I'm retired. Wife still works.
Win:win!

well, we live on 3500, a month, and I have a house payment, you learn to live on what you have, IF IT WASN'T FOR MY FUR CHECK DONT THINK WE COULD MAKE IT,

I keep thinking it’s the really late in life costs that need to be saved up for. Assisted living, medical, that crap is super expensive and insurance options in retirement aren’t the kindest to folks.
And, that big unknown for all of us is taxes. We know what they are now, we don’t know what they look like in future. Saving pretax dollars in 401ks means the dollars get taxed later.
I also can’t count on social security. It’s here today. I retire in 10 years will it be there and will it be there when I’m in my 90s. I ain’t doing that in planning to my retirement to my spouse. I made vows to her to take care of her and I will do that. I plan to REALLY take care of her.
I’m a believer in over saving for retirement. It’s not just for me.
If she wants to take trips and have fun, let’s do it and not worry about it.
So I’m building a war chest of funds for my retirement. Yes I could retire on less, but I’m not doing that to her or our boys. I want to be able to afford trips like coyote days with Mr Graham, or head to desert and watch someone catch cats. I want to fish in the ocean. These are things that small town Midwest guys wish for.
Jim

Jim, I did the same thing, but in my early 50s. health problems slap me in the face, I thank God daily that I put money away, now 12 years later I have beat all the odds, and I'm still alive, enjoying most days, not traveling like we plan, but raising grandkids, So make all the plans you want just be willing to change them

Poor advice ! The better advice is make smart choices and stay married

4500 a month before taxes?

I could live on it I suppose. 20 years from now no way.

Coming from the divorced guy who retired at 50. LOL

The real time to start thinking about retirement was when you first started working. The wonders of compounding interest over 30 years really make a difference. If you are dedicated and set money aside for every paycheck, invest wisely, and don't get divorced the average middle class worker should be able to have all debts paid off and over a million dollars of assets by the time they hit 50. Seven years later that would be close to doubled. Social security should be the icing on the cake - good if you get it but okay if you don't. The other component that someone mentioned is increasing tax brackets. That is the time to work on spending down the money to avoid getting moved up into higher taxes. It is going to be fun being super generous!

Insurance might be the killers.

green bay is right, all you young guys, start now, fine an investor, that you can trust, and meet with him regularly,

What is needed is very different for every individual. If you have a good pension or say two pensions in your household and with Social security the amount one needed to save is considerably less then a household w/o good pension income. Several also have assets that they can sell like down sizing etc. that can be used for retirement. An example would be like this. If you were making 100k per year the last decade of working as a household and you estimated you would be spending 85 K in retirement and say 35 K in Social security with no pension you would need to draw 50 K out of savings per year. To last 20 years at 4% you would need 700-800K to last 20 years.
If you had say 40K from pensions you would only need to take out 15K per year or 350-400 K would be plenty. Going up or down in retirement spending can correspondingly raise or lower the amounts of social security, pension and or savings.
As Green Bay stated I started my pension saving plan in 1975. I started my market investment savings plan in 1981, so I then had 30 years of earnings and additions and that has allowed us to live on more in retirement then while I was working.
Bryce

My wife is thrifty so I scored there. Four kids are expensive. The fourth coming at 40 set the early retirement plans back a few years.

Bold of you to asume that's an easy task this days

Great advice but,,,,,,,

Learn to do it yourself

Chart your own future

Don’t pay someone else to do it

I know that feeling. I was 46 when my last one was born.

Dang. 46!

Mine is 11 now. His older siblings are doing a great job raising him!

I started saving for retirement at age 14. Figured it out back then I didn't want to work my entire life only to be broken down in retirement like my parents. Compound interest is a beautiful thing. As been stated by people far wealthier than me, the first $100K is the hardest to acquire. After that it builds quick, fast, and in a hurry! I have had it planned out since I was 14, to retire at 50 with my wife (her choice if she wants to work). So, that is what I've planned for. When my friends were buying their new trucks, boats, guns, phones, etc. I was making do with what I had, socking away every penny I could using a flip phone, driving a 12yo truck, etc. Now, I'm 11 years from retirement and in a far better position than my most all of my friends, family, and even a lot of coworkers. It SUCKS at times! I won't lie. I wanted many things, but I also want to RETIRE AND ENJOY LIFE at 50yo more.

As for a specific number, that is impossible to pin down. Everyone has their own habits, hobbies, etc. so their expenses will be different. My wife is 8 years younger than me; she likes to make money while I like to save money. We work well together. She can work another 15 plus years after I retire. But since I was so frugal and strategic in my early life, we have no debt other than our mortgage which will be paid off soon. We will continue to live off one paycheck and invest the other. Even if she takes a penalty for early retirement, we will be ok. I have a specific number in mind I would like to see before I retire (not counting my pension). I should exceed that with several years left to work. But I won't let up just because I reach my goal.

Best advice I got was to start early! I tell everyone take advantage of employer match but put at least 15-20% of your money into your retirement each check. More if you can swing it. You won't miss it if you start out doing it that way, and you will soon learn to do without. Every time I get a raise; I take 1/2 of the raise and put it in retirement. All those cool new toys now, will be worthless when you need the money the later in life. Most are too short sighted to be that disciplined. They think, "I work hard, I deserve this xyz." Then they complain they can't retire because they have nothing saved.

If you don't spend tons of money here, you can live pretty cheap .

One constant is Debt Free---the rest is optional !