How Much Money Do I Need to Retire Comfortably?

We talked about the retirement number earlier in this series. But I want to come back to it from a different angle, because "comfortably" is doing a lot of work in this question and it deserves more attention.

What does comfortable mean to you?

Not the general answer. Not the average American answer. Your specific answer. Because the research on retirement tells us that the biggest reason people end up either underprepared or over-stressed about retirement is that they are planning toward a number that is either someone else's number or no number at all.

According to Northwestern Mutual's 2026 data, Americans believe they need $1.46 million to retire comfortably. That is an average. It is the mean of millions of different answers to a question that depends heavily on where you live, how you want to live, what your health costs are projected to be, whether you own your home outright, and whether you have other income sources like Social Security or pensions.

Let me give you the math tools that are actually useful here.

The 4% rule says you can withdraw 4% of your savings annually in retirement and have that money last at least 30 years with high confidence. The updated 2026 version from the rule's creator says 4.7% may now be defensible. Using the more conservative 4% number:

If you want $40,000 per year in retirement income from savings, you need $1 million saved. If you want $60,000 per year, you need $1.5 million. If you want $80,000 per year, you need $2 million.

Now subtract what you expect from Social Security. The average monthly Social Security benefit in 2025 was approximately $1,900 per month, or about $22,800 per year. That changes the math on your personal savings target significantly.

Fidelity's simpler benchmark: have 10 times your current salary saved by age 67. If you are 40 and earning $80,000, the target is $800,000. Are you on track? This benchmark gives you a way to check your progress at any point in your working life without needing a full financial plan.

Here is the thing I want to say directly about this question. It is not too late. Not at 30. Not at 45. Not at 50. The math changes but the opportunity does not disappear. What changes at 50 is not whether you can retire comfortably. It is whether you can retire early. And there is a big difference between those two things.

The Retirement Readiness Calculator at Unleash Your Ideas shows you where you are tracking right now, what gap exists between your current trajectory and your retirement goal, and what changes to savings rate or timing would close that gap.

Your free account at Unleash Your Ideas is the home for this kind of planning. Come build your picture.