Help Calculate Magic Number for Young Family

[Apex1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinancialDave To be honest I really don't think any of these calculators are going to be any more accurate than a general rule of thumb that if you save 15% of your salary from in your mid twenties to age 66 you will do fine. If you want to retire earlier then just up the saving rate - the goal being to hit 25 times your retirement expenses by retirement time. When you get within 15 years or so of retirement, you can start fine tuning your glide path, but trying to do it over 25 years is a bit much. fd

Thanks FD! With a few adjustments to my current lifestyle (losing the nanny/housekeeper, no private schools for the 2 kids and downsizing to 75% of my current home)....... I'm already there. If I maintain my current lifestyle, then I am 5 years away (at which point, I am still looking at a 50year retirement)...... hence, its crunch time for me to be fine-tuning and deciding "more money versus more life"

[FinancialDave]

"more money versus more life"

That is always the choice that we make, and to some degree if we make that one wrong, for ourselves, it is tougher to live with, if we went too conservative, than "I had to downsize" a little later in life.

fd