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$1.5M is a ridiculously high target. If you retire at age 60, you have a 20 year life expectancy (males) and 24 years for females. With $1.5M you can spend $50k a year for thirty years without even factoring in continued earnings on that money or $20k/year in social security payments. Once you do factor those in, you'll die with more than the $1.5M you started with in retirement funds.

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Right, and you'd have to save over three thousand dollars, every single month, for forty years, to reach that goal.

This math is grossly oversimplified...you're assuming zero interest. I'm on a train and can't do the math right now, but compounding interest + other variables like employer 401k contributions, tax shelters, etc make a huge difference when doing this calculation.

Interest rates won't hover near 0% forever.

Getting returns of 2% a year, drops that down to $1300/month.

Still steep for most people, but much more achievable, and 2% return is pretty conservative.

Of course you would not save for your retirement using a savings account.

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