How much do you need to retire?

There is no useful national “magic number”

Two households with the same investment balance can have very different retirement outcomes. One may own a paid-off home and receive a pension. Another may rent, claim Social Security later, and expect higher healthcare costs. A single savings multiple cannot represent both plans.

A more useful question is: how much of your retirement spending must your invested assets cover each year? That gap can change over time as debt ends, Social Security begins, housing changes, or healthcare costs grow.

Build the target from five moving parts

1. Retirement timing. Retiring earlier gives assets less time to grow and creates more years to fund.
2. Retirement spending. Separate essential living, discretionary spending, housing, and routine healthcare so one total does not hide the largest drivers.
3. Income streams. Social Security, pensions, and other income reduce the amount the portfolio must provide—but only after each stream actually begins.
4. Existing assets and contributions. Retirement-designated balances form the asset pool. Emergency cash should not be counted unless you intentionally assign it to retirement.
5. Planning horizon and assumptions. Investment returns, inflation, healthcare growth, and the age through which you plan can materially change the result.

A cash-flow target is different from the 25× shortcut

The Rule of 25 can be a quick educational benchmark, but it assumes a fixed relationship between annual withdrawals and assets. It does not naturally show a pension beginning at 65, Social Security beginning at 70, or debt disappearing at 73.

BonusMetric instead projects each year from retirement through the selected planning age. The result shows projected assets at retirement, the income gap or surplus, additional reserve needed, asset trajectory, and depletion age when applicable.

Keep every input on one purchasing-power scale

The calculator uses today’s dollars. Enter the retirement lifestyle you could recognize at current prices, then compare the result with what housing, food, transportation, and healthcare cost today. Inflation-adjusted real returns keep the projection on that same scale.

What to do if the result shows a gap

A gap is not a verdict. Test one change at a time: retire later, save more each month, reduce discretionary spending, lower housing costs, or pay off debt before retirement. Seeing which lever changes the result most is more useful than chasing a generic savings target.

Next, read how to judge whether your current plan appears funded, or run the calculator with your own assumptions.