We're not screwed on retirement

Since I started thinking about our lack of savings, and any real sort of retirement plan, I have been worried that I would need to work until I'm 62 and then count on social security (yeah right) to enjoy the lifestyle that we now do.

But it is not so!

My goal has always been to retire when I'm 50, and either teach high school or work at a Lowe's or Blockbuster part time and reap the employee discount benefits. Well, using the compund interest rate equation, I can retire at 50 and make the same amount of money as I do now, except counting only the interest of our investments and not any job. I made some basic assumptions, did not include the cost of raising two hypothetical kids, nor did I count the increased cost of living that will occur over the next 20 years. But I also did not count any raises outside of normal, i.e. no promotional raises. But, the calcualtion does not include any company match to my 401K, nor does it count any of my pension, even though my pension is very stable since I work for a company that does not carry any debt whatsoever.


We start with $500 a month for the first year and we add $300 to the monthly savings deposits. At an everage of 8% interest, which I don't think wer could get now, but I bet over 20 years we can average, we will be sitting pretty. Yea!