What's Your Number?

We teach our kids our home phone numbers as soon as they can count, but we often don't think about another important "number" in our lives. When asked this question, most of us cringe or turn around and walk the other direction.

What's "the number"? It is the amount of money you need in order to retire and feel safe and secure for your glory years. Don't stop reading just yet.

Even if you haven't done a lot of planning for your retirement (or even if you have), just take a quick minute and figure out how much money you actually need.

Say you want to retire at age 55 and you plan on living until you are 95. That's forty years. Do you want to travel around the world or play golf every weekend? Think about your current expenses and what may change by that time. Will your mortgage be paid off? Or will you want to buy a condo at the beach?

Simply take the amount you think you will need every year and times it by 40. For example, if you want to live on $50,000 per year, you will need 2 million for retirement. Very interesting to actually see a number.

For more info, you can listen to a podcast at:
http://www.vanguard.com/thenumber

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