How much are you socking away for retirement each month?

I make $200k and live in NYC

oh wow. Thank you for what you do

Hard to say. We had $3.060 M before the most recent downturn. My income was not over 200K in my 20s and early 30s. My wife also was not working when my kids were younger. We were always committed, we just didn't have the same income level earlier in life. Also I paid over $400K to educate kid 1 and $350K to educate kid 2 with their private schools and college. We were also investing in our home.

I'm super frugal. Mortgage is $1150/month. I don't spend much on going out to eat, so food might be $100-$150/week. I really want to retire early 40s or at least have the option of doing whatever I want to or taking a lower stress job with fewer hours, so I'm being pretty frugal to be able to do so. I've never inflated my lifestyle as my income has increased, as opposed to most people.

That guy responded to himself. He was asking me. I spend $100-$150/week on food.

wow that's what I need to do

My wife and I spend about $50k per year right now, about half of that is mortgage/electicity/water bills. Maybe add another $10k if we splurge on some travel or other things... So say $60k... So $600k would get us 10 years, $1.2M 20 years. Most of that wouldn't be touched and would increase at least at the rate of inflation. So not including social security $1.2M would get us 20+ years. If I was 55-60 and has $1.2M in various accounts I'd retire right now (I'm nowhere near that age). Someone who lives the way I do and has $2M saved up for retirement, why are you still working??? You could live off that for several decades. Especially if you have your house paid off already... Unless you LOVE your job and love working most days, why not just retire now? If you reach 80 years of age and are running low on money, sell your house and buys you another 15+ years (you'll be dead or in a nursing home by then).

Enjoy your lives, people.

I am working still because I want to have at least $150-200K per year in retirement to live on. There is also inflation right now that changes the risk of retirement depending on how it plays out. Once I get to $5M I will retire. I also want to leave some inheritance for my kids.

Inflation, risk of returns going forward since we’ve already lived through three bubbles since 1998, and unknown/unforeseen health issues. $5 million plus house paid off seems to be the number.

so what does your general budget look like each month that you would need 16k/month to live on? Im generally curious. I take home around 25k/month right now and save 8k of it for retirement. My mortgage/taxes is $4500. Im assuming by the time i retire i wont have a mortgage so i think my retirement number of $5 million is similar to yours.

So we have about a $3500 per month of fixed expenses. Home maintenance costs, prop taxes, utilities, etc. Upon retirement I see at least 1.5k per month for healthcare (not under medicare yet). Food at least 1K per month. I would want the rest for travel, my wife and I ski, bike, hike, camp, etc. I want pretty much unlimited budget to do that when we retire. Maybe do the vanlife thing. Maybe buy a city apartment somewhere cool. Definitely world travel. If we end up spending less than 15K a month then it just is a bigger inheritance for our kids.

what's the meaning of life? do you ever ask yourself that? I do

Yes. Its freedom towards death. You don't need to ask yourself that question.

When I was working, I maxed out my Roth and IRA contributions and upon retirement with a lower tax burden, rolled over IRA to Roth as much as I could. In retirement, I have about 78k coming in per year and spend about 65k so I’m still saving. So much depends upon the juxtaposition of your peak earnings and stock market conditions. My peak earnings years coincided with the Clinton years so that was a good period. I’ve taken my lumps in 2000, 2008 but generally keep faith in the market. I still look for undiscovered stock gems centered around cancer research, hint, hint… because I am dying from bladder cancer although not yet. I am a trial Guinea pig and have lived way beyond my sell-by date. I can’t run any more but still am keenly interested in all things running.

wow. that's pretty deep, man ngl

sorry about the bladder cancer. can we help at all?

that's a good amount of money, the equivalent of having like a $110k salary

I was born with the fgfr2 gene and up until 2005 was a lifelong smoker, a bad combination, but thanks. I got to run and race for over 50 years so I can’t whine. I got to do some races on my bucket list, London-Brighton and Comrades. I adjust my goals as I go. My Oncologist always has a new trial up his sleeve. I’m on my 3rd trial now which is proving to be very effective except of course the side effects.

I am an old guy, and the best financial advice I can give to a young person or new college graduate is to save as much as you possibly can in your 401K. Go to the legal limit and figure out how to live on what you have left over. It isn't possible for everyone, but do it until it hurts. Find a way.

You'll be nearing 60 someday and probably be in a position to choose whether or not you want to keep working. Your friends who didn't save in their 20's will have to work another 10-15 years.

This is absolutely what has happened to me and my friends.

I also read somewhere that you save $10K a year in retirement from age 21 to 30 (9 years, $90,000) and then doesn't put another dime into retirement, at age 60 they will have the same nest egg as someone who didn't save until 30 and then put away $10K a year (for 30 years, $300,000).

I'm telling you youngsters that if you contribute the max to your 401K and marry someone who is like minded, someday you will be 55-60 years old and be able to do whatever you want with the rest of your life.