Wise sages of 2+2 -- How much should one have saved before retiring?

[Ray Zee]

who knows what things will cost in later years. save whatever you can and then deal with that. you cant do anything more.

but save at least ten percent of what you make gross. more is better.

if you are enterprising at all you will still make money when you retire at something. so you may not need what you think. having a home paid for is the biggest thing to not have over your head at retirement. then costs go way down.

at retirement you will basically be living off what money market rate you get from your nest egg and social sec. plus whatever you can earn.

[ImBetterAtGolf]

Regardless of the figure you determine, realize that it is estimated with a lot of error. You don't know how much you will need (lots of things can change), you don't know your future investment returns, inflation rate, life span, or even tax rate. So, estimate what you will need, but then save enough to comfortably exceed that sum. It might be smarter to think about keeping adequately low the probability that you will not have enough.