if you’re more willing and able to be flexible or take chances and want to retire sooner, there are a number of reasons that a 25x target may be overkill for you.
Most of the chatter around the 4% rule is that 25x may not be enough, and I clearly do not disagree. I also recognize the fact that most people will never get that far ahead and that it may be okay to retire, even early.
Paid work is becoming a more common aspect of many people’s retirements. Yes, it’s possible to retire from something and still be productive in some capacity afterward.
I know physicians working for the Veterans Administration, Mayo Clinic, and Kaiser Permanente who are all looking at high-five-to-six-figure pension plans to fund their retirements.
For those of us who didn’t choose an employer offering such a benefit, or didn’t stay with them long enough to qualify, Social Security will likely pay us a fixed income at some point.
Thirty years is a long time. If you retire early at 55, you’ve got an excellent chance of having money, and quite possibly a lot of money, left at age 85.
If you retire “on time” at 65 with a 4% withdrawal rate, your odds of running out of money by 95 are slim (and that’s without factoring in Social Security).