10 Moves to Make Sure You Have Enough Money in Retirement

As you approach retirement, it’s easy to become fixated on the magic number—a pot of money large enough to allow you to retire comfortably without outliving your savings.

(Image credit: Illustration by Andrew Lyons)

As you approach retirement, it’s easy to become fixated on the magic number—a pot of money large enough to allow you to retire comfortably without outliving your savings. But figuring out whether you can afford to retire requires math, not magic, along with a thoughtful analysis of how you plan to spend your time and money.

Plenty of online calculators will help you figure out whether you can afford to retire based on the amount of money you’ll need to replace a specific percentage your current income. A popular rule of thumb suggests that you should plan on replacing 70% of what you currently make, or 80% if you want to live large.

But this guideline is deeply flawed, financial planners say. We’ll walk you through the steps to come up with a realistic estimate of how much money you’ll need to retire in style.

Sandra Block
Senior Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Block joined Kiplinger in June 2012 from USA Today, where she was a reporter and personal finance columnist for more than 15 years. Prior to that, she worked for the Akron Beacon-Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. In 1993, she was a Knight-Bagehot fellow in economics and business journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She has a BA in communications from Bethany College in Bethany, W.Va.