I am such a sucker for calculators that purport to tell me if I'm going to have a comfortable retirement.
Or not.
It would be nice if the calculators agreed among themselves.
They don't.
Andrea Coombes at the Wall Street Journal reports on Calculating Your Retirement Nest Egg . She runs one scenario through several different calculators and comes up with several different results.
JLP at All Matters Financial goes her one better and lists a number of additional calculators.
I, of course, tried them all. My favorite is is the Nationwide Calculator which says I'm well on my way to a comfortable retirement, while the AARP Calculator thinks I'll fall short by several hundred thousand dollars.
Maybe I should do less calculating and more saving!
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2 comments:
All retirement calculators have pluses & minuses, however, I don't recall any indicating current possessions. Before we retired about 3 years ago (57 & 60) we made sure we had stuff we needed for a good retirement. Stuff being furniture with 10 - 15 years more use, all the kitchen equipment we would need,high quality bed & bath linens,hand & power tools, garden tools, and especially really good quality leisure time equipment. For us that meant besides the kitchen stuff because I like to cook, craft tools like good water color paint brushes, sewing machine, hand wood working tools, & tennis rackets. For friends that meant golf clubs and kayak which would have cost several thousand dollars. No, we did not stockplie lots of stuff and yes, we will have to replace some things but knowing that our 'life equipment' will last means we do not have to have as large a money base as some other people. Also, we own everything we have - our house, truck & van (which we have decided we don't need and is going to be sold), have no credit card debt, live very frugally and are healthy & happy. So, from someone who 'has been there, done that', pay attention to all aspects of retirement, not just money.
Hi Bellen,
You bring up a point that I had not considered. But it is an excellent idea to buy one's retirement toys prior to retirement (and AFTER paying off the pre-retirement debt!
Thanks for dropping by.
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