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I'm very familiar with this topic as I am nearing retirement and so I'm constantly running through scenarios for myself.

These "scare" articles, trying to tell you $1m is not enough to retire on, or will only last you 10-20 years depending on what state you live in, always make me laugh.

Having a million dollars of retirement savings is plenty to retire on, in any state you want to live in, if you take a few simple steps to manage it properly and you overall have decent money managing skills.

These articles never mention that most people are going to be able to draw Social Security. That alone, will allow you to retire without draining your nest egg that quickly.

Let's take an example of somebody retiring at age 65 with exactly one million in retirement savings (i.e. IRA/401k).

The average Social Security check for somebody retiring today at age 65 in 2023 is $2,559/mo (just over $30k annually). I realize that FRA is 67 for most and that some will wait until 70 to get the very max they can get from Social Security, but most people actually retire around 65. (It is also a good idea to have all your debt paid off, otherwise you might want to consider retiring a little later.)

You then setup a distribution from your retirement account of $40,000 a year (the four percent rule) for the first year of retirement. Each year after that, you will want to slightly increase that to keep up with inflation.

So this yields a guaranteed base of $70,000/yr in your first year of retirement. Each year, that should rise with inflation. Now some people may have to reduce their lifestyle to get by on $70K a year. But it can be done and no, you will never starve on $70K a year or lack for any essentials. You're pretty much assured of being financially independent the rest of your life so long as you stay within budget.

Yes, your nest egg will decrease to $960,000 after first year but even if you were to get just a 5% yield on that, you would be back up to $1,008,000 before you withdraw your next chunk of money.

Sure, you will have years where your portfolio loses money but over time, you will make that up as better years offset that. Using Monte Carlo simulations, somebody in this position (A million dollars at 65 withdrawing 4% a year) has over a 95% chance of never running out of money. As for the scenarios of the 5% that do run out of money, this is due to "sequence of returns risk" in that you retire at the worst possible time where your portfolio takes a huge hit in your first few years of retirement. People who retired last year for example. But in these cases, you are usually young enough to return to the workforce for a few extra years to restore those losses.

You also need to consider if you have a living spouse also collecting Social Security. That will bring your total initial income to around $100K.

Part time work adds additional cushion. My wife retired a few years ago and she continues to pull in about $20k a year almost effortlessly, just by doing odd jobs here and there. These are all things she likes doing so doesn't even consider them work.

Finally, you will have those with $1.5m or $2.0m (or more) in their retirements savings. So the 4% annual withdrawal becomes $60K and $80K respectively, on top of your Social Security and whatever part time work you do.

So a million dollars, properly managed, is more than adequate to retire on. Many, many people successfully retire on much less than that. You simply adjust your lifestyle to what you can afford.

So have a great retirement. Try not to leave too much behind for your kids!