A summary of the article would have been nice but fortunately there are hundreds if not thousands of similar articles (and books) out there with good retirement savings advice.
I do stray away from the "Retire at 35" articles. Retiring at 35 is not a good idea no matter how much money you saved. It's actually kind of sad because at that age, you should be in the prime of your life and just beginning to do your best work.
I think of Clint Eastwood still making movies at age 90 because he loves what he does. He had more than enough money to retire at 35 but instead gave us 65 additional years of fine films.
A million dollars is not really enough to "retire" on unless you are already in your mid 60s and able to draw on Social Security.
For example, using the 4 per cent rule, a person at full retirement age (67 for most of us) could safely withdraw $40,000/year from that million dollar savings and with the average social security check would add another $20K for a somewhat respectable $60,000/year in retirement income.
While you should not go hungry on that, it is not exactly the carefree luxurious beachfront country club retirement that so many people fantasize about.
And that's with a million dollars in the bank and being able to draw social security! Only 1 out of 6 Americans are in that situation at retirement. The other 5 out of 6 are going to have to strap on the Wal-Mart apron or do some other type of work well into their 70s to support their "retirement."
But one thing I know from experience is that saving up a million dollars during the course of a working career is not a hard thing. You just need the discipline to put at least ten percent of your income into a 401k, IRA, or some similar retirement investment vehicle from the time you start working (typically early 20s) to the time you retire (typically mid 60s). In the meantime, don't touch it. Just let it grow, keep working, and stay out of debt except maybe a mortgage and simple car payment.
That will get you your million dollars over time.
All of what you say is correct. Another thing is holding off collecting social security before FRA and waiting until age 70 if possible. I know a few people that think I’m crazy as I plan of working until age 70 at the minimum and maybe longer. I would survive even if I retire now but we want to put more money into the bunker and delay collecting SS until the last minute.
My wife is a teacher, she will get ss, has a pension and a 403b. Between her ss and pension, when she retires in 3 years (age 68.5) just that will give us enough income to survive. If I continue to work another 3 years that will allow us to put about $200k more into our retirement accounts and delay my collecting for ss. All of the ROTH IRAs we have (2), a traditional IRA, our 401K and 403B will be extra.
If I were to continue working another year to age 71 I could cash flow a room addition that we are considering for our home.