After preparing many retirement plans for my clients over the last 45 years, I can assure you that you will need about 8 to 10 times your annual income in savings when your reach retirement age. I know this is a quick “rule-of-thumb” but it can work.
If, for example, you are earning $60,000 a year, at retirement you cannot possibly make it financially with only one time your annual earnings! This means you will only save $60,000 for retirement. How do you expect to live on that sum until age 84 (if you are a man) or age 87 (woman) How will that possibly work? It won’t!
If you can save 10 times your salary, for example, you will have $600,000 saved at retirement. You can make this work by living on the interest and pulling out some of the principal, then combined with Social Security benefits (which I have shown in past posts you will need all of to pay for the skyrocketing health costs of close to $350,000 needed for a couple 
who retires in 10 years) you will have adequate income well past age 87 with plenty of money left over. Plan it too close, as in two times, or four times and you will run out of money at age 72. All that work only to run short that quick would be horrible!
I hope you can see that the multiplier of 8 to 10 times current earnings will give you just enough money to retire comfortably. Use the Money Mastery retirement worksheet and see for yourself. Go to www.moneymastery.com.
