There are several ways to calculate how much money you need to retire. One of the simplest followed by many financial planners is to estimate your retirement goal by multiplying your gross income by 25 percent. This is popularly known as "The 4-percent rule," which assumes that your retirement investments will be able to support you through retirement if you withdrawal no more than an average of four percent from your investments.
In this video example, I use the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) free investment tools at investor.gov. We can use their Compound Interest Calculator and Savings Goal Calculator to determine exactly how much we need to save each month to reach our investment goals. This question comes from a 26-year-old listener who makes six figures between two jobs. His goal is to retire early by age 50. This financial independence / retire early (FIRE) example gives us a 25-year investment window. I use the SEC tools to estimate an estimated annual interest rate of 7 percent with an interest rate variance range of three percent for a total investment estimate covering 3 to 10 percent annual returns.
Video: How To Estimate Your FI/RE Number
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