Ask the Ant How Much You Need to Retire — Dave’s Diary

Under the Obama economy and with Obamacare you may be like me…and that means the prospects for retirement are slim to none.  But for those fortunate few, who like the ant and unlike the grasshopper have managed to store up a few kernels, here’s what you need to know about savings and investments.

There are two ways to compute how much money you will need to retire. The first way is complex and time-consuming. The second way is simple and fast. Take your current income and multiply it times 10. That's how much you need to save in order to retire and continue to live the way you do now.

Don’t take it from Dave the grasshopper--that's the word from Lincoln Financial Group, which has bucked the trend to figure out an easy math solution to the very hard question plaguing anyone close to picking up that gold watch: How much money do I need to live a life of leisure? And while the exact dollar amount of your retirement goal will change depending on what you're making throughout your career, the 10-times benchmark still applies.