When $1.5 Million Isn’t Enough for Retirement
Q: I am 76 and have been retired for more than 10 years. I have $1.5 million. Is that enough to last till I am 100? How do I make sure I am on track? - William Ricketts
A: It may be surprising that someone who still has $1.5 million a decade into retirement would need to ask if it's enough. But it's a legitimate worry. “Whether $1.5 million is enough depends on your lifestyle and spending,” says Theodore Saade, a senior partner at Signature Estate & Investment Advisors in Los Angeles.
Let's put that $1.5 million in perspective. Using a traditional 4% annual withdrawal rate (increased each year for inflation), a 66-year-old retiring with that amount could safely start out with an income of $60,000 a year, assuming a 30-year time horizon. If you have $1.5 million at age 76, you can withdraw a bit more—perhaps 6% or 7% year—without risking a major decline in your living standards if markets dip. That works out to an income of $90,000 to $105,000.
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You may not even need to withdraw that much, since you most likely have Social Security income too. A typical single person earning $75,000 a year who claims at full retirement age might receive a payout of $24,000 a year. For a couple, Social Security could easily provide a combined $30,000 to $40,000 a year. All of which suggests you can probably maintain a six-figure income with little risk of running short in retirement.
Whether that income is really enough, however, depends on your spending needs and your financial goals, which might include helping one or more grandkids pay for college or leaving money to heirs. To see if you’re on track, plug in your expenses into a planning calculator, such as Fidelity’s Retirement Income Planner; and to see how long your money will last, try our retirement calculator here.
These projections assume you are keeping your assets invested in a mix of bonds and stocks. Even at 76, you're still investing for two or more decades, so you need to keep some money in stocks for growth. “It’s not uncommon to live into your 90s and even to 100, and the number of people who do is growing,” says Saade. If you stash that $1.5 million only in low-yielding but stable investments, such as Treasury bonds and money market funds, you may feel more secure. But over those decades, inflation can severely erode your nest egg.
Looking beyond your portfolio, there's an even bigger risk to consider: incurring medical bills and, especially, long-term care costs. While more people are living longer and healthier lives, the older you get, the more likely it is that you will have some health issues. About 70% of people turning 65 today will eventually need at least some kind of long-term care, which isn't generally covered by Medicare.
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So it makes sense to plan ahead by checking out costs for long-term care in your area. These prices vary widely by region, but the average stay in an assisted living facility can run $42,000 year, while nursing home care may cost $77,000 or more. Granted, not everyone will need years of expensive care—the average nursing home stay is less than a year. Even so, it’s better to understand your costs and options, says Saade. Odds are, with the right planning, $1.5 million will be enough to meet most of your goals.
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