family holidays interrupted because of work. His strategy now seems to be to work while the pay is good because things could change (our biggest concern for his career right now would be a job eliminating merger). We do always sort of joke that we could build a house in the field across from my dad’s house and my husband could retire today. I am pretty sure we could actually do that (much lower COL) and my dad would probably be thrilled... but we’d never want to actually live there. I think my husband wants to get our kids launched before he realistically pulls back.

[Mrs.flang]

I have no idea but we have no plans to retire early. Right now I feel like I'd be satisfied if I could be done or maybe go verrry part time by age 65. DH is the type of person that thinks he'd be bored not working so I could see him going longer. Maybe if he wants to keep at it, I could shave some years off for myself. Basically, we're not really working toward reaching a number at this point, we're just working to live. We're 39 and 43.

[SusanBAnthony]

I say 1.5 million. H says 2 million. Really we will see when we get closer. It depends on what we want our expenses to be during retirement. Right now we are more interested in working long enough to stay in our house, travel, help with college. If we hated our jobs enough we could choose to deal with a lower number and downsize.

Of course the giant wildcard is health care and we may end up raising the number just for that one line item. Right now our number is based on a lot of guesswork on what expenses will go up and what will go down as kids launch and we get older.

[simpsongal]

Maybe $3.5 million? I also have a modest pension and we have dividend paying stocks which we plan to live off. I'd like to retire around 57, I can also pay a reasonable amount to continue my fed health insurance.

[ETA: Just clarify, I picked the above out of thin air....the number is likely however much I have at the age I can't stand working any more.  I can always descope my life or travel less if I'd be happier retired!]

[aspentosh]

Higher than any other number here

We don't have a pension and I have no plans to return to paying work. H wants to retire early- hope is for 55 but may be more like 58. So that leaves a big question mark about healthcare costs. We need to fund it all plus @@@@we have plans to cash flow the remainder of DD's college if she needs four years and a wedding should she choose to marry. And I want to travel a lot.

We are way ahead of the most tables that tell you what you should have save. I am 36 and H is 39 and we have 6x his salary saved so far (well, his salary when he had one, sigh).

[Accountingcat]

I am thinking $1.5 mil for just myself. $3m if I am married. I really don't know if that's enough. I've played with all the inflation and retirement calculators and it seems like it could be in the right ballpark. I will be around 55 when I hit the $1.5 mark but I think that might be too young to retire. I'd like to have flexibility in my income level by 50-55. It'd be nice to go freelance, part-time, or try to make an income on my hobbies at that point. My number also assumes I will move out of HCOL by that time.

I've lurked on FIRE message boards and people that retired with $600k at 40. That makes me panic. I know the number my parents and grandparents retired with and it wasn't over a million (but they counted on social security too). Clearly, there are a lot of factors and lifestyle choices involved.


imojoebunny, Would you feel comfortable explaining what your passive income is? When I hear passive income I only think of dividends, royalties, or rental income. 

[heliocentric]

I hate to admit this, but I don't know how to answer that question. DH & I are 48 & 50 and we seem on target to have enough in retirement by our late 60s. I think our savings rate is pretty high, but most is in retirement accounts that we can't touch for years. I haven't even considered what it would take to retire earlier than that, but at our current ages I'm sure it's more than we could save in the next few years.

[dottyblue]

I have zero idea. I have this rough guess that we are WAY over contributed to retirement at the moment. And that’s without even knowing what DH has available in pensions (teacher).

We lived in a VHCOL area for 15+ years and contributed based on salaries in that area for that period. We relocated 5 years ago to a mid-to-highCOL area, which changed our end goals (maybe?)

I have a financial planner/advisor who I’ll meet with in the next year or so to figure out our goals/final numbers

[wildrice]

I honestly don't know. I'd like to retire around 60, but couldn't begin to tell you if we're on track for that (I would guess not, since H only recently started saving in his own account). I am mostly hoping that as our incomes continue to increase over the next 20+ years, our expenses shouldn't increase much other than with inflation, so we should be able to put more and more into retirement on a yearly basis from here on out. We'll also be without student loans at some point, so I imagine once that happens we can put the money we pay toward those into retirement too. I am fairly confident we'll be fine, but I really don't have any concrete numbers around any of it!

[turkletsmom]

We are 38. I quit my job 2 years ago mostly due to being fed up and we are able to live off of DH's salary. I'm not sure if/when I'll go back since I have young kids at home right now. We plan for 65 if that is still the age to receive Medicare. Our house will be paid off at 58. At 65 we should conservatively have $3mil+ in retirement. DH gets a small pension plus any social security if that's still around. We should be able to maintain a normal lifestyle or probably a way more decadent one than we do now LOL.

[steamboat185]

We are trying to hit 3 million without the house or college funds. I wouldn’t mind a bit more, but that should be enough to cover our spending.

[k3am]

Ours depends on where we live. We are VHCOL, and I don't think our kids could ever afford to live here. Our goal is that we either retire somewhere we like and want to be that has a cheaper COL, or somewhere near the kids. So if we stayed, that number is.. really high. If we move, it's much less.

[numbers]

We don't have a magic number.

We're in the "max out 401ks every year and hope for the best" camp.

[dcn]

We don’t really have a set number either. H will have a decent military pension after he retires from the military in 4-5 years. I imagine he will continue working in a civilian job after that for another 15-20 years. We hope to both be retired at 60 but really who knows. We are 39.

[marie]

I also do not have a magic number, but am thinking 3.5 million at a minimum, but hopefully closer to 4.5? I think?

I also want to do it responsibly. My grandfather was more than set for retirement, but enjoyed allocating his funds in ALL stock and the downturns made a big impact for his portfolio. I need to be sure to reallocate at the right times as I age.

[savan]

I'm so glad to see so many other people don't have a number. DH would like to retire in 15 years, at 58 but I have no clue if that will be doable. Our house will be paid off and our retirement accounts are healthy but will it really be enough?

[marie]

Also, I am sort of hoping to "retire" early, but do something part time to supplement. My current job is not anything you can do part time, but I could see myself doing a part time gig for a little to stay busy and get some funds while doing it.

[sdlaura]

DH and I both work in the investment industry, and he is obsessive about saving and updates our net worth spreadsheet probably daily Which of course is too often. Retirement-wise, he has everything set up for us to have more than enough by the time he's 65/I'm 60. However, we just had our 4th and final kid and he is about to turn 45 and I'm about to turn 40. So I foresee us continuing to work (which I prefer, honestly) since college and any other financial help for our four kids is likely to be sizeable.

[sandandsea]

We’d like to retire at 55, actually Dh would retire tomorrow if he could. We are 40. I did a calc decades ago and our number was $5M. That number seems absurd compared to others but a huge portion of that will be wrapped up in our home unless we leave the Bay Area. Right now we are maxing 401ks, saving in 529s and trying to pay down/off the mortgage. Hopefully that will take less than 8 years. I feel like once those things are done we should be able to bulk up retirement specific savings more.

[steamboat185]

For those of you who have no idea if what your number is- you should see how much your average yearly spending is and then multiple by 25. It’s a simple FIRE formula called the 4% rule. It isn’t perfect, but it gives you a starting number. 3 million would allow you to spend 120k a year and hypothetically you would never draw down the balance.

[ssmjlm]

I don't know because I'm inheriting a vacation home that is not cheap to maintain. But I should also inherit enough to cover it's maintenance.

I would say $2M-ish for the both of us, plus my pension. I plan to go at 57, which is the earliest I can go as a fed.

[k3am]

How much are folks budgeting in monthly per adult for health insurance?

[pmwife]

Jan 12, 2021 13:01:21 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

For those of you who have no idea if what your number is- you should see how much your average yearly spending is and then multiple by 25. It’s a simple FIRE formula called the 4% rule. It isn’t perfect, but it gives you a starting number. 3 million would allow you to spend 120k a year and hypothetically you would never draw down the balance.

For this, it would be taking the money that the 3m earns right so the principal wouldn't be touched?

3.3m is our current spending level but I would hope we don't have a house payment anymore.

[flygirl]

I’d like to have 3M when we retire at 65, but with rates and such I think we may fall short. Plus, I’d have to wait 2 more years to collect full social security if that will still be possible. Unfortunately I don’t think my industry will last another 20 years either.

[steamboat185]

Jan 12, 2021 13:47:35 GMT -5 pmwife said:

Jan 12, 2021 13:01:21 GMT -5 steamboat185 said:

For those of you who have no idea if what your number is- you should see how much your average yearly spending is and then multiple by 25. It’s a simple FIRE formula called the 4% rule. It isn’t perfect, but it gives you a starting number. 3 million would allow you to spend 120k a year and hypothetically you would never draw down the balance.

For this, it would be taking the money that the 3m earns right so the principal wouldn't be touched?

3.3m is our current spending level but I would hope we don't have a house payment anymore.

That’s the idea and you have a cushion if the market drops.

Obviously there are things that are unexpected, but it gives a base point.

[noodleoo]

Jan 12, 2021 11:55:22 GMT -5 numbers said:

We don't have a magic number.

We're in the "max out 401ks every year and hope for the best" camp.

Ditto. 

I'm planning to meet with a financial advisor soon and I added this question to my list.  Given steamboat185 's rule, I came up with 2.25M but our current expenses include daycare (although I guess that could be replaced by college costs?).  I was thinking about this the other day and in some ways, I feel partially retired already since I went part time after the kids were born and I'm not sure it will ever feel "worth it" to go back to full time work.  On the other hand, I'm dying for a bigger house, LOL.  I have no idea what I'd even do in retirement.  

Sort of a related question:  how do you factor possible inheritance?  We are both likely to inherit a decent amount, but have never talked to our parents about it.  I prefer to not count on anything, so we've been saving a ton for a long time.  But then sometimes I wonder, if we are likely to inherit money, it would be nice to know so that we could plan accordingly.  H's parents have also said they want to "help" pay for the kids college but we have no idea how or how much.  

[gt7301b]

$4 million is my goal.  That is based off the assumption that we would live off of 4% of that amount and the assumption that we would return 8%, with those assumptions our money will basically live in perpetuity. We also both have pensions, so we would supplement that amount.  I think we could probably retire earlier and withdraw money at a higher rate, but my husband and I both plan to work till 58 for full eligibility of our pensions.  We probably could retire before 58 if we reduced our spending, but that isn't a priority for us.