How are you guys calculating your fire age? I have been trying to find a blend of calculators, but haven't found one that I feel is accurate. They all tell me that I need $3 million to retire, but I can do basic math and feel like they are way off base.
Basically, when I look at it, I figure I can retire when my earnings on my money are enough to cover my expenses. For example, I expect a rate of return of about 5% into retirement. I expect to be debt free when I retire (or I wont retire) and will only need about $30k a year (pre-tax), which seems high to me with no debt, but I want to be comfortable. So I assume this means I need about $600k to retire comfortably. And this doesn't even factor in SSN or the fact that I have $600k to pull from. That would be my safety net.
Am I oversimplifying this? Why would my fire number be so dramatically different from the "experts"? Why would anyone need $3 million to retire on? Does this assume everyone will carry the same expenses into retirement?
