It seems the million dollar is the magic number for retirement, but let's talk! Is this really true? I'm 34 so I have a long ways to go but my question, what is sufficient to retire in your 60s or even take a hit and retire in mid 50s? How many of you completely quit working or do you work part time in something else you always wanted to do?

A million dollars or enough land and knowledge so that you can provide for most of your needs. Which has more value if there is an economic collapse?

I retired 8 years ago at 56.Not too early if you want my opinion.
I never had no million bucks,but a decent pension and have trapping and other fur related work as an activity to continue in retirement.If you have no debt when you retire and a decent pension you can live like a king.

I’m 34 as well. I am not so sure that when we get close to 60 years of age if a million would be enough to Live comfortably? All depends on what you want, and are willing to sacrifice. I would plan on putting as much away as you can now. Part time gig wouldn’t be a bad idea to do to help out I guess. That’s what a lot of people do now just to pay for their health insurance. Health insurance is major amount of money these days.

Sorry I meant to quote you buckmink.

What you'll need for later on later on will be directly proportional to how large you live now, how much unnecessary debt you incur (want vs need, etc), how regimented your budget is, and so on.
If you don't already have it, you may want to consider Dave Ramsey's book(s) on managing your finances, budget and your debt.

x2

Also have to take into consideration things like marriage, kids, education as well as what the economy might be like between now and then. I was way ahead of the game until the market took a hit, that messed things up for alot of us. About the time I was back on track, my health took a turn for the worse and had to retire early. That's something one never figures will happen to them. Lucky for me I can live within my means....until I meet that rich, old widow with a bad heart and no kids.....

Rule of thumb: You need 25x your annual income (or what you'll live on at retirement).

Although the stock market goes up and down, if you look at any 20 year period, the stock market grows at over 10% per year. When you retire, you will want to invest in some safer things but you should be able to earn 7% or 8% annual return on average. Inflation is roughly 3% every year so you need your money to grow at 3% to keep up with inflatioin.

If your invested money grows at 7% and inflation eats 3%, that leaves you with 4% that you can use. 100% / 4% = 25. So, you need 25x your anticipated spending at retirement and you can live on your savings forever.

Everything I have read says you need to be debt free when you decide to retire and then plan on $1.5 Million in assets.

By that calculation I would need 3.3 million to retire on. That's not going to happen. I'll retire with about a $7500 a month income, if I can't live on that, well I'm screwed anyways!

put away as much as you can now , plan to retire at what age you want to ,but be willing to roll with the punches , know one know what going to happen between now an retirement, if you don't have payments you can live on a lot less

Insurance cost will be my biggest factor to when I can retire.

There can be several sources of revenues to fund retirements. The idea that you need a million in savings does not address a whole host of issues. or ways to fund living 2-30 years after major working careers.
1. What will be ones non retirement earnings? SS, par-time work, non investment earnings such as lease payments, rentals etc. There are more and more ways to work part time longer into life in our service economy.
2. Will one have any pension fund income outside of retirement income and sources listed above?
3. How do you want retirement funds to be invested and what are the good reasons for being so invested? If one retires at say 62 and lives until 87 that is 25 years of retirement. One wants investments to work over those 25 years and not just sit there so how does one increase earnings and minimize risk?
4, Save as much as you can while early in your working career. One will have higher costs during the middle income years with children, colleges, weddings etc. Also saving while young and buying things you want later in life nets more money then buying stuff early and not saving money.

Bryce

Why not retire now? Just find something you really enjoy doing that you can make a living at and you'll never have to "work" again.

Quitting at 54.5 yo. That's the plan. Ive seriously been saving since my first full time paycheck at age 22. I dont know for sure if ill make it or if ill need to work another year or two. My wife is about 8 years behind me in her career so staying on her insurance. Plan to live on cash savings until start drawing 401k at 59.5, ss at 62, and pension at 65.

I do not plan to take a part time job. When im done, im done. I might consider a less stressful full time job for a couple years if i just cant swing it at age 54.5.

I’ve always wondered how people can pick a number it’s going to take? I think you need to pick a number that you want to live on first then go from there. I think 5% on your money average is a good, realistic goal. But if you have rental units and a part time job it’ll all help. And yes insurance costs will be the real killer. And my number one thing to remember is that it’s a lazy man that can’t find his wife a second job, that’ll help also

That is the number one thing you need to know the number of your expenses. Pad it with incidental expenses and have a good number for what yi can live on is what needs to be know. Then from there you will know what yo need to live with what your life expectancy is projected at.

No interest is good interest unless your getting it paid to you! Mortgage debt has been sold as good debt, it is not. Save all you can never invest what you cannot afford to lose.
My wife and I will be retiring in a year. We will receive around $7000.00 per month in pensions. We are debt free, take out your taxes, figure out fixed expenses, incidentals. We live off our own land a lot. Debt free is huge.

You should have the same monthly income when you retire as you did working.And with way less expenses you will have way more money than you'll ever need,unless you are wasteful.
I built up my pension by working extra hours to really boost my "best 5",I was able to retire earlier than expected with a higher pension income than my regular wage when working.
All it takes is a bit of planning ahead.

Food for thought.

We have heard that Social Security is having insolvency issues for years and this is why the age to apply has been bumped up. We know why , politicians have raided this fund.

Why do we never hear about welfare having insolvency issues ?

Makes you think.