By the Way, How Much Do You Need to Retire?

Everyone always asks how much they need to retire as if there’s one simple number that applies to everyone. It’s like the stretchy one size fits all pants. Do they really fit everyone? No. One of my relatives is over 300 lbs; I’m 110 lbs. Those pants are not fitting both of us! I don’t care how stretchy they are! How much money you need in retirement depends on your lifestyle. I’ve seen happily retired clients living off their social security and $500k in investments. I’ve also see clients with millions of dollars blow throw all of that money within ten years. 
You’ll see guidelines say you need about 70 – 90% of your preretire-ment income to live comfortably in retirement. Here’s a bit of an easier way to think of it. Remember our Know Your Numbers chapter? Take your budget and divide it between essential expenses (mortgage, food, utilities) and discretionary expenses (Prada shoes, suede coat, vacation to Italy) 

You get the picture! By the way, make sure you pad your budget with every possible expense. If you can find a good working plan with a bloated budget, chances are you’ll be successful. Our guidelines for retirement planning would tell us that your “essential expenses” should be covered by what we call “certain and continuous” income: social secu-rity, pensions, annuities, etc. This is money that will be paid to you for the rest of your life on a regular basis. Then, you can use your savings/nvestments for the discretionary expenses. That way if our economy or your investments go terribly bad, you will still have enough money to cover your essential expenses.

Read more in my book, "A Woman's Place is in The Market"!  It's available for sale at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Womans-Place-Market-Caren-Laverty/dp/1945091754/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528668089&sr=8-1&keywords=caren+laverty or at Barnes & Nobles: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-womans-place-is-in-the-market-caren-laverty/1128709743?ean=9781945091759