I understand there are general rules whether they be percentages of income and or calculated/estimated expenses but it all seems to end up the same way any time I try to see if it'll be enough. I've tried online calculators, manual calculators, the calculators through fidelity which has my 401k and a couple in person retirement folks.
Per fidelity just today I'll either at 100 years old have 89 million dollars or I'll run out of money by 66. Retirement planners have all said I'm fine but I may want to save more in case everything doesn't work out as well as it could, except for those who wanted to sell sell sell their product the only way I might survive. 
I've been putting away the max into my 401k split into roth and traditional since I don't believe that roth will be all puppies and rainbows 30 years from now. They have very low cost funds which I'd choose outside so I don't lose anything by staying inside. There is also decent company match and an end of year additional match based on company performance. My spouse gets money taken from their check and matched to a state municiple retirement account and for the last couple years started additionally putting money in a 457 plan as I'm hitting the 401k employee contribution cap. Overall I'd estimate about 35k a year is going in to all of those through our input or a match. I've also restarted a non retirement investment account that had gotten hit pretty hard when we were forced to move and hold two houses at the same time.
Has anyone found a reasonable savings rate or plan that has made them comfortable? Finding a balance between saving everything and not living now with the chance of not even getting that far vs living at some higher level and then not having enough to live seems to be impossible. My parents working at 70+ never to retire because they get insurance through work and couldn't afford medicaid with the neccessary additional schedules to cover their existing medical/prescriptions. Almost makes me want to cash out and go have that mid life crisis spending spree.
I don't know how much this will help but i do recall reading somewhere of 50/30/20 rule. 50% goes to your needs like food utilities mortgages etc. 30% goes to things you want like new set of clubs or new tv and the such, and 20% goes to how much you should saving. That would include money going into savings account and your retirement. As far as how much to put into retirement an year for me . At the very least I would like to hit employer match on 401k and max out roth ira. I know not everybody can do that , but thats the goal i try to reach each year.
@Ldulsi wrote:Thanks. I have seen that a bit. I've even seen where the 50/30/20 is with money left that your not saving to retirement with the 20% savings being for emergencies and long term savings goals like buying a car, house etc. That is somewhat the problem it is absolutely all over the place and the more I look the messier it gets.
One other number in my head is the rule of 300. You take what you spend or estimate to spend (an impossible number due to health insurance costs) and multiply it by 300. It accounts for reasonable inflation and a not overly optimistic return rate but basically at the point you have 300 times your monthly spending you supposidly can live forever and never drop your savings.
I try my best to stick to something similar to that 50/30/20. Its comes out more to 50% for needs, and try to have the remaining 50% go to retirement and savings.
@KoolDev wrote:My Dad's biggest fear was not having enough for health needs when he retired. He was going to retire next march. He passed away in June after having surgery to remove a small spot of cancer on his liver. He had between stocks, annuities, bonds, checking account and maybe something else, about 400k. I am learning about all this now as i try to plant for retirement in 20 yrs. He preached putting 15 to 20% of my income into my 401k. Well im up to 8% lol. But, i worry about having cash incase of emergencies.
I still do not have an emergency fund (45k) in cash. I am on the way to be debt free, gonna take about 9 more months. Mongstradamus has the right idea, 50% to be saved. Hopefully I will be there soon !
If you are worried about emergencies this is what i do , since i fell behind investing for retirement. I put emergency funds into my roth IRA, It will grow tax free, and in case of an emergency you can take it out with no fees. The one thing is that you can only put in 5500 an year. Also once you hit the 5500 cap and you take out money from it , you can't put anymore into it for that year since you hit your 5500 cap . At the very least each year i try to do employer match in 401k since its like you are throwing money away, and max out ira. I try to finish capping 401k but i am usually well short, need to get an better paying job i guess :-(