OT: Trust Retirement Financial Calculators?

[IronMac]

Hi all,

I was just fooling around with a couple of financial institutions' retirement calculators and the numbers needed for retirement seem awfully small. Yes, I know that my required (hoped-for) income is modest but still.

Have any of you tried your institution's calculators and, if you have, do you trust them?

[Chakravartin]

IronMac wrote:
Have any of you tried your institution's calculators and, if you have, do you trust them?

Yes and no.

In my case, it looks like around 2.5x the suggested savings is the minimum needed... not that I'm successfully putting aside nearly so much.

[SDGuy]

I think the Financial Samurai numbers are a bit more realistic than most other estimates I've seen

[mattkime]

SDGuy wrote:
I think the Financial Samurai numbers are a bit more realistic than most other estimates I've seen

wow, that site looks great!

hm, can't find the calculator though...

[IronMac]

You have to read through the explanation.

[richorlin]

My advice about saving for retirement is quite simple:

"Save enough. Imagine what you think is enough. Then save more"

[Forrest]

I think it's a good idea to run the numbers on a few retirement calculators. You'll get different results from each. I like Firecalc link - don't forget to fill in the fields on the other income/spending tab.

The variable that you can most easily control is your yearly budget. Once you can honestly determine your yearly budget, the rest is easy.

[Paul F.]

richorlin wrote:
My advice about saving for retirement is quite simple:

"Save enough. Imagine what you think is enough. Then save more"

Lot of wisdom there...

[TLB]

Well, well. My NW is only about a $1M less that the Samuri recommends. And if my friends are being honest, I probably have 3x that of my peers. I always new I was toast, but I don't know that I like seeing it in black and white.

[Bill in NC]

I like Firecalc (please donate) for the Monte Carlo simulations.