Beth,
I have a military pension and I use the 4% rule to give it a value. What amount of cash at 4% interest would equal my monthly pension. $500/mo would be valued at (500*12)/.04=$150,000.00.

How do you estimate where you are when you have a pension? I have a 403b too, but will also have a very decent pension that I am fully vested in and can start taking at age 55 (though, I get a larger sum the longer I wait to start taking payments). So, while my 403B is decently funded, it is not has high as others I know that have no pension to draw from as well…

You’re an inspiration, sir!! Don’t have too much fun there in retirement! ;)

Ack- stop!

I can be patient for fun things :)

@w8jcd –

I like that site for a few reasons. One is that the chart will let you hover and see each percentile. So for Age 60-64, I can see that $1M is the 84th (or top 16) percentile. It would take $1.64M to get to top 10%, and top 5%, $3.69M. (And of course, the good recent few years will have pushed these numbers up a bit).

This really brings me back to the Suze tirade over the FIRE movement. I suppose it’s easy for celebs to forget what living on a budget was like, and that one doesn’t actually need $10M to just start to feel comfortable.

Above, DF/RVA cites people that insist on a rule of thumb. A rule based on averages. Who aspires to be average? When my wife and I had our child, I recall looking at the numbers. From gross income, 20% (between Fed/FICA/State) went to taxes. 20% to the Mortgage. 20% to the Nanny, 5% to college fund, and 20% to retirement savings. At that moment, I recall thinking that we were literally living on 15% of our gross income, and all else being equal, our retirement “number” would be nowhere near that 70-80%.

I blinked, the kid is now a junior in college, I retired at 50 (7 yrs ago) and the actual budget is about 60% of that number from 20 years ago. As the 2 decades passed, the future budget got more clear, and the only thing I wasn’t thinking about early on was health insurance. For those trying to FIRE, it’s a big hurdle. For the 3 of us, the annual cost, even on a company retiree plan, is $20K/yr. FWIW, the 4% rule? I’m ok with spending just above that. My wife’s social security will kick in 6 yrs from now, and is about 1/4 our current spending. At the same time, both our medical will be Medicare and a good portion of that $20K will be saved. Last, the mortgage will be done. Better to enjoy it now, there’s no taking it with you.

And sadly I have way too many peers that have taken money out of their 401k for vacations!

Sure thing. But look for that email around Christmas time. (as in, it WILL take me ALL year) :)

Haha.. nice…

My wife LOVES still being in her 30s though she’s not that far behind me ;)

Hey man, I don’t make the rules! :D

My childhood best friend is five days older than I am. This year it was particularly amusing to pester him about his age.