How Much Is Really Enough for Retirement?

Here’s a slap about how much is enough for retirement.

My summer home is full of successful people from all kinds of backgrounds. The average age here is 66, so most of us are either retired or close to it.

Two of my best buddies were over at my place for happy hour recently, and of course the topic of conversation was retirement. More specifically, how much money you need to retire.

We were throwing around some asset numbers and what we thought we’d need in income (the usual inflated stuff) when Bob, who is already retired, told us this story.

When the company he worked for was bought out, a whole new management team took over… and not with good results. It was driving him crazy.

He talked about waking up at 3 a.m. staring at the ceiling, thinking about people at work and wondering why the heck they still had jobs.

The new team was full of well-dressed, eloquent dopes who couldn’t – or wouldn’t – do their jobs. That was Bob’s impression, at least.

He said it was becoming a chore just to go in and deal with the mishmash of emails, texts and poorly handled projects.

For him, it was no longer a question of how much was enough to retire. That decision was made for him.

The way he phrased it was “I reached the point where I had enough but I had really had enough. And much heavier on the ‘had had enough’ side of the equation.”

So when you think about how much you need to make it through your golden years, also think about how much more you can take. Our later years won’t be so golden if we’re totally fried when we leave work.

God, does it ever get any easier?

Good investing,

Steve