Want To Retire With $1 Million? Here's How Much You Need To Save Each Month...

All through our working lives, we are barraged with reminders that, if we don't save enough for retirement, we'll be hosed.

What we don't often get are specific instructions about how much we should be saving.

The simple answer is:

More than we think.

Andy Kiersz of Business Insider put together this simple chart of how much you have to save each month if you want to have $1 million when you retire at 65.

There are two big lessons:

1) The earlier you start saving, the better. If you start at age 20, you'll only have to save $361 per month to hit $1 million at 65. If you wait until age 30, the number climbs to $700. You don't want to know what happens if you wait until 40 or 50.

2) You'll probably have to save a lot more than you think. Socking away $700 a month from the age of 30 will be a big burden for most people, especially if you don't take advantage of tax incentives.

The chart below, by the way, assumes a 6% annual return, which is a lot for a balanced portfolio, especially after tax. Stock prices are so high today that they will likely return a lot less than 6% over the next 10 years.

Here's the chart:


Information by Henry Blodget 3/25/13