How much do you need to retire? How much us enough to live on and have a good life (and not worry about a stock market hit)? Please include your age and city (for cost of living).

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I'd recommend having recurring income via property rent income to supplement whatever's been squirreled away.
So, the ideal would be:
- mortgage fully paid off
- a healthy amount available via 401K/IRA, etc. ("Healthy amount" will depend on where you live -- cost of living/how 'lavish' you prefer to live)
- monthly rental income on property that's already paid (no mortgage payments, or mortgage payments are minimal/take up 50% or less of the amount you'd get in rent payments).

I would not rely solely on whatever's been saved. But much of this depends on varying circumstances per retiree (age when retired, access to 401K/IRA, amount saved, cost of living, etc..)

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Is it that simple? But I think you mean annual spend, not income - right. If that is it, then I can retire now. I am saving a lot of my annual income every year now. But I am still in my 50s so that is a lot of years in retirement to consider. And I have 3 kids that still have college in front of them (but state school tuition already saved in 529).

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D1 - that actually sounds pretty reasonable depending upon your expenses (I sure as hell hope I’m not still paying a mortgage into retirement)

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Between my wife and I, Social security will provide us with around 55K per year. With no mortgage and minimal debt, we won't need to touch our savings except for emergencies.

OP - your property taxes are crazy, so you probably should consider a less expensive area to live in retirement

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If there would be such a thing as social security

You don’t need a lot to retire you just need a plan and also figure out what will make you happy , if you need expensive things then of course plan on needing more money but my needs are not the same as yours

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So hard to determine! I don’t plan on living in my current city or even state after retirement. For sure someplace warmer and cheaper. Don’t think our generation can count on social security being paid out fully (US resident here). Also, each generation lives longer but that brings more health issues and here in the US that costs money. Socking away as much as I am able. My cousin’s kids will make out like bandits if I don’t outlive my money

25x annual income

25X income? That’s absurd. Project what you’ll spend annually, subtracting all work related expenses. Add in social security and any pension you expect. Now figure you can spend 3% of your nest egg to cover your expenses. Do the math

I am still paying a mortgage, but it is part of my annual spend and covered by the 25X.

(There'd be monthly social security as well, but that wouldn't be enough in most cases)

Sounds reasonable. Where are you all thinking about retiring? I love to fantasize about this :)

If your mortgage, debts, and cars are all paid off, I wonder why would you not be able to live off of social security? My parents (now 66 and 67) retired 5 years ago live off of $2,500 a month from social security and they really can’t spend it all on food, taxes, and gas. They don’t even dip into their savings.

M1 - Interesting point. Hopefully they live long enough to need a new car someday. Where do they live? My real estate taxes are almost $1,500 per month alone (maybe I need to move) and insurance takes housing before utilities, maintenance and mortgage closer to $2,000. But that is the point of my question, how much is enough. For your parents it is $2,500. I am trying to figure out the right amount for me.

Have you read about FIRE? Financial independence retire early. Even though you may not be retiring early, the same principles apply. In my opinion, the simpler one lives, the easier it is to retire. The western society is very materialistic and those items cost money. If you can get to a point where materialism is irrelevant in your life and focus on experiences, you can live on 24k.

My husband and I bring in a little over $300k. We live off about 60-65k with most of that (4K) being our house mortgage/insurance. The rest goes into savings/investment. Together, we probably spend about 1500 per month on daily living and expenses. We do dip into savings for our Annual big trips. We have traveled extensively across the world. That is where we choose to spend money.

How much is different for every single human

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