12/4/2013 – How to calculate the true cost of retirement (MarketWatch)
In the past, experts routinely said you needed to replace 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income for your golden years. Plus, the experts said, your retirement income need was assumed to increase annually at the rate of inflation for the duration of your retirement. And experts would routinely use 30 years as the standard duration of retirement.
But David Blanchett, the head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management, says those rules of thumb/assumptions are shortcuts that when combined can overestimate the true cost of retirement for many investors.
Read the full article at MarketWatch.