Did you tell them you want to donate $25k/y to your alma mater, or is that something they just manufactured based on... wanting to pad their numbers, maybe?
Also, for me, truly the most magical part of MMM was also perhaps the most simple... the 4% rule. I feel sort of foolish for not figuring it out on my own, but I'd done multiple retirement calculators and worked with a financial advisor, and have a huge range of answers for the amount I needed for retirement. That's what made retirement so scary and overwhelming. Which was correct--the calculator that said I needed "only $2.5m, or the one that said $5? *spoiler alert*--It's neither of those!