To answer @mcat2 Two major considerations which can affect level to have in retirement investments. If you do not have LTC insurance policies in place, they are getting way too expensive for the benefits - so I would consider having extra build up of assets in the event that extended care is ever needed by H or W. H and I purchased LTC ins when we were young and healthy - I believe in 2002/2003 time frame - so we were around 45/46.
I had stage III cancer at age 52 - so would never qualify after that for LTC insurance. I laugh when Dave Ramsey says look around for this at age 60, but to qualify and also to have lower rates, that is too late! Also who knows when someone would have a stroke, brain cancer, major accident, etc that could debilitate for LTC ins to kick in. When we purchased our LTC insurance, we bought extremely good policies - we had a 10 year rate guarantee (could have had plan rewritten with 20 year rate guarantee with same company, but at the time I figured it was OK to leave in place - we have just had 3 years of escalating premiums, but then it is level again - they have to go through State Ins Commission to justify/approve the new rates). So we pay premiums, but it is like catastrophic insurance for LTC. May never need to use (that is our hope!) We pay maybe 1/3 of what very limited new policies have now in premiums.
Another major consideration is medical insurance and medical needs (and if you have medical needs of any family members that you are responsible for). H and I are pretty healthy (I am 5 years cancer free now; I would consider H in excellent health). H is working until we both qualify for Medicare. These are also high income years for him, and we are continuing to build up retirement, versus drawing money off. Some people buy medical coverage and retire before 65 - and they must believe they have enough $$ built up and their bases covered to retire. Some may decide to get out of a high stress job and maybe take a small job to pay the extra for insurance. Some people actually are in poor health - how many times do you hear of someone retiring and dying a short time later.
A third area is considering housing and what you have tied up in real estate and maintenance/overall costs. We will have our home paid for (since paying on the last amount which is at 2.5% interest, again we don’t follow Dave Ramsey’s advice because we don’t feel the ‘risk’ in the home mortgage payments). However we want to fix up to sell, and perhaps have a smaller place/lower cost housing in two locations. So we are planning on that. H is very handy so will have projects that he will like.
Another is if you still have kids not fully launched, for whatever reasons. Our kids are 19 and 21, and are successful in college, but still in college. They will be launched for us hopefully and stay in good financial order as adults.
One ‘risk’ we have had is not having a big enough emergency fund. However now that H will be turning 59.5 in Dec, that ‘risk’ has been taken out with age and access to 401k funds and other retirement funds which are very healthy in our case.
I do like Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman. However H and I are older than Dave Ramsey and learned a lot and had things set in place pretty well before listening to him. One kid is very good on being thrifty, the other had Dave’s HS class and has learned from that and our preaching/experiences and how we have things financially set up for them. They will have no student loan debt, nor will we. We paid off H’s relatively small student loans very quickly - like within a year after graduating; two incomes living under one while building up and buying first home early/when young.
I have learned a lot from CC threads, and am reading up on various things for us to think about and set in place so we have a smooth way to transition to retirement.
Something to think about is the income/expense in retirement.
Probably a good idea to get on a written budget now, and plan ahead - what do you want to do in retirement and how will your budget handle?
Too many variables to set a certain $$ amount.
