retirement income

i posted a few weeks ago that i thought it was seriously out of line that common knowledge says that you need 85% of your pre-retirement income in retirement. i figured it was maybe a good rule of thumb, but still, seemed way out of line. in retirement, you've hopefully paid for your home and have a lot of the 'growing up' expenses out of the way -- putting your kids through college, buying new cars, etc.

well, i finally came across an article that backed up my notions: scott burns wrote an article about the exact same thing a week or more ago.

one of the more salient points mentions this:

In fact, if you are married, had and educated children, financed the purchase of a home or paid off student loans, odds are the 70 percent to 85 percent rule doesn't apply to you.

That's a lot of people.

a whole lot of people, i'd say. it's definitely something that i'm aiming for in my own life and certainly something that i'd venture to say that a good number of people across the nation and the world would say the same about.

it certainly doesn't mean that we'll be able to live off a meager retirement fund, but it does take some of the emphasis off the big numbers that we've seen in the past.