The answer to “How much money will I need for retirement?” is not straightforward. You have to consider not only when you will retire, but also how you will live during retirement. Do you want to retire in 10 years or 20 years, and when you do retire, are you going to sell your house and live on a boat or buy a small piece of farmland and grow prize-winning strawberries.
Are you looking to save money to leave for your children or a charity, or spend the money you’ve spent your whole life accumulating.
Common wisdom suggests you’ll need 80% of your pre-retirement income once you retire, but this statistic is both confusing and inaccurate for the majority of those that are actually worried about their retirements. Sure, if you’ve got a forced pension you may find your needs (and options) taken care of, but for everyone else we are left with one of the most important decisions of our lives – when to stop working and enjoy the fruits of our labor.