Financial awesomeness
I just discovered two really excellent and easy-to-use/understand retirement calculators from Vanguard (who else?) These are both essential tools for planning for retirement. They will help you determine if you’re going to run out of money in retirement, how much to save for retirement, and how to retire earlier.
#1 Retirement nest egg
The first one computes the likelihood that your portfolio will last in retirement given your spending amounts, how much you start with, and what your asset allocation is.
This is a great tool for determining how much you’ll need in retirement, and if your current nest egg will get you through retirement. You can even include information about any company matching you might receive
It also gives you a feel for the safety of different asset allocations.
The second calculator shows you how much more money you’ll have in retirement if you increase your current contributions by 1 to 2%. You can also use it to simulate how much you’ll have if you increased your contributions beyond that, or with whatever other variables you want to look at.
