Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The Takeaway

NPR radio show this morning, "THE TAKEAWAY."

Some commenters think I should be taken away....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How did you arrive at the $800k number for a good retirement? The tagline of your blog says you'll play anything for $15 a day...how about a retirement seminar? Real life finances for real life? Does buying a house get included in that $1000/mo sock away? (assuming you don't take out a home equity with an ARM).
-zimaroll

Mungowitz said...

To be able to retire, you should have an amount X that is enough to generate 80% of your current income, assuming a rate of return of 5%.

But that means (if you current income is Y) that X=(Y*.8)/.05

So, in my example, that means that someone earning $50k / year needs (50k*.8)/.05=800k.

And THAT means that you need to have saved 10k by the time you are 35, and put away 1k per month after that, to retire at age 65. Your income at age 65 would be 40k/year, again assuming 5% return.