One analysis I read said that $1 million in a retirement account at age 65 is equivalent to a pension of $40,000/year.
Can you live on $40K per year? If so, you’re fine, so long as you aren’t spending more than that.
Need $80K per year? Then you need $2 million.
A million sounds like a lot of money until you calculate how long it’s going to last.
RE: One analysis I read said that $1 million in a retirement account at age 65 is equivalent to a pension of $40,000/year.
Does this include Social Security? If not, add another $25,000 to $30,000 to that. That should make for a comfortable retirement.
Given current fixed income returns, if I had $2 million, my annual draw from it would not exceed $60,000.
We have $2 million plus in various accounts, no debt, house is paid off. Not counting the value of the house as part of the $2 million. We did all the Millionaire Next Door and Dave Ramsey stuff before either became really popular. I credit Mr. Roo Roo for this, he’s been a great financial steward for us. I can’t take any credit for our success other than I draw a decent paycheck and I’ve always automatically saved whatever Mr. Roo Roo told me I should save.
We will get about $5000 per month between pensions and SS. The latter will be enough to pay monthly bills so the nest egg is basically for fun. Our paid-off house has already been updated with new HVAC, landscaping, appliances, paint, major appliances, and a new roof, so we don’t have big future home improvements looming over our heads.
We have no plans to make a huge dent in our nest egg for anything like a second home etc. We’ll continue to travel a lot, maybe spend up to $25k per year on travel. When my 10 year old van with 206,000 miles on it finally dies, I will pay cash for another slightly used nice van, I hope I don’t have to spend more than $20k on it.
We are NOT going to live like church mice, and we don’t intend to preserve our nest egg so that my only child/daughter and only grandson inherit a ton of money. They will get some money, but we intend to enjoy our retirement and not be obsessed with how large of an estate we will leave.
“Can you live on $40K per year? If so, you’re fine, so long as you aren’t spending more than that.”
It is expected that you will slowly draw down that 1 million over time. In fact if it is in a 401K you need to withdraw 10%/year after you reach age 71 IIRC. You can spend or save what you withdraw. If you are getting a 4% return ($40 K) and spend 40 K of your 401 K withdrawl you have the $80K you need. Yes your return will be somewhat lower each year but if you are spending $40K of your savings per year it will last for 25 years even if you are getting 0% return (1,000,000/40,000 = 25).