A seven-figure retirement target can feel overwhelming, even for high earners.<\/p>\n
Angie reached<\/a> out to “The Ramsey Show” from San Francisco with a concern weighing on her and her husband. The 47-year-old couple earns about $200,000 a year and carries no debt beyond their mortgage. Online calculators projected they may need as much as $2.7 million to retire.<\/p>\n “You’re going to be fine,” personal finance expert Dave Ramsey<\/a> said.<\/p>\n Angie said she earned minimum wage for most of her career and began making significantly more about five years ago. She and her husband began saving 15% of their income for retirement after listening to “The Ramsey Show” for about a year.<\/p>\n They built a $20,000 emergency fund<\/a>, rolled her former 401(k) into a traditional IRA with $80,000, opened a Roth IRA with $12,000 and maintained $90,000 in her husband’s workplace retirement plan. They held about $182,000 invested and contributed roughly $30,000 a year.<\/p>\n Ramsey focused on that annual contribution. He said saving that amount for 15 to 17 years would amount to “a lot of money.” Once their house is paid off next year, they can increase their savings even further.<\/p>\n Trending: Most founders obsess over the wrong hires. See the 5 startup roles that actually determine whether a company scales or stalls.<\/a><\/p>\n Ramsey said retirement calculators use assumptions about inflation and withdrawal rates that can drive the projected total higher. He then laid out his approach.<\/p>\n The stock market has averaged about 11% over time, he said. He plans around 12% returns in mutual funds<\/a> and uses 4% as a long-term inflation estimate based on decades of consumer price index data.<\/p>\n Using those assumptions, a $1 million portfolio earning 12% would generate $120,000 in a year, according to Ramsey’s projections. Leaving 4% in the account would maintain purchasing power, while the remaining 8% could be withdrawn as income without reducing principal.<\/p>\n “So if you want to live on 200,000 a year at that time then you’re going to need two million dollars,” he said.<\/p>\n