How to know if you are saving enough for retirement

Here's a quick retirement savings calculator to help you determine if you are saving enough for retirement each month based on your current household income.

Are you on the right track?

The calculator requires your input of:

1. Your household income,
2. Your expected Social Security Income,
3. Your current age,
4. Your expected retirement age,
5. Your expected years of retirement,
6. The amount you would like to leave to your children/charities (if any), and
7. Your current retirement savings (including the present value of any bequests you may anticipate).

The calculator makes several assumptions that you can adjust:

1. 2% expected average inflation rate until retirement,
2. 2% expected average inflation rate during retirement,
3. 6% expected annual rate of return on your investments during retirement, and
4. 7% expected average retirement rate on your investments leading up to retirement.

Retirement Savings Calculator

How did you do?

Remember that this retirement savings calculator is just a quick tool that gives you a sense of where you are right now. The inflation rates and the investment return rates are fixed in the calculator. To get a better sense of how steady or unsteady your path is toward retirement security, you would want those inputs to be dynamic.

Clients of the Law Office of Zachary D Kamykowski, PLLC, who opt for Retirement Planning receive a report that provides an estimate of their retirement security based on dynamic inputs and run through multiple monte carlo simulations.

There are several ways to increase your retirement security. Generally, you hear variations on the following: you could save more, work longer, or die earlier. As unpalatable as the first two options seem, they are probably less so than the last option. Alternatively, you could rely on luck: winning the lottery or investing in your children and winning that lottery.

Of course, there are other ways. You could save smarter, allocate better, take advantage of tax laws, invest strategically, and once you have a plan, make it more difficult to deviate from it (e.g., Odysseus tying himself to the mast to avoid the song of the Sirens). These are the kinds of strategies that likely require the help of a trusted advisor.

I encourage you to request further information if you are interested in some strategies to help you save smarter. Further posts will touch on the other ways to improve your retirement security.