What was your magic Number? Was : Survey finds $880,000 is magic number

Ah, what's YOUR number? Knowing it means something different to different people, and after-tax dollars are different than tax-deferred dollars, and 1986 dollars have a different value than 2026 dollars, and future inflation is a guess, I admit I like the game regardless. My number is $1.4 million in tax-deferred accounts on December 31, 2023, the first year-end after FRA. From that anchor point, I had ER numbers for ER in 2022, 2021, 2020, etc. because my date was only set recently. My plan was always a combination of amount and year, and waiting until I hit a winning combination.
 
At age 25, I set an unrealistic goal of $5M in net worth (all assets before taxation takes its toll) or age 45.

I hit age 45 and FIREd.

Some things, namely freedom and time, money simply can not buy.

I will make do with what I have money wise in exchange for hopefully a few decades of enjoyment and adventure. Life is short. Time goes faster and faster the older we get!
 
youbet said:
It's easier to believe when some life events make you feel more mortal.
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AMEN!!
My magic number is what I had when my wonderful husband died at 55 before ever enjoying any thing he saved.
At the moment I realized that my focus on a magic number was totally screwed up.
I started focusing on my "magic life" with whatever number i have right now.
 
bclover said:
AMEN!!
My magic number is what I had when my wonderful husband died at 55 before ever enjoying any thing he saved.
At the moment I realized that my focus on a magic number was totally screwed up.
I started focusing on my "magic life" with whatever number i have right now.
Click to expand...

Wow, someone on this forum gets it. Congrats!
 
"I found that if you have a goal, that you might not reach it. But if you don't have one, then you are never disappointed. And I gotta tell ya... it feels phenomenal"

Peter La Fleur - Dodgeball
 
I remember a discussion with a work buddy about our "magic number" in 2006. Mine was 1M EUR at the time. His was 1M + the house. I did have a "living under the bridge" number of 250k.

Today the number still is 1M EUR, so I actually adjusted it down (counting inflation).

Where I'm at not now (still a rather long way off) is also good though.
 
OP Here.

My was 3 Million in investable assets. Ever since we got to 2.7 million in investable assets I have different / relaxed feeling in work :).
 
In my experience, until you hit 50MM, the magic number for most people is about twice what you have.
 
phil1ben said:
In my experience, until you hit 50MM, the magic number for most people is about twice what you have.
Click to expand...

This sounds familiar--DW was frustrated at the string of "5 more years" until we can retire. After 4 years in a row of that, she was shocked to hear: Probably 2017. :D Additional margins of error, Wade Pfau, etc.

Told her that if she'd promise to die before 90, we could have quit by now.

OH and to answer the question by OP--our "magic number" is, depending upon the year, about 10 times our present gross income.
 
Our magic number is for DW and I to die no later than 85 years of age. She gave it some thought and asked me if I could go earlier so she could stay later. Can I run this scenario in Firecalc? :confused:
 
Surely you can. ;) FIRECalc has provisions for that.

Let's say you are spending $30K/year for toys and plan to leave this world at 85, under the tab "Other Income/Spending" you can enter "Off chart spending reduction" of $30K the year you get to 85.

FIRECalc will then tell your DW how much she has left for herself.
 
NW-Bound said:
Surely you can. ;) FIRECalc has provisions for that.

Let's say you are spending $30K/year for toys and plan to leave this world at 85, under the tab "Other Income/Spending" you can enter "Off chart spending reduction" of $30K the year you get to 85.

FIRECalc will then tell your DW how much she has left for herself.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give it a try! ;)
 
So my magic number was an odd one. To semi-retire I had one number which based solely on dividends from my non-retirement money, I wanted to make minimum wage .. its an odd number to look at but something made it easier in my head..ie if I never get out of bed today, I'll still make more than the person working at McDonalds and that's just from taking the dividend..ie don't have sell anything and don't have to touch my 401k or IRA. I have $1.2M invested and my boyfriend still works (he is the opposite of me financially, so needs to catch up especially with SS since we likely won't ever marry). To fully retire, I told him 5 years ( I just retired in Feb), that would give my nest egg time to grow to my minimum $1.6M comfort level but like everyone else I'd prefer to be at $2.1M as then I wouldn't have to nag him about staying in budget.
 
My magic number was the monthly income amount I could live with and still enjoy my life. Also, making sure my contract still paid retiree medical. As soon as I hit that, I retired. Luckily it's a COLA'd pension and figuring 30 years out, it will have been over a few million in worth. Of course, that is not cash in hand but it's money in the bank every month.
 
$2.5M, though I expect that point to be where I completely don't stress about my work, rather than not working at all, but we'll see... :)
 
^ agreed - when we get to 2.5M in cash/investments/k money, the chute may get a tug


problem is, I'm not sure how close I am to the number - I guess I need to spend some time in excel


(hey my wife just got an inheritance and I'm not sure exactly how much she got, it's still getting settled)
 
My number is "8", as in number of years until I can retire with a full pension :(. Until then I could retire, but only with a number that probably isn't enough (I'm only at 500k).

When 2023 hits I may have enough, but then I will get a $40k+/year pension and go from not enough to way more than I need.:facepalm: What's the opposite of a cliff? Breaking through the wall?
 
LinCella said:
My magic number was the monthly income amount I could live with and still enjoy my life. Also, making sure my contract still paid retiree medical. As soon as I hit that, I retired. Luckily it's a COLA'd pension and figuring 30 years out, it will have been over a few million in worth. Of course, that is not cash in hand but it's money in the bank every month.
Click to expand...


That is the way I did it and it certainly is a lot easier method to come up with the number. I beat a few of my friends to retirement but they will make it in 2-3 years and none of them will have a $1000 in the bank. But it wont matter because their pension is all they need and they will be just fine.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Rather than calculating an absolute dollar value, I think there's a better way to determine when you can retire. I will retire when my average yearly passive income (averaged over the past 5 years) > yearly expenses + 25%.
 
It's getting a little fuzzy now :). This has been asked before, so this time I went back and pulled some old spreadsheets. It looks like my original target was 1.5m and to have zero debt, when I was in my early 50's. At the time when I hit that number, I was getting much bigger raises and making more money than I ever thought I would. Anyway, I needed to stay with mega corp until I was 55, to get full retirement benefits. I ended up working about 7 or 8 more years after I hit my original target. I wish I had those years back (along with the extra money of course)
 
my target number is 4.5m, current nw is hovering around 4.1 or 4.2m.
our situation is slightly unique, i have no pension or heathcare when i pull the plug, which should be within the next year if the stars align, & it looks like they will.
1.1m in 401k & ira's, the rest is tied up in numerous rental properties.
we plan to live mostly on the rental income & my wife's small ss income (she is older than me) until i can start taking distributions from the 401k & ira.
 
Mulligan said:
That is the way I did it and it certainly is a lot easier method to come up with the number. I beat a few of my friends to retirement but they will make it in 2-3 years and none of them will have a $1000 in the bank. But it wont matter because their pension is all they need and they will be just fine.
Click to expand...

They must be all government workers, right?
 
Spanky said:
They must be all government workers, right?
Click to expand...


Yes, in education. You contribute 14.5% and school matches 14.5%. After 30 years your take home pay matches your work take home pay, so minimal retirement savings in theory is needed (no social security). However the key is working for a higher paying district as two teachers both working 30 years could range from a pension near $30k to close to 100k.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
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