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Comment by greghinch | Hacker News Reader

Whenever I see one of these retirement calculators I don't understand how people save enough to actually retire. Are most people really socking away 25%+ of their gross income every year?? I certainly enjoy motorcycles and exotic travel far too much for that to ever become a reality (not to mention pay rent in the Bay Area and try to maintain an organic/local-sourced diet which costs about double a typical grocery store).

Now you know why everyone out here wants to do startups: it's the only way to ever retire!

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Yes, a bunch of people are really socking away 25%+ of their gross income. I've consistently saved about 80% of my take-home pay since graduating from college. I have one friend who just paid off her $130K in law school loans, 4 years after graduation. I have another friend who managed to save $20K over 2-3 years on a grad student stipend (i.e. he was getting paid about $28K/year and saving 40% of it).

It helps if you don't enjoy motorcycles and exotic travel. I do something social about 5 days a week, but that "something social" is usually something like going over to a friend's house to play Starcraft or XBox, or hiking in a state park, or going rock climbing, or worst-case, dinner & a movie. You don't need all that much money for any of these.

You don't blow your money on expensive vacations and new cars. Don't pay retail.

My wife and I are in our mid 30's, put away about 15% of our income and have defined benefit pensions that we contribute 7% into.

It's totally doable. Last year we spent two weeks in Hilton Head and paid about $80/night, we drove from New York to save about 80% vs. flights/car rental. We live in the city we work in and I commute via bus.

It's also totally worth it. We're living we'll now, and will be able to retire in our late 50's with a paid off house. I will not be the guy in his mid 60s trying to hang on to his job.

Winning the startup lottery would be awesome but probably requires some amount of luck. If you save (for example) 80% of your savings you can retire after 5 years and never have to work again. Its not for everyone but you might be surprised at how little suffering is required. There is a community of "early retirement extremists". Try MrMoneyMustache or the Networthify blog if you are interested:

    http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
    http://blog.networthify.com

Travel is cheapest when you live abroad rather than taking short trips and staying in hotels. I'm from Minnesota and I've lived and worked in Beijing, Singapore, and London.

Disclaimer: Networthify is my side project and my savings rate is not 80% but its a lot higher than 25%.

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