Planning to Survive on Social Security Alone? Time to Head Back to the Drawing Board

There's no one-number-fits-all amount when it comes to how much you'll need in retirement. However, there are some rules of thumb you can use as baselines to help you get an idea of how much will make sense for you. The first is the 80% rule, which says to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement, you should aim to have 80% of your annual income.

Once you know how much you'll need annually, you can use the 4% rule to determine how much you'll need to save to ensure you don't outlive your savings. To find this amount, multiply 25 by your annual income needed in retirement. For example, if you make $100,000 -- meaning you'll need $80,000 in retirement -- you would aim to save $2 million.

Image source: Getty Images

Continue reading


Source Fool.com