Saving a million dollars for retirement (physically, conversation, marriage, 2013)
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I always assumed houshold. And I always interpreted it as to mean that the income henerated by $1M (approx $40k/yr) plus your SS, would ensure an "adequate retirement", AND have a nest egg for an emergency, inheritance, etc, which I Think is still true today.
This is very true. We've run the numbers and if you have a million dollars, and can hold of retiring till 65-67, you will have a decent retirement if housing is under control you aren't going to spend like crazy. I gotta think the average couple in America isn't getting to that million mark though.
Overall - in the end - we have to decide personally what makes sense for us. And we have to live with the consequences of our decisions. Does it make anyone here feel better if he/she makes a stupid investment move because there was a consensus among friends/relatives/investment advisers/etc. that it was the right thing to do?
Agree 100%. I don't talk to friends or relatives about my financial matter, and utilize free media investment advise/ information. My husband has zero interest in financial matter so I don't consult him either. I do brief him on our financial status and make sure that he knows where to find all the financial information if something ever happens to me.
From my observation, some people may gain more benefits by consulting a psychological counselor instead of a financial counselor or a like-minded peer group ;-).
Save what you can and when retirement happens deal with it. A good idea would be to be debt free. From what I have seen first hand is save especially if you don't have a pension, pay off the house, and be debt free. Just relying on soc. sec. isn't going to cut it. People have to start saving early and consistantly. Do the best you can and let the chips fall where they may.
That being said enjoy life because we can have the best laid plans and life can blow them up. If married have your estate plan in order and adequate life insurance in place.
Exactly. Save what you can without living like a pauper, get to retirement, try to be close to debt free, see what you have, and adapt. You can't predict anything.
Oh that's it just shoot for $2,000,000.00. Anyone can do it. It just takes what? A powerball ticket?
Sure..... $2,000,000 would be easy...... if I lived like crap my whole career and never had fun. So I'll be an old guy with a lot of money who had a boring life.
Sure..... $2,000,000 would be easy...... if I lived like crap my whole career and never had fun. So I'll be an old guy with a lot of money who had a boring life.
That depends on your income level/lifestyle expectation up to when you retire. You can have a balance of both fun and saving and still reach that goal. Barring some world catastrophe we are slated to retire in our mid 40's and we haven't made any major sacrifices that I will look back on and regret when I retire.
In regards to the OP's original question; I will add some more detail to the excellent answers some people have already provided. Real inflation adjusted median household income has always hovered around $50K since 1985:
(note: I'm not saying I agree with the governments calculation of inflation, just that I'm using official numbers for this explanation.) Anyway most experts agree that you need between 75-80% of your income in retirement. So this $1 million came from that idea, using a safe withdrawal rate of 4%. This equates to roughly $40K/year which is 80% of $50K. Basically, they are saying the median (or average) couple needs $1 million in retirement.
So that should answer your other question, which is the experts meant that each household (or couple) need $1 million and not $1 million per person.
We are figuring on a $5 million retirement portfolio and we are building that now. Home will be paid off when we are done working. We will be debt free as well.
...Barring some world catastrophe we are slated to retire in our mid 40's and we haven't made any major sacrifices that I will look back on and regret when I retire...
Keeping in mind that my husband and I and my parents did exactly what you're planing to do - I would be VERY careful. My parents went into their retirement with a lot of inflation and a lousy investment environment in about 1970 or so. My husband and I - 20 years later - were dealing with a disinflationary environment and much better investment returns.
It's like in Forrest Gump - Life Is Like A Box of Chocolates:
The wildcard for people in their 40s these days IMO is especially health care costs. Medicare costs - although far from cheap - are more predictable than Obamacare costs - or any medical system that might come after Obamacare. Robyn.
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that is the idea behind modern retirement planning . it is already based on things being the absolute worst case that can likely happen or did happen.
I think it's very difficult to guess what might happen when it comes to a statistically large group of people - and basically impossible to know what might happen to smaller groups of people - or especially individuals.
FWIW - my husband and I only had paychecks for the first couple of years during our working lives. After then - we were both self-employed and earnings were very variable.
These days - we have X - and are spending less than X divided by our life expectancies - without taking any earnings into account. Think we'll be ok. Robyn
Agree 100%. I don't talk to friends or relatives about my financial matter, and utilize free media investment advise/ information. My husband has zero interest in financial matter so I don't consult him either. I do brief him on our financial status and make sure that he knows where to find all the financial information if something ever happens to me.
From my observation, some people may gain more benefits by consulting a psychological counselor instead of a financial counselor or a like-minded peer group ;-).
Sometimes - for some people - there are things worth paying for. I do technical analysis (charts) and pay for data (and software from time to time). I also like the WSJ and Barron's for various things - and pay for those as well. Your mileage and the mileage of other people may vary. Robyn
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