Wrong.

It won't take nearly that for me to live out my days as a homeless beach bum.

/My real retirement plan

I don't have any intention of retiring. Which is probably fortunate for me.

Silly subby, I'll be dead long before retirement age. Worked to death of course. Full of ulcers, tumors, and blown heart valves.

After what Obama has done to us, we will all be greeters at Walmart eating canned cat food. Little Friskies seems to be the most appealing.

I'm shooting for 20x.

I don't plan on retiring...I'd be bored to death.

There's no need to save money, that's what Social Security is for.

SacriliciousBeerSwiller: EnviroDude: After what Obama has done to us, we will all be greeters at Walmart eating canned cat food. Little Friskies seems to be the most appealing.

That would be the result of an ineffectual safety net program and rampant outsourcing of middle class jobs.

Newsflash: that's not Obama policy.

Obama policy is to hope we get sick, have his citizens panel review our proposed medical procedures and give us pain killers for them.

Probably also going to have to leave the US at some point, unless your "retirement" plan is dying from an easily preventable illness.

jjorsett: LittleKidLover: MugzyBrown: 11x's seems awfully low... or is it 11x's my inflation adjusted salary? I don't think I can live off 11xs my salary for 25 years.

Came here to say THIS. That's less than half of what we were planning on saving...curious.

If you go by what financial planners recommend, you can draw down your savings at 4% per year indefinitely. That would translate into 25X your annual salary, assuming you wanted the same level of spending as when you were working. 11X must come from an assumption that you'd be willing to spend down to your last dollar, and that you could spend less in retirement without a significant drop in standard of living.

I guess that would translate into 25X your annual salary, if you a) Don't know how to do math, and b) Don't realize that by not having to save for retirement during retirement, you can keep your spending level the same even though your income is lower.

TheGogmagog: jjorsett: LittleKidLover: MugzyBrown: 11x's seems awfully low... or is it 11x's my inflation adjusted salary? I don't think I can live off 11xs my salary for 25 years.

Came here to say THIS. That's less than half of what we were planning on saving...curious.

If you go by what financial planners recommend, you can draw down your savings at 4% per year indefinitely. That would translate into 25X your annual salary, assuming you wanted the same level of spending as when you were working. 11X must come from an assumption that you'd be willing to spend down to your last dollar, and that you could spend less in retirement without a significant drop in standard of living.

That was always my goal 4% of 2 milllion $80,000 a year. (It doesn't look like I will make half that). Unless you are quite fortunate though, It is ok to spend down to your last dollar. Probably a smarter goal since a major illness or need for home care and all that extra money goes to the hospital or nursing home.

In the 90's when I started looking at retirement 4% was what you would expect out of a CD or garunteed investment. I don't think that 4% is a conservative return anymore.

The 4% rule does not come from the idea that you will conserve all of your capital during retirement; it comes from the idea that you will spend money, but make a certain amount back on your assets, and hopefully not go broke over the next 30 years or whatever. It's more about not leaving the kids an inheritance than it is about living off your income.

At my current rating of saving for retirement, the following things will happen first:

1) global warming will stop after the fossil fuels run out and the climate will snap back into ice age state;
2) a cheap effective cure for male pattern baldness will allow the Captain of the Federation Star Ship Enterprise to grow a full head of wavy hair;
3) Israel and Palestine will resolve their differences by flipping a coin, with the loser colonizing Mars.

And then there's always death--the retirement plan that is within almost everybody's budget (provided you stick to the basics such as a cardboard coffin and late night dumping in an empty lot).

While adding several hundred people to my family tree over the last three or four days, I discovered one family member who lived to 101 years old and several who lived into their 90s. Things are not looking good for my savings lasting out my life expectancy. Here's hoping that a cure for mortality isn't discovered before I have enough money to live forever, like the Koch Brothers and the Sultan of Brunei.

I plan to move to a country with a favorable exchange rate and low costs of living.