The poll, or it's results are a bit misleading. What you need for retirement varies on multiple factors. An incomplete list:
- How long do you intend to live? If you are fit, parents/grandparents living into their 90s you need more tucked away than the overweight person whose parents passed in their 60s.
- Standard of living: If you've living on a $50,000 salary, you need far less than the person that says "I'm not rich" but spends over $150,000 a year, and still socks money away.
- Options: People break down when they get old. Who is going to help you out? Kids are much cheaper than an assisted living center.
- Kids. 2 edged sword here. They can help you out, but you might want to leave them, or your grandkids a little something when you pass, so you need to save for them. If you are like me and have no kids, you have no worries about being felted at death. Reverse mortgages are the no-inheritor's friend.
Finally,
@DrStrange nailed it with the inflation. Personally, I don't think $1,000,000 is livable for 20 years. Medical costs go up far more than any other item in the Consumer Price Index. As you get older, medical costs become a much bigger piece of your expenditure pie, so that high rate of inflation is compounded.
My current plan is to retire at age 64, provided I'm still fit enough to keep fighting fires at that advanced age. At that time, I will have a projected $1,921,904 (yep, I'm a spreadsheet geek that likes everything very to be well calculated). That amount should carry me along to my death (life expectancy: 76 years), and carry Mrs Zombie well into her 80s.
Yeah, retirement planning can't be done without looking at your expected life-span. Some call it morbid. I call it practical.
If you are having a hard time saving now, there are always late-life options that you can start practicing for now. Find a nice slab of concrete and stand on it for 6 hours. Every 5 minutes, say "Welcome to Wal-Mart".
I'll bet "retirement savings" moves
way up your list of things that are important.
