I need to review our plans and see if we're on track to retire in 2015 or 2016.

There is no blanket number.

One person may be able to live off the cash flow generated by 2 million. That same 2 million may not cover another guy's cash requirements.

Another way to approach the problem is to estimate what your total expenses will be in retirement and then calculate how much income you need to generate (after subtracting any pension, SS or 'post-retirement' income).

Factor in the taxes on top of this income number.

The final sum is 4% of the total nest egg you will need to have if you do not plan on reducing the principle throughout retirement.

Rough cut assuming a 4% draw ...... you'll have ~ $40,000 plus SS, pensions, 'post-retirement' income and then subtract income tax from the mix.

wow kinda timely for me i retire in 3 months 13 days 15 hours and 38 min

Whatever it is it isn't enough.

well i have been planning this for 25-30yrs, i may not be rich but I won't be eating cat food either.

Beautiful chaos. Lucas gives you purpose and gives us all perspective.

Good to hear cantdrv! That's quite the turn of events but I'm glad to hear that your view on retirement has changed...your son Lucas has changed it's course for the better!

Here's a Canadian bank retirement calculator that I have often used....kinda basic but it does give you a general idea of what size portfolio you'll need to allow for sufficient projected income....can any "experts" chime in on it's relevance to the OP's initial query?

TD Retirement Savings Calculator

Cheers!

Alex

I don't know you, but suddenly feel a slight animosity toward you: I've got approximately 30 years to go...

Seriously, though, congratulations on being so close! Good friend of mine just hit 99 days left today.

For my retirement, I'll collect my Army pension which in 2045 dollars is projected to be around $4k a month, plus my normal job's pension which will be about 60% of my base pay at the time I retire. Those should enable me to live comfortably. My investments are just gravy on top.

Cantdrv55: What a real change of your plans. Glad you have a positive outlook on your situation. Keep plugging away and enjoying what you do.

Glad I have an old fashioned retirement plan. Got out 9 yrs ago at age 52. My wife has a Teamsters retirement and left at age 56. She takes home more than she did working......

500,000.00!!!! but then I only plan on making it to 62 years!!!! LOL!!!
I would think 3 million is a good number.

$2.5M-3.0M would give you about $125-150,000.00 per year at a lowly return of just 5% per year without ever reducing the nest egg, so, yah....that would be nice!

I'm going for $500,000 in the 401K with no car, or house payments of any kind, and a nice 30 year pension from the factory I already have half of those years in.

It may not amount to much in 14-15 years, but both my wife and I will get sizeable social security payments, and I currently have a lawsuit over that car accident I had last year that could prove to help a bit.

I think it's a twofold thing on our part that will allow us to live well till whatever age. We (wife and I) don't live high on the hog currently, we don't wear designer clothes, drive new expensive cars, have expensive fancy hobbies or addictions, don't need to eat at the most expensive resturaunts, and we love to go camping, not world travel.

Right now, we are doing well and still putting alot of money in the bank and my 401K, with a $900 mortgage payment, three teenagers at home with one in college, and medical bills all over the place, so I think when we can eliminate all or most of that, my retirement nestegg will last us well into the future.

My plan is to burn the candle at both ends once I hit 65. Die early but with a smile. My genetics are horrible and now at 50 can't imagine living into my 80's without Dr. McCoy dropping in from the future with a miracle cure.

Retire at 57 and do what?? Sit around and act like an old person? I can't relate. I'm 53 and I haven't even picked a career yet. :)

Cantdrive55, if you "love what you do", why were you considering retiring at 57? That's so young, IMO. I will surely never retire, but then I've been semi-retired my whole life. I'm taking off for a month+ in Europe in a few weeks, then road trip across the USA, etc... Going out for a late night steak right now with a babe. I'll just continue living and trying to make $$ until something catastrophic happens or I croak. :cool:

I do very much love what I do but there's cycling, hiking, golf...Work gets in the way of fun but I know I would also miss doing what I do. If only there was a way to do it part-time but there isn't. Have you heard of the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris? Yeah, that doesn't apply to sales. "It's the easiest, lowest paying job and the hardest, highest paying job. There's no ceiling and often, no floor". - Zig Ziglar.

I flunked my first attempt at retirement at the age of 64-65. Suffered from too much stress the last couple years of work and it continued to affected greatly throughout my retirement year. If one has more time to "enjoy" that means also more time to spend. Mortgage paid off? Old home maintanence is pretty even for DIY. Old car? Parts get more expensive and less available.

So what did I do? I got a job for the $ and not for the one thing that keeps coming up in this thread: do something that you enjoy. Modern lifestyle is less rugged than it was in the pass, but not so intrinsicly rewarding or sustainable. My meager circumstances have forced me to do an incredible "rethink" about living in a rewarding way at a rather basic level.

I fantacized about living on a 37-40 foot sailboat that I could wheel and deal into and the DIY in the $10-20k range. Then I realized that not only is it much more cramped that one medium sized room in a house, but that size craft would own me and would sink or be stuck dead in the water for a long time if there were to be any problems. So I scaled all the way down to a boat in the 20-30' range. Heck, all I want is a spot on a remote beach somewhere where I can siesta, surf, catch dinner and enjoy a little eye candy. Today's life involves too much gizmetry and overhead which actually results in less satisfactiion.

Diverdan

This thread proves the old phrase (probably from a country song):

How do you make God laugh?
Tell him your plans!