You don’t necessarily need the same income you had during your working years to live comfortably in retirement. By retirement, your home might be paid off, and you won’t have to spend money to commute to a job if you’re no longer working.
But generally speaking, you probably want to replace the majority of your former income so you’re able to not only cover your essential bills, like housing and healthcare, but enjoy retirement to the fullest.
To get there, though, you can’t just rely on Social Security. You need a good chunk of your retirement income to come from savings you accumulate yourself. But how much of your paycheck should you be setting aside for the future? Here’s what Vanguard has to say.
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Save now for a financially stable future
Vanguard research finds that saving 12% to 15% of earnings could help workers today retire comfortably. But is that good advice? Well, let’s take a look.
Imagine you’re in your mid-40s and earning $60,000 a year. Social Security estimates that your monthly retirement benefit will be $2,182 at full retirement age (which is 67), or about $26,000 a year.
So let’s say you save 12% of your paycheck each year, or $7,200 annually ($600 a month). If you do that over 30 years and manage to score an 8% average annual return in your retirement account, which is a bit below the stock market’s average (10%), you stand to accumulate about $800,000.
If you then withdraw 4% of that balance each year in retirement, which is consistent with what financial experts have long recommended, you’re left with $32,000. Add $26,000 in Social Security, and you’re got $58,000.
That puts you in an absolutely wonderful position. You’re basically replacing almost your entire $60,000 salary. And that level of savings gives you a cushion in case Social Security ends up having to cut benefits, which you may have heard is a possibility.
What if you can’t save 12% to 15% of your salary?
Saving 12% to 15% of your salary each year for retirement may be good advice — but it’s also very difficult to do. This especially holds true in today’s economy, where everything seems to be overwhelmingly expensive, from food to utility bills to entertainment.
So if you can’t part with that large a chunk of your salary today, don’t stress about it. Instead, save what you can now and aim to increase your contributions toward retirement once your income picks up. If your salary increases by $2,000 in 2025 and your bills only rise by $500, put the remaining $1,500 straight into your employer’s 401(k) before you get used to spending it.
Remember, too, that if you save and invest for retirement over a long period of time, smaller contributions to your nest egg can go a long way. So while following the above advice could set you up for a great retirement, don’t assume there’s no middle ground. You’re better off saving 2% of your salary if that’s what you can afford than saving nothing at all year after year.
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