ER, I totally agree with you that lifestyle makes a HUGE difference when coming up with the $ amount needed for retirement. Some people would say $500k would be more than enough for them to retire on and others will need $10M+. I know people who DON’t ENJOY going out to eat or go traveling. So, their retirement would be them staying home and working on their house/yard. Those people don’t need much to retire, as long as they have their house paid for. Others who travel all over the place and go out to eat constantly will probably need many millions to retire.
I also agree that rental property(ies) should be counted toward the net worth for retirement, since they can be liquidated if need be. I was only referring to primary resident, since we all need to live somewhere.
For me, when I can accumulate enough where I can live off the interest alone is when I think I’m ready to retire. That will compensate for different spending habits and have enough money to last you through your entire retirement. When I’m talking about interest, I’m talking about something very stable, like CD.
