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WHEN I WAS IN MY early 30s, I decided to determine “the number.” What would be enough money to allow me to retire, and what was the path to get there?
Personal computers were newly available, so I decided to work this out in Lotus 1-2-3. There was no internet to speak of. Investment companies didn’t have online calculators running Monte Carlo simulations that incorporated hundreds of possible retirement outcomes and spat out a most-likely scenario with a 95% confidence level.
Instead, I developed my own rudimentary retirement planner, starting with the premise that my wife and I could live comfortably on $50,000 a year in 1991 dollars. I made several assumptions. Some would, today, make a financial planner cringe:
I created the spreadsheet and used my investment balance as a base. I plugged in my assumptions and ran it out to age 85. It showed I could achieve my goal, which was to retire in my mid-50s.
Compared to the online calculators available today, it wasn’t very sophisticated. Regardless of how “the number” is calculated, however, putting a plan in black and white provided me with some savings discipline. It allowed me to know:
There was something about going through this thought process and creating the spreadsheet that solidified my thinking. Each year, I diligently compared my actual investment totals to my target.
As time went by, I updated the spreadsheet with new assumptions. I brought down my withdrawal rate and assumed investment return to more reasonable levels. I increased my savings contributions faster than anticipated. I also extended the planning horizon to age 100. And, yes, when they became available, I used online calculators to validate my plan.
I recently found a 1995 copy of my one-page plan printed by a dot-matrix printer. It said I would meet my goal by 2012—the year I did actually retire.
Was your target income still $50,000 adjusted by 8%? Seems like with SS and pension income you may have even overshot the mark – which of course is not bad.
The 8% was meant to be conservative but I eventually brought it down to 5% when inflation was “tamed.”
I’m impressed that in your early 30s you were already planning your retirement path. In my early 30s, still a carefree bachelor then, I was just thinking about where to go for Happy Hour on Friday.
Andrew, it is possible to do both at the same time….