If you earn $100,000 a year and want to maintain that income into retirement, plus account for inflation, how much would you actually need to save? That’s the question Eric, a GOBankingRates reader, recently submitted as part of our Top 100 Money Experts series. To help answer it, we turned to Jamie Hopkins, CEO of Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors, chief wealth officer for WSFS Bank and a Wall Street Journal best-selling author.
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Hopkins has extensive experience guiding clients on retirement planning and wealth management, and his insights can help anyone looking to determine how much they need in their retirement nest egg.
To give Eric a broad sense of what he might need, Hopkins shared a general rule of thumb: If you’re 10 years or more from retirement, you will likely need about 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your lifestyle.
Since Eric makes $100,000 a year, that translates to roughly $70,000 annually. But that begs another question: How much would Eric need in savings to generate that amount of money?
“A short-form analysis is that for a 30-year retirement, you need 25 times that amount, or $1,750,000 saved for retirement,” Hopkins said. “That assumes you have no Social Security benefits. The average Social Security benefit for 2025 is about $2,000 a month, or $24,000 a year. Adding this to the equation, you’re likely right around $1.1 million.”
Hopkins was clear that this estimate is a conservative starting point, as it does not account for the nuances of Eric’s specific finances.
“If you work past 65, have more in Social Security, or spend less in retirement, you could need far less in savings,” he added.
There’s rarely a smooth, perfect path that leads you to the ideal number for a comfortable retirement. Both external and personal factors — like inflation, general health or expected longevity — can have a profound impact on how much you’ll need.
“When we talk about how much money you’ll need in retirement, everything starts with the assumptions,” Hopkins said. “Retirement age, life expectancy and inflation are the three biggest drivers of the math.”
He encouraged readers to think of their retirement savings goals as a “moving target,” subject to change depending on any of these key factors. He broke down how each one could affect the outcome:
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Retirement age: To retire at 65 or 70 — that is the question. How you answer it could change the numbers dramatically. “Those extra years of earning — and fewer years of drawing down your portfolio — make a huge difference,” Hopkins said. “Pushing back Social Security for a few years can also have a huge impact.”
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Life expectancy: One of the biggest mistakes retirees make is underestimating how long they’ll live, leaving them vulnerable to outliving their savings. Hopkins recommends planning for at least 30 years in retirement. Of course, retiring later naturally shortens the period of withdrawals.
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Inflation: Hopkins noted that even at 2% to 3% per year, the cost of living doubles roughly every 25 years. If a reader like Eric wants $100,000 of purchasing power today, he might need $200,000 or more annually in the later retirement years.