re: The number of 401(k) plan millionaires surges 41 percent, hits a new high

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That's based on a 2% ROI at a time U.S. 30 Year Treasuries run 3%.

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But you wouldn't have 100% in Treasuries either. You'd have to have some of that more liquid. Thus, closer to 2%.

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When I first hit the adult working world I said I wanted $1M by 50. In 1992 that was more money than I ever thought I could spend as I was living on about $24k/yr then. Now I'm about a year away from 50 and getting dang close to the $1M and realizing that won't be near enough. I'm not ashamed of it, but damn $1M just really isn't that much anymore.

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At 50, you could just let $1m cook for another ten years at 3%, adding zero additional contributions, and have $1.3m at 60. Assuming you used your non-contributed money to become debt free with no mortgage, $1.3m is plenty of money. It's a $40k annual salary without even touching your principal balance.

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Older Americans are filing for bankruptcy at more than double the rate of just 25 years ago, a sign of a "coming storm of broke elderly," a new study finds.

The rate of people 65 and over filing for bankruptcy grew nearly 204 percent from 1991 to 2016, a study published by the Social Science Research Network found, and the percentage of seniors among all U.S. bankruptcy filers increased by nearly five times over the same period.

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It's important to read this in conjunction with the OP.

We have plenty of people who will have a great retrirement, who have saved a lot and are building wealth>

We also have plenty of people whom will never retire, or retirement will include working at walmart, or retirement will be horrific, or will be a burden on their kids and grandkids.

It's the furthering divide of this country.

True, you wouldn’t be living extravagantly.

But you’d make enough to enjoy yourself and take reasonable vacations and pay your bills and not work, go fishing, play some golf, watch Judge Judy every day, grill steak and shrimp every Saturday night, pick up a new hobby like painting or home brewing, read some books and binge watch tv shows, almost like being in your 20’s again.

This assumes your debts are paid off and nobody else is dependent on you.

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If you're only saving 10% of your gross and you're behind on these charts, you do need to dump more to catch-up. That's the point of the variable inputs you can change. If you're saving 15-20% and you're behind, you'll catch up in due time.

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You completely miss the point.

The income is going up. You don't ever catch up because the higher income will always demand 10% of the current income (which will be less than the income next year). It is why a 25 year old making $0 at 20 but $150k at 25 will not have $150k saved up at 25.

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These are "stretch" charts. Meaning that they get people to feel like they are behind and pushed to dump more to catch up (guess how jp Morgan fidelity makes money...)

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Perhaps. But not necessarily.

Different charts have different benchmarks. Different people have different retirement needs. E.g., Someone with 30yrs in the military who will then receive 75% of a $50K base income as a retirement pension obviously doesn't need to save what an individual making the same income without a pension would.

But it really shouldn't be much of a guessing game or a dependency on someone else's chart. Anyone can (and should) run their own calculations, given their own retirement goals.

As earlier posted: $1M @ 3% ROI/yr would produce ~$45K/yr X30yrs before zeroing out.
Put another way, if you anticipate a 3% ROI and plan to live 30yrs in retirement, you'll need a portfolio roughly 20X the size of your calculated annual need.

Depending on your bent, and your confidence in government, social security should be added in.

So hypothetically, if one's goal is $80K/yr in retirement, and SS is expected to pay $35K/yr, need will be $45K/yr in portfolio production. $45K/yr would require roughly $900K in retirement savings. Again, just rough numbers, and variable based on your own expected ROI and portfolio longevity.

Once you run the numbers though, and establish a portfolio goal, how you get there in terms of age/savings benchmarks is up to you.

I want out of the game at 62 -

It may mean a lifestyle adjustment though!!!

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The number of Fidelity 401(k) plans with a balance of $1 million or more jumped to a record 168,000 in the second quarter, up from 119,000 a year earlier

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Does Fidelity have information on how many total 401K plans it has and what percent of the US population that is?

Only 168K with $1 Mil seems crazy low, but maybe they don't have as many 401K plans as I assumed.

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True, you wouldn’t be living extravagantly.

But you’d make enough to enjoy yourself and take reasonable vacations and pay your bills and not work, go fishing, play some golf, watch Judge Judy every day, grill steak and shrimp every Saturday night, pick up a new hobby like painting or home brewing, read some books and binge watch tv shows, almost like being in your 20’s again.

This assumes your debts are paid off and nobody else is dependent on you.

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Today, if everything were paid off (lets pretend I don't already have available liquid assets to pay everything) and I had to pay for private insurance, property tax, income taxes, home maintenance, etc I do not believe I could live on $40k in 2018 dollars, much less $40k in 2018 dollars in 10 years. Most of these comments are just speaking to non-inflation adjusted nominal value and not assuming periods of job loss, potential years of flat or possibly lowered earned income, etc. Life doesn't work that way. Hog dude has already alluded to this in his posts regarding $1M at 50 covering much less than he would have estimated.

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RMD on $1m is only $36,500 before tax. 

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Usually you would take more than the RMD. 4% is a safe withdrawal rate... So $40k.

If you make $80-100k, retiring on $40k doesn't seem doable, but a couple things work in your favor.

If you wait until you are 65, you have SS... Throw in an extra $25-30k for that. Hopefully you have a paid for house... No longer putting $10-15k per year towards the mortgage. Taxes are minimal on the $40k you do withdraw with no 7.5-15% of your income going to SS/Medicare.

So your equivalent retirement income is actually...
$40k + $25k + $7.5k (no SS tax) + $10k (no mortgage) = $82.5k

You won't be able to take lots of extravagant vacations, but you will do ok. Inflation is the danger.