How much do I need to retire?

A good question, and one that all of us will have to answer. But How Much is Enough?

Consider that there are four financial possibilities when you retire:

1. You have enough money to retire comfortably and take care of all living expenses for the rest of your life.

2. You do not have enough money to retire on and you cannot afford to enjoy retirement.

3. You run out of money due to some catastrophic event and have to go back to work. I have known several people who have had this happen. In most cases, medical expenses ate up their savings.

4. You could just live too long and run out of money. In this case, maybe social security may take care of you. But your standard of living could go way down.

The last three are not acceptable to most of us and that fact will cause many of us to continue to work or look for other ways to make money to supplement our retirement income. Unfortunately, working for someone else is the only way many people know how to create more income and they will get a job of some kind. The real problem with this is that no work equals no pay. But a lot of us will look at our own capabilities and desires and find ways to keep busy and earn retirement money at the same time.

No matter why we continue to look for ways to make more money in retirement, it is always necessary to research all the options and find something that works, that is sustainable and that we enjoy doing.