General Discussion

Fortunately, we have been able to save considerably more than that without a life of austerity or too many sacrifices.

I've been retired for four years while my spouse is still working for a few more. We never had taxable incomes above 6 figures, but lived rather modestly in an affordable area, in the same house we started out with 32 years ago, refinanced from 30 to 15 years, and paid it off. We both worked, had no children (but 3 dogs), and contributed approx. 6% or so to a 401k with a company match (some, but not all of the time). Bought one new car every 6 years for my spouse while I would drive the old one for another 6 years, so only one car payment at a time, plus I do all my own repairs. Vacations were driving to Florida with the dogs to stay with my mother for a couple weeks every year. My post retirement activities cost me nothing and actually produce some income, so that is a plus.

Consolidated all the various 401k from different jobs into one IRA. Fortunately, we never had to touch the IRA even during times of unemployment, didn't panic when there were losses or try and time the market, and was able to just let it continue to rise over time. I've had to make some withdrawals of course, but so far it's continued to gain more than I have taken out.