Early Retirement Blog

Looking for good economic news?   Want some news that will cheer up your finances?   News that will restore hope and optimism for your financial future?   Want some good retirement news for a change?   If you said yes to any of those questions, then congratulations, you’re about to smile.

Wall Street over-estimates how much savings, sometimes by over a million dollars, you need to successfully and safely retire.   Financial planners, 401k administrators, mutual funds, banks, everyone associated with the retirement industry uses the same inaccurate formula to calculate your retirement savings needs.   The formula assumes that you will spend 80% of your current salary every year in retirement.    It’s a guess.

This guess forces you to save more than you need to retire and work longer than necessary.   The truth is how much you spend in retirement determines how much savings you need for retirement.   And you determine how much you will spend in retirement, therefore you determine how much savings you need for retirement, your salary is irrelevant when it comes to retirement planning.   Spend less in retirement – need less savings for retirement.

The good economic news is that even after the economic collapse, the stock market losses, the crashing housing market, millions of American workers who feared that they would have to delay their retirements do not have to change their retirement plans.   Wall Street over estimates your retirement savings needs, the amount you need to safely retire is actually much less, you can still retire.

Find out how much you really need to retire, try our free retirement calculator, and learn how to retire early.