How much is enough

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What are everyone’s thoughts on this

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What is your retirement age going to be?

Is the $3.5m your only retirement (other than SS)?

Let’s just say 65 for retirement age, the $3.5M is it not including Social Security.

The missing details are the things I can’t plan for and what I’m stuck on. We love to travel, but we are wondering if saving more for travel when we are in our 60’s and 70’s is worth it since the travel might not be as much fun because of our lack of mobility and health.

Debt load will be whatever house we have left and a car every 7 years or so.

Where we are stuck at is missing out now, and then dying with a pile of cash because we weren’t able to enjoy retirement.

I know what all the calculators say with the 3/4%, but this is more of a what would you give up now for more later versus what would you do now, but not get to do on the back end.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s enjoyable, but I’m sitting there looking at spending some extra money on some LSU tickets, a yearly family fishing or hunting trip, and an extra week vacation with the kids now or just hoarding that cash and regretting it.

If you are on track for 3-4% withdrawal rate I’d say go for the tickets etc

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Let’s just say 65 for retirement age, the $3.5M is it not including Social Security.

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So, let's assume a 20 year retirement, 15 reasonably healthy years - using the tired (but generally accurate) conventional wisdom of 4% withdrawal (at least those first 3 or 4 years), that's around $12k a month from the pot and just consider SS lagniappe. If your projected unavoidable retirement expenses are under $3500, you're probably completely fine with whatever you're going to do.

But, frankly, I wouldn't say that's overkill, either, because one never knows. If you're a homebody (like me), you're likely to overinvest in your home and be fine. If you plan to travel a lot, then downsizing your homebase can balance things out.

Retirement is a lot about expectations and contingencies - if you can manage both, reasonably, I think your goal should be around $2m to $3.5m. Realistically, I wouldn't sacrifice any more now to exceed $3m to $3.5m unless something drastically changes with inflation in the next couple of years or you expect to carry a huge mortgage or other debt into retirement (doesn't seem likely where you're at now).

Good luck with it.

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l just leave you with some advice from my mother. She said, "No one has ever laid on their death bed and said 'I wish I'd had more money'".

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I hear what you are saying and don’t necessarily disagree. However, do those at retirement age wish they could retire early, travel more, have the financial means to help out loved ones, etc? I think the question is a bit more complex, and I don’t think one size fits all. It’s tough to know what the balance is.

With a home paid off, $3.5M should be plenty for a comfortable retirement.

Keep in mind $100k in 25 years is likely to be equivalent to $50-60k today after inflation. So, maybe enough to live on but you won't be living extravagantly.

Make a few sacrifices now and if it plays out well you may reach your goals earlier and have real options.