Attempting to quantify just how much money one will need heading into retirement is an age-old problem, one fraught with stress and anxiety for those approaching, or beginning, the famed "golden years" era. Indeed, choosing to invest and live off of one's investments, pension, or other income streams requires sitting down and doing the math on just how much one believes one will need to retire comfortably.
Of course, built into such calculations are uncomfortable variables like (1) how long one believes one will live, and (2) what "comfortable" really means and how much one expects to spend in retirement, and in particular the first ten years of retirement. Traveling and disposable spending often occur in higher frequencies during the first ten to twenty years of retirement for obvious reasons - deciding how long and how frequently one decides to do everything on that bucket list will certainly determine a significant portion of how much needs to be stashed away for those vacations.
A wide variety of excellent resources are available to those who are approaching or beginning their retirement phase. Retirement calculators are available from most financial institutions, allowing retirees to plug in the values they believe will reflect their ideal retirement and see just how much their savings needs to be bumped up to meet those goals. Deciding whether to pay off one's mortgage or hold equity in stocks or other fixed income securities can also be calculated.
Invest wisely, my friends.
