One of the first things people do when they get serious about planning for retirement is look at a retirement calculator to find out how much they need to save. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, every person’s situation is different. What might be the right amount for one person will not be right for another. For example, someone who is happy staying home and fishing at their local lake will need less than someone who plans to travel frequently and fish in the Florida Keys. These are the types of things a retirement calculator might not consider.

You may have heard some financial advisors try to answer this question very broadly. For instance, one popular notion is that you’ll need one million dollars in savings to retire comfortably. Another is that you’ll need to be able to generate 80% of your current income after you retire. So, if you brought home $100,000 per year during your working years, you would need to get $80,000 per year from your investments. But again, taking a broad approach to this question is pointless because each person’s situation is different based on their retirement timeline, goals, health, and other issues.