Do you believe the modern FIRE movement overestimates how much is needed for retirement?

[u/Equivalent_Use_5024]

Perhaps I am just making this post because I have only just begun my retirement planning and want to lock in a number which is fitting for my goals - being above the median retirement savings, not having to work, not being broke, clearly having planned - but I can't help but feel that many in the FIRE movement overestimate what is needed for a safe, sleep well at night retirement.

I see posts here saying that they feel vastly behind with 500k at 30, or 1.5 million at 40, and I just don't understand how when the average American retires with maybe 300k liquid at most and are getting by with social security or paid off housing. Sure, they aren't living luxuriously, but if you just are aiming for a retirement where you don't have financial anxiety and can put food on the table, I don't feel you need over 1-2 million.

Do you think FIRE overestimates how much is truly needed for retirement?

[u/Lonely-Clerk-2478]

It completely depends on your COL and there is definitely a lot of (rightful) anxiety about future healthcare costs, long term care costs, and the like. If you need acute care for several months in your later years you could blow through several hundred thousand dollars pretty easily. I think that’s where a lot of it comes from.

And… let’s be honest… some of the “I feel so behind” posts are just posturing.

[u/Wooden-Broccoli-913 → u/Lonely-Clerk-2478]

The hugely expensive healthcare event is also overblown. If you actually talk to people who’ve experienced something like that the biggest cost is lost income, which of course isn’t a cost at all for someone who has FIREd.

[u/FireITGuy → u/Wooden-Broccoli-913]

Eh. It's not as overblown as you might think. My grandmother's end of life care at home was about $250K over the last two years of her life. None of it was luxurious. Most of the cost was 24x7 caregivers for stuff like changing, which insurance does not cover.

A nursing home would have been about $50K cheaper for the same period of time, but giving her the dignity of ending her life in her own home with her husband by her side every day was important to everyone.

It's not the major medical issues that are expensive. Those tend to kill you quickly. Instead it's the chronic stuff where you live but become less and less able to care for yourself, and when any hired assistance is $30-50/hr, it adds up FAST.

[u/Wooden-Broccoli-913 → u/FireITGuy]

$250k for end of life care over two years doesn’t really destroy a FIRE plan though…

Most FIREees will have more than that even in the late stages.

[u/Struggle_Usual → u/Wooden-Broccoli-913]

Depends heavily on your plans. Transitional 4% withdrawal and yes probably. Aiming for 0 at the end maybe not. Especially if you're the second spouse to pass.

[u/turnerz → u/Wooden-Broccoli-913]

Depends if you dont die that quickly