I have been thinking more and more about retirement and how much you really need. It scares me, I feel like even a million is not close to enough, it might be 2 or 3 that you need.
Median boomer retirement account $144,000
- Thread starter SoapyCy
- Start date
- Status
I have been thinking more and more about retirement and how much you really need. It scares me, I feel like even a million is not close to enough, it might be 2 or 3 that you need.
Definitely. $1M is pretty good today, but when you consider time value, $1M is not near enough in 30 years when I'll need it. More like the $2-3M you state.
The biggest cohort of boomers is still the 55-59 age range and they still have 5-10 years of saving prior to reaching retirement age. I don't think my parents had saved that much until they paid off the house and kicked the kids out, but then they really started saving. It's not ideal, to not get that compound interest, but you can save some serious dough if you have your house paid off and no kids around.
Yeah, I'm 36 years old and if I assume 2% inflation, the value of $1m dollars presently is only going to $563,000 by the time I reach retirement age.
My parents have pensions that pay them more than what my wife and I made together for about the first 5 years of our marriage. They have some savings but don’t really need it.
According to a 2019 study-
"Only 23 percent of boomers ages 56-61 expect to receive income from a private company pension plan and only 38 percent of older boomers expect a pension....Most boomers have not saved nearly enough. In the worst case, it is really bad: 45% of boomers have zero savings for retirement."
Pensions are more common with Boomers but most don't have them and almost half have saved nothing. I guarantee with the market in the toilet now, personal savings and pensions haven't had the cheeriest outlook either.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/09/bab...in great shape,older boomers expect a pension.
"Only 23 percent of boomers ages 56-61 expect to receive income from a private company pension plan and only 38 percent of older boomers expect a pension....Most boomers have not saved nearly enough. In the worst case, it is really bad: 45% of boomers have zero savings for retirement."
Pensions are more common with Boomers but most don't have them and almost half have saved nothing. I guarantee with the market in the toilet now, personal savings and pensions haven't had the cheeriest outlook either.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/09/bab...in great shape,older boomers expect a pension.
One of my parents is in this boat. Married/divorced 4 times, and burned through any settlements from those. Never saved a dime for retirement and can't keep any money they have. Now living alone in a rent-assisted apartment living on $14k/yr from social security. Reality is this parent will end up moving in with one of my siblings when they get to the point where they can't work anymore.
A couple of years ago I had an off the cuff discussion on this with my MIL in which I stated that same amount. Her response was well I guess we will never retire then. They are in their 50s and I am sure have some retirement savings by now but are not one's to talk about it. My wife is the oldest so I told her recently she needs to start having discussions about that as well as their will in the near future. I also do not believe they have every been in touch with a financial planner to help them with anything.
My mom just retired from 30 some years in public education and my dad is planning to retire in 5 years or so (they are both 63). He had a very high stress job in which he was on track to retire at 65 or so but left that for a lower paying virtually no stress job two years ago which pushed out his retirement. They have also worked closely with a couple of very good financial planners and are debt free so I am not worried about them.
Both my wife and I are the oldest of our siblings and will be long term in the area, we may end up being in this boat. Thankfully the in-laws own a good chunk of their house and it is in a desirable, more private area and they do have some saved up, just not enough.
I didn't start saving seriously until I was in my 60s. I was relying on SS and 401K. But I managed to add to my savings significantly in the last 6 years and haven't had to touch my 401K yet. Of course, I only retired 6 months ago. But I'm debt free, so that helps a lot.
Last edited:
This, one of my grandpa's has 2 or 3 sources of income (not sure if he gets anything for the couple years he spent in the Navy) that cover all of their expenses, claims to have not touched any of his personal retirement savings and hasn't worked since 2003ish. Granted they live extremely cheap and have had there house paid off for over a decade.
I try to find a happy medium. I put away about that 13-15% range of my salary into a roth and a 401k. My student loans were taken care of pretty early, so I tried to be moderately aggressive on retirement from the get go. I'm early 30's, so have a ways to go. My wife and I's mentality is this, go on vacations yearly and as much as you can. You're never guaranteed tomorrow, so why live so stingy? I know the saying, live like no one now, so you can live like no one in retirement, but if you don't enjoy life now and something happens to your health later on, you may regret not being able to do the things you could have done.
I try to find a nice balance of investing for retirement, a business, and our livelihood. We try not to nickle and dime ourselves when it comes to budgeting, but we also don't make stupid large purchases and go out to eat more than once or twice a week. I know plenty of people who are making similar, who eat out all the time, purchase coffees everyday, constantly are buying toys, wives are getting mani/pedi's regularly and then wonder how we travel like we do.
My retired parents earn more than my wife and I do working full time. Between pensions, dividend income, and social security, my dad was telling me he actually pockets more now than he ever did working. But he also sacrificed by not buying us much of anything his entire working career, so I don't want to be so conservative that I only have money when I'm too tired to go spend it.
I'm in my mid-30's, and I've learned to be incredibly grateful that both my parents & my wife's family appear to be on very solid financial footing.
My mom has a fully funded state plan she's collecting on, but even so, got a new job with a private savings plan to work at the following Monday. My dad has had a successful entrepreneurial and private career himself. They've just recently started taking vacations and have always lived incredibly modestly. I'm certain they'll be ok.
My FIL is a very successful software salesman and has probably out-earned both my parents themselves. They've lived a bit more extravagantly, but the way he lectures me on financial matters, I'm assuming he has his own house in order...
I can't imagine planning for one of our parents to move in with us essentially helpless at this time in our financial lives. I'm able to save very well for us, but with 3 kids and everything else, trying to support a largely irresponsible parent would be frustrating.
My mom has a fully funded state plan she's collecting on, but even so, got a new job with a private savings plan to work at the following Monday. My dad has had a successful entrepreneurial and private career himself. They've just recently started taking vacations and have always lived incredibly modestly. I'm certain they'll be ok.
My FIL is a very successful software salesman and has probably out-earned both my parents themselves. They've lived a bit more extravagantly, but the way he lectures me on financial matters, I'm assuming he has his own house in order...
I can't imagine planning for one of our parents to move in with us essentially helpless at this time in our financial lives. I'm able to save very well for us, but with 3 kids and everything else, trying to support a largely irresponsible parent would be frustrating.
I'm planning on retiring early. I'm 38 and am striving to be able to retire (not saying I will but I want the option) within 10 years. The general rule of thumb in the financial independence/retire early (FIRE) community is you need 25x your planned annual post-retirement spend before you retire. So if you can live off $50k per year, you need $1.25 million to retire. It's a good rule of thumb and gives you a ballpark of what a "comfortable" retirement looks like.
This is something I've always wondered about. So you're looking to really live it up when you're in your 70s? Do you know people in their 70s?
There has to be a balance. I'm not big on buying toys I can't afford, but would you rather take that expensive trip when you're 30-50 or 70? That's an easy choice to me.
Boomers love the idea of playing 9 holes in the morning and sipping pina coladas with their wrinkly wives in Arizona until they die. It's a weird ideal.
So much this. You should within your means leave a positive legacy to your future generations. Change the family tree as Ramsey says. Teach your kids to be responsible with money, work hard to obtain it, and be appreciative of it so that you can benefit others as well through giving. I'm hoping that with what I have saved, maybe that inheritance for future generations can help them start a business or get a jump start on life in general with less debt.
I can't imagine having to put my tail between my legs and become a dependent to my kids because of bad decisions and irresponsibility. Now obviously if my parents would have had their life savings depleted because of some disaster or health problem I would absolutely take them in. I'm speaking purely on sloppy life choices.
This is the dichotomy I'm referring to. My general approach is to conservatively save, but not to the detriment of our current lives. Yes, we tend to make frugal decisions, don't drive new cars, live in a modest house with not-so-fancy toys. But we also try to make sure our kids get lots of fun experiences, for example.
- Status
