Pick up a bogus internet company stock & short on it untill it goes bankrupt. That will cover your retirement expenses.
Your wife will be definitely against it, you will undertand why when you get to Pattaya , lol. You can live good for 1,500 US per month in Bangkok and for 1,100 outside of Bangkok . Walter
Funny that some people forgot that not so long ago we had an inflation with 2 numbers . And that we risk perhaps a triple inflation number if it is really a secular bear market that is in front of us after such an incredible excess. Remember: there is no free lunch.
Totally agree with the $20 mil. Think about it, you can take 10 mil and spend on whatever the hell u like, buy a huge house, expensive cars, boats, travel the work, make a toilet paper roll to wipe your ass with a hundred dollar bills. Then, take the other 10 mil and invest, get 10% a year, and earn 1 mil sitting on ur ass or doing what it is u want to do. Not bad,huh?
I cant believe you guys didnt mention some other obvious expenses...How about a money hungry wife or spoiled kids? Right there, you are going to need to double or triple what you need to retire...How about if you are in a social circle where everyone has to one up the other guy with the toys, etc, etc... If you are single, lead a pretty humble life and enjoy simple pleasures, I dont think the figure has to be that high at all...Especially if your monthly overhead is reasonable...
I've done a lot of reading on this topic lately and the answer is - it depends. Where you live, life style, risk averseness, assumptions about social security, whether or not you have a pension and health insurance, present age and life expectancy, etc. In "Living the American Dream - How to Retire at Age 35", the author says $500k is more than enough (except the book was written 15 years ago). So figure $1 million today. He also had a section on a bare bones retirement based on savings of $200k. This involved living overseas. But the key thing was to cut expenses by learning live with what you need rather than what you want. In "Your Money or Your Life", the spending theme is the same as the first book but with much more emphasis on tracking expenses, net worth, and projecting when your investment income (in conservative investments) will outpace your expenses. My own conclusion is that $1 million is plenty provided you adjust your life style accordingly. (Doesn't mean you have to live like a pauper.) A fairly low percentage of retirees will every make it to this level and some how they survive. $2 million provides plenty of security. $3 million means you're still working for reasons beyond making ends meet and saving for retirement.
Or marry the right person, raise your children with discipline, and be mature enough to understand that keeping up with the joneses is not a lifestyle choice. Yeh, yeh, requires effort and moral fortitude, but don't let that stop you.
Presuming you don't have any debt to pay off, $30k a year until you die should be enough to live off.