My neighbors, Helmuth and Hilda from Germany are approaching their mid-50s and have their last kid off to college. They are looking forward to retiring upon Wilhema's graduation which will be when they are 59-60 yo. That said, they have their approximately $750K house paid off, pay cash on all their cars and supposedly are sitting on about $3.5M in 401K and brokerage invested assets. In retirement, Helmuth and Hilda are looking to taking an annual European vacation or two, maybe back to Bavaria and possibly acquire a Winnebago or Sprinter to tour the USA. Helmuth has mentioned to me that he may like to buy some property out in Young county near mine and resume his hunting roots of shooting Stag, wolves and upland game as he used to in Germany as a young man. I did have to let him know Stag are deer and wolves are coyotes here in TX, lollll. All joking aside, Helmuth and Hilda's retirement plans and dreams got me wondering, "how much does a Dick and Jane need to retire at age 60 or so" with similar plans to Helmuth and Hilda. What say THF??

Drawing 10% they should be Dimond with everything paid for..

3.5 million, they can draw 11500 a month for 30 years at 1.5 percent interest. The world probably won’t be here then anyway.

Do they have social security?

https://www.mutualofomaha.com/calculator/how-long-will-my-money-last

Folks who hemorrhage money all day, by buying stuff everywhere they go, probably shouldn't ever retire. I could live on 20% of my retirement because I don't. There's no way to put a number on it because people are different.

I have a feeling I will need more than that, lol

I am 39 years old.

At age 56 I will have my home with 16 acres paid off with no other debt. I’ll have my pension which will be about 80% of my income at retirement and about $300-$500k from my pension drop. Our home and land was purchased for $350 and is worth $750k-$850k. I am hoping it will be worth 1 million plus in 15 years.

My wife gets her health insurance paid for by her employer and I can get the spouse rate after we both retire which should be about what I pay now through my employer.

My wife should have about a 1-1.5 million in her 401k.

That should be enough to allow us to maintain our current lifestyle and do some traveling.

I put 13% of my check into my pension. My wife puts 6% into her 401k. Both are matched by our employers..

We are set up to maintain our current lifestyle and be able to do what we want as far as traveling etc.

The number will be different for everyone…

I'm probably going to work until I keel over. Maybe I'll semi-retire one day...maybe.

Everyone has different needs.

Or wants. It's usually the wants that become the issue in my experience.

i retired with 1 mil in tsp and a 40k a year pension still have house payment and vehicle payments. wife still works 70k a year. been out a year and a half just turned 60. have the same in the tsp since i retired and took 65k out last year. i dont live high on the hog but i do what I want to do. Save all you can save and be savy with yur money unless you are independently wealthy. they gonna pay at least 20% on the withdrawals unless its a roth or something like that. good luck

I don't see myself retiring but maybe my mood will change. I will be happy if I am not broke and sick.

They need income to support that spending. Some spend 24k a year, others much more. Your friends should be fine unless they dump 1.5 mil on a ranch and 200k on a Sprinter and continue to travel the world.

My mom's finance guy said she will be out of money in 15 years if she keeps pulling what she's pulling. She made $140k return last year and pulled a little over $50k. I told her she needs to find a financial advisor that's a little more savy at finance. Sounds like his only concern is his commission and keeping as much of his clients money in the market as possible.

Yes sir.

Done in 4 years. Everything is paid for and retirement money is accounted for. Being married to a CPA has paid off!

The contrast noone considers is the emotional piece of mind and better life they will have. I retired at 52 and have been fortunate in not having to lower my lifestyle. However, after being retired for 4 years and having this peaceful life. I would sacrafice many things that I thought were important. What us over 2,000 hours a year, lower stress and freedom of time worth!!! Some of you really should reconsider your thoughts on this

Five million and everything paid off sounds good.

That might be enough for the Germans at 60 but I don’t think it is near enough for a couple who is 50. I am 47 and would like to retire by 50 but I think it is going to require considerably more than that to do so and maintain a similar lifestyle. The idea of retirement sounds wonderful but it also kind of freaks me out. Using life expectancy I would need my funds to last around 30 years. That sounds great but what if I happen to live to 100 and need funds for 20 more years? I don’t want to spend the last 20 years of my life eating dog food.

I tapped out at 55. I did all the traveling I wanted to do when I was able. I do a couple of days here or there in Texas when I want to get away.

Top notch one upper thread

I won't be able to retire I don't think.

Retirement can be boring for some folks, or they wait till they get older to retire and then they are too old to enjoy retirement.

I have read too many posters on here who worked at a job they hated until they retired, I can't believe someone would do that do themselves

I read a lot of financial articles. It always makes me shake my head when the article says "I have X amount of dollars saved. Can I retire?"

The only way to answer that type of question depends on how much income do you need or want to live in retirement? THAT is the starting point IMO.
Once you determine that then you can calculate how much money you will need to make that income last for your lifetime.

I agree…..and make sure to factor in taxes and annual inflation for net income in the calculation….

Consumptive use of one’s estate should not be feared.