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Comment by baccredited | Hacker News Reader

Fun fact: Save 70% of your income and use it to buy ticker VOO (Vanguard's S&P 500 fund) and you can retire in under 10 years

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-sim...

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But first you'll need to invent a time machine to start investing in a period when the S&P didn't have a whopping 25x P/E. And then you'll need to find a way to intervene in central banks and global markets so that a 4% withdrawal rate is sustainable in the new era of ZIRP and NIRP where projected future returns for nearly all asset classes are close to nothing and often negative after inflation. Good luck!

> Save 70% of your income

Oh, is that all?! ;)

And if the S&P drops like it did in 1987, 2000, 2008, then what...?

Then just wait for a few years and it will recover again. https://www.google.com/finance?q=INDEXSP:.INX

Who will pay the bills in the meantime?

Just run your projections through http://www.firecalc.com/index.php and project what your historical odds of going bust are.

I always tell anyone thinking about retirement: buy a safe annuity that will cover all your income needs before you retire. That way you will never outlive the money you need to survive. You can [probably should!] keep the rest of your money in more aggressive investments, but since you don't know how long you will live you should insure that you will have enough to live on for the rest of your life. If you can't afford such an annuity you can't afford to retire.

... if the market does well ...

How close to FI are you?

5 yrs 11 months. You?

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