How $1,000,000 Can Be Enough For Retirement 

Retirement planning means preparing today for your future life so that you continue to meet all your goals and dreams independently.

My wife and I, who are 52 and 55 years old, are directors of our farm business and are beginning the process of preparing for retirement with the goal of depending on rental income. A live session to talk about online passive income strategies and reaching the $3 million goals of a comfortable retirement would be very appreciated.

Recently retired and unsure if my 401(k) and IRA will provide a stable future. i need an approach that will align with my risk tolerance and financial goals, i set aside $1m to achieve this. Do you suggest i get into stocks or buy a rental property?

Acquiring a stock is easy, but buying the right stock without a time-tested strategy is incredibly hard. Hence what are the best stocks to buy now or put on a watchlist? I’ve been trying to grow my portfolio of $160K for some time now, but my major challenge is not knowing the best entry and exit strategies. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

It's recommended to save at least 15% of your income in a 401k. You can use online calculators to estimate how much you should save based on your age and income. Saving at least 15% of your income in a 401(k) can help ensure that you have enough money to retire comfortably. By saving this much, you can take advantage of compound interest and potentially grow your retirement savings over time. I retired with about $950k in my 401k.

4:35 10% withdrawal rate anually??? Thats wayyyyyy too high! You receive a return of 10%, not to live off 10% of your assets. Otherwise you become a struggling retiree. You dont want that.

Inspiring video, A friend of mine referred me to a financial adviser sometime ago and we got to talking about investment and money. I started investing with $150k and in the first 2 months, my portfolio was reading $274,800. Crazy right!, I decided to reinvest my profit and get more interesting. For over a year we have been working together making consistent profit just bought my second home 2 weeks ago and care for my family

The market crash and high inflation are stressing me about retirement. Despite the challenges, I know investing is a long-term game, so I'm staying focused on the future.

People grappling with the difficulty of meeting essential expenses often encounter this situation due to inadequate savings during their working years. The decisions taken in readiness for retirement carry extensive consequences, as demonstrated within my own family dynamics. Despite my wife and i having equal tenure in civil service, differing investment approaches yielded disparate results. Guided by a financial advisor, We are both retired and still earn monthly from our investments.

10% withdrawal rate is wayyy too much

This is my fifth year after retirement. I’ve been following the 4% rule thing, but this isn’t really how hard I expected things to be. I still have about $460k outside funds in my IRA to invest in stocks. Pls how do I take advantage of the market turnaround?

For many years, bonds or other fixed-income assets could produce the yield needed to provide solid income for retirement needs, Recently my $2m holdings have been fluctuating 8% up and 20% down. I want to know; Hold on or sell off my positions and hold cash ahead of retirement?

This is insane. If you spend 10% of your retirement each year you will run out of money

We're going to use the 4% rule, so hoping to aquire $2 million to live on $80k a year..10-12% is a bit optimistic

Jade made an error here. You dont live off the 10% of your assets you get a return of 10%. You live off less than thst which most advisors say should be about 4% so you never actually take from the principal.

Please don’t withdraw 10% annually Why? 4:35 it won’t last forever this way

I think a big part of it is if you retire without a mortgage and car payments, that definitely helps.

what can I do? I have been disabled since 2009 and I am 58 years old at the verge of retirement. My portfoliio of $750k is down to $492k, How can I profit from the present market" , I mean I've heard of people making upto $250k in couple weeks during this crash and I'd like to know how.

My parents retired about 7 years ago with about $500,000. They left the crazy high cost state of CA and moved to SC. My Dad always told me the key to a secure retirement is to retire with ZERO debt, including NO MORTGAGE. When you have no debt and no mortgage your retirement will truly be the "golden years" per my Dad. Looking at my folks current situation I now know how right my Dad was! Their mo. income is about $5,000 which includes SS, dividends and a small pension. Think about this. If you had no debt how far would $5k/mo. go for you? With my folks income their $500K is essentially an emergency fund that keeps growing every year (yes, that will be my inheritance some day and will likely be well south of 7 figures). They have never had to withdraw a penny! Do they enjoy retirement? They take several week-long trips every year, they eat out when ever they want, they drive a nice can and live in a beautiful new home, etc., so yes, they have an amazing retirement. BTW, one important decision they made was to leave CA! My Dad is a smart dude! My Dad laughs when I tell him everyone on RU-vid says you need a $1M or more to retire. The bottom line is to have NO DEBT and enough income to never have to rely on your savings and investments!

Is 1 million enough? YES! Is 8-10% withdrawal rate recommended under any circumstances? No! Please don't do that.

Studies show that you are better off taking 4%-6% annually. Anything more than that increases risk. So, 4%-6% combined with social security should be more than enough.

Folks also need to keep in mind their expected Social Security checks which currently average $1800 for workers. That's $21,600 for a single, $43,200 for a couple and most it is tax free. That helps jump start the budget revenues needs.

Anyone who expects to get 10% returns each year is deluding themselves. That 10% is an average over decades. The moment you retire and depend on that money, I will 100% guarantee you, the market will drop and you will see negative to 2% returns for years. Your little timeline is what matters. You CANNOT have money in the market when you retire. It must be in a stable, income producing fund which will probably net you 2-3% per year with zero risk. Sure, you can put a little money in the market for growth and playtime. But don't put your whole $1M+ in there. You'll be greeting at Walmart to make ends meet.

Dave always cites his studies when it helps his claim that literally every millionaire is a teacher, accountant, or engineer yet won't look at the studies done over Safe Withdrawal Rates.

My real struggle is that in some markets (like the one I live in), the property taxes and insurance that remain even after your house is paid off continue to climb and it still feels like you have a never-ending house payment. In our area, this is roughly $500/mo and continues to climb, year over year. Having a paid off home is great but not necessarily all it is made out to be.

You can retire on a lot less than $1 million. The key thing to know is how much are your expenses as best as possible. That allows you to determine when to retire, when to take social security, and answer other retirement questions.

I’m 51 with no debt with about 300k in investments. I’m no where near a million lol I’m not sure I will get there but I’m trying

When I retired in 2012 I thought $1.5 million would be enough, I could pay my bills and continue to grow my savings, $1.5 million wasn't enough, need to increase my investment base to $2.5 million. I retired in 2012. In 2012 my monthly expenses (rent, food, utilities, insurance) was $1600 a month and now that exact same lifestyle, no debt, same apartment, same paid off truck, same monthly bills (rent, food, utilities, insurance) cost $3000 a month. $1600 a month rising 6% a year for 11 years = $3027, so average real inflation for last 11 years was 6%. Everybody planning for retirement needs to plan on 6% annual expense increases just to stay even.

Assuming a 11.8% annual return is unrealistic. Past performance is no indication of future results. Your portfolio should grow in value similar to the growth rate of the US economy. Not even optimistic pension funds project a 12% return.

Average in 20 to 30 years....yes! but not before....the average between 1 to 10 years in stock gains are 5 to 7 % - minus capital gain tax - minus inflation!

These guys are scary. If you bank on 12% it’s pure risk in retirement.

1 million is way more than most are ever gonna get too!

At this point, if you don’t always have an income, you are in for trouble. Things change too much, too often now

I love you guys but an average RoR @ 10%? That's a bit lofty but I'll take it since I usually factor in 5%.

Sequence of returns matter. If you retire at the start of a multi-year bear market and your portfolio declines say 50%, 8% annual withdrawal will kill your nest egg.

dave said tic tac lol. you go dave!

Biggest way to make a million go farther? Move out of high areas and retire to low cost areas. We live on the gulf coast of Mississippi. I promise you we are living pretty well on retirement returns that would have us at the food bank in a lot of places in California.

Should probably use a 4% rate of return instead of 10%

Truth be told, even 400-500k can be enough! Dependent where you live and if you have a paid off home.

Where are you going to get 10% interest?

What this doesn't take into account is that people closer to retirement and in retirement often have more conservative investments that earn less because they can't weather volitility.

If you pull 4% out annually of a $1m retirement nest egg and then couple this with social security of one or two people. You could probably live a nice retirement on around $80k a year. If you have a paid for house it would be even better. This is a good goal.

$1 millionaire is MORE than enough for retirement, even early retirement in your 40s! Consider most retirees have less than $200k saved in retirement and the average check is around $1800 per month. Don't be fooled.

Where do you get 10 percent off principle ?savings accounts?

Retire in the Philippines. Your money goes 3-4 times. You’ll have to give up a few luxuries but the trade offs can be life changing in a good way.

Should we not use the same time frame to compare inflation and stock returns ??? It seems that one affects the other which would indicate we should ...

Ever heard of sequence of returns risk?

I keep 250k in a HYSA and the rest in mutual funds. I live off the HYSA which yield a return of 5%, and when the market is up, I refill the savings account. When the market is down, I live off of the savings account which will last me 7 years at 40k a year.

Id shoot for a lower withdrawl rate....easier to do if you have more cone retirement time. 4% or 5% is a good withdrawl rate.

If you are debt free and have a low cost of living to make you happy…you can retire on less. Live off the eggs and not the chicken that laid them.

If one million isnt enough to live off with 0 debt, something is a bit off. My wife and i make over 240k a year and we live off of 50k a year.

What about sequence of return risk???

A few questions. What if the market goes down the first two years of retirement? Example, a 20% decline in portfolio plus 8%, then your $1M after one year, is down to around $720K. Dave, I love your show and you are the best at getting people out of debt but not sure about your investment advice. Not trying to be a problem, however, just because you disagree with someone doesn’t make them an idiot or moron. If I start at 4% in early years, I can always draw more; if the other way around, I’m is trouble

What the "average" has been for inflation and/or stock market over the last "75 years" doesn't factor in when you're 65 now, retiring and depend on what the "averages" will be for the NEXT 20+ years GOING FORWARD. A 65 year old retiree cannot rely on past averages if they want to live off their savings/investments dividend producing income NOW and 20+ years into the future. What happens NOW and the next 20+ years going forward is basically an unknown. I can't rely on the "past 75 years" when I'm looking 20+ years into the future and worried if the principal will be used and drawn down and ultimately run out during retirement.

Sequence of returns. Firecalc has a calculator that goes back to the beginning of the New York Stock Exchange. If you withdraw 7% for a 25 year retirement your odds of your money surviving you is 49.2%. Failure over half the time is not what I picture for a happy retirement.

Dave is so stubborn. Everyone knows a 10% withdrawal rate is way too high for the vast majority of people, especially someone retiring at 56.

How come when it comes to debt the Ramsey show assumes that the general audience are people who can't handle a credit card but when it comes to investments and retirement the general audience all has no debt and 12% annual returns?

our dollar is losing purchase power so fast no one is ever going to feel like they can retire.

Averaging 10% per year? Most financial advisors use 4%. This is why I started my channel. Also, you need to plan for unexpected health problems and possible need for long term care. LTC can be $5,000 -$8,000 per month. So, they are saying a retired person should be 100% invested in the stock market all the time?

Nobody is drawing down (or making) 10% in retirement. I can't believe this clip exists. It really makes these two look terrible.

If someone followed this advice in 2000, they’d run out of all of their money by 2011. Those math people know what they’re talking about.

I can't live with an "average" rate of return over 50 years. The years you have a lower ROI you would be pulling the principal and you would make less the next year in return. The super high return years make this hard to plan on avarages. Take all years that had say over 15 20% ROI and then run the avarages over the history.

Here is the thing: While the average returns for 75 years have been 12%, how does that in any way guarantee that will be the average in the next 75? If the pandemic proved one thing, it's that our society is quite fragile and even volatile, and the amount of rapid change that occurs in no way guarantees this type of growth.

Please tell me where you are getting 10% interest? $1,400,000 = $140,000 Never Going To Happen 😮

I’m worth about 2 million…no debt…own my home…healthy…..62 years old. Portfolio well balanced in mostly stable funds, non-aggressive…..my biggest worry is to make sure I have enough to pay for any medical/home care/nursing care, etc. as I didn’t have children.

What if you gain minus 50% and planed on living off 8%? Now you suddenly sell 16% of your portfolio per year...

But what are you supposed to do the years the market loses money?

If you have to ask yourself if it’s enough it ain’t enough. A million to someone in the Midwest is a rich retirement

I’m 24 years old I want to start saving for retirement how much should I put in also i want to retire when I’m 40 or 50

you asume it gets 10% Dave thats best it gets in ETF and mutuals you know that these crazy times i wouldnt bet on over 4 to 5

Can someone explain something. If the dividend yield isn't 10% annually, in order to live on 10% estimated annual investing returns, I will have to sell (appreciated) stock....at some point I will end up with no stocks? How can you perpetually live on this?

Isn’t it risky to be all in stocks at retirement?

Wow, that is EXTREMLY dangerous advice! Withdrawing 4% historically only ensured money for 30 years. This number goes down exponentially with a 5 and 6% withdraw. At 10% you would be broke in less than a decade!

At age 56 with monthly expenses around $8,000 and 4% inflation, that would mean by age 85, Tony's monthly expenses will be north of $25,000! Yikes! Those investments better keep pace with historical returns!

Well, that’s three or four times more than I’m gonna have when I retire so I would be thrilled with that.

I can't believe how much my life have changed since meeting Courtney Heath Williams. He has helped me become debt-free and save for retirement." I made over 220K during this dip, which made it clear there's more to the market than we average joes know. Having an investment adviser is currently the best course of action, especially for those who are close to retirement.

what type of accounts is paying 10% this year

8% WTF? Have you folks never seen the huge amount of data and analysis supporting the 4% rule? Telling someone they can count on spending 8% is some of the worse advice I have ever heard. "Living off interest" is certainly even more misleading.

No debt in the world and $50,000 a year for life would be enough for me. It depends on what that $1.5m is just the cash. Hopefully you have a paid off house in addition to that

Sorry guys but how and where is anyone 'averaging' 10% return on investments. Please tell me where? I would like a pice of this.

Those percentages do not take into account the $$ lost in the market today. If your one million lost, then you are not earning 10% on a million for, let's say, 2 years. Makes a difference.

What pays 10 percent interest?

Got to treat it like a drawdown over time

Do not withdraw 10 percent for the love of God. Please please please only live off 3-4%

It’s just not going to be 10%….more like 7-8…last year was down…..buy real estate too and hedge your bets

"assuming the American economy continues to do what it has done over the last 80 years" * *Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Please read the PDS for more information.

Kinda like the way almost no one's life happens in such a way that they open a rothira at age 20, get into a profession with a 401k by 27 and have a stable life contributing regularly for 30 - 40 years.

Managing a portfolio that averages 12% is hard for the average person to do, unless they hire someone like you Dave, who does that sort of thing all day every day. And when you hire someone that can make you an average return of 12%, after they take their VIG, (yes, I said vig because that is the proper term for a commission when you place a bet) you are not gonna get 12% it will now be 8% minus fees unless they lose money for you.

Not many people at all Make a 10% return in retirement because there normally in a 60/40 portfolio or 50/50. Not many retirees invest aggressively in retirement because all it take is one big dip u can lose 30% or more real quick

Leaving the county changes everything. Paying massive living expenses for whatever housing and fairly shit living isn't good. You can live but you'll hate your life now and in the future. Make your money, invest, and leave to have at least some sort of decent life

It's the ABSOLUTE worst advice ever! You should never tell people to withdraw 10% annually. If they do that they won't make it through 5 years of retirement. Follow Dave if you're in debt, but holy crap don't take his advice on investments.

On avg he beats the s&p almost every year lol

The question what is your lifestyle. Do you like to party and live on the edge? No amount of money is enough to fuel a life of non stop party and endless spending. If you spend on food and regular bills like utility then even a half a million is probably enough to live until your 6 feet under. A million will generate 50,000 dollar on 5% interest alone. Current savings return is 5.25% which is more than enough to get 50,000 per year on your average life style.

Should you really count on making 10% every year? How much of your net worth should be liquid in retirement?

I'd love to know how to achieve these numbers. I had a portfolio for 4-5 years and it gave me about 1-2% per annum if I was lucky - granted this was thru covid but still, it's a long way off 10-12%!

Anyone getting a 10% rate of return on their mutual funds?

I love how people have real financial questions and they’re asking radio hosts. Would you go to a barber for surgery?

What is the probability of average to low inflation for the next 20 years given the current debt level and way US government spends money?

Where in the world would would the get a 10% return with any reliability?

An overwhelming amount of households retire with far less than $1M. So it's definitely doable.