Question 1: How much money do I need to retire?
Retirement planning is important no matter what stage of life you are in. However, once you near retirement, making sure you have enough money saved starts to become a common fear. So how much money do you need to retire? Unfortunately, there is no one-size fits all answer.
There are several factors to consider:
Your current income:
How much money do you currently make? 80% of your current income is a good starting point for estimating how much money you will need to live on in retirement.
Your expenses:
What are your current expenses in retirement? Expenses in retirement usually start high in early retirement as you are younger, can travel more, and are eager to be done working. Then we often see a dip in expenses around the 70-80-year-old range as traveling becomes less frequent and seeing the grandkids tends to increase. However, expenses tend to creep up again with healthcare expenses beginning to rise.
Your desired retirement age:
What age do you want to retire? Depending on what age you want to stop working and enter retirement influences the amount of money you will need to have saved. For example, if you want to retire before age 65 when Medicare kicks in, your healthcare expenses will be much higher. Additionally, when you decide to take Social Security may require you to draw more from your portfolio in those first few years of retirement.
Your expected lifespan:
How long do you expect to live? Although the answer to this question is unknown, using predictions through lifestyle and family life expectancies can provide a general idea of how long you will need your money to last.
Your retirement goals:
What do you want to do in retirement? Do you want to travel? Do you want to sell your home and buy an RV? Do you want to stay home and be close to family? Depending on what your retirement dreams are influences the amount of money needed to retire.
Once you have considered the factors above, you can begin to estimate how much money you need to retire. A good rule of thumb is that after accounting for Social Security, typically you can take about 4% from your portfolio each year to fund needed expenses and have enough money to last you through retirement.
Of course, this is just a general guideline. Everyone is different and every plan is unique. If you are nearing retirement and feeling uncertain if you have saved enough, we would be happy to walk through a retirement plan for you that makes you feel confident and excited about entering this new stage of life. Please reach out to us today by clicking the button below or email us at info@straightpathwealth.com.