<prompt> Human: Ive been running various retirement calculators online and they all show that I am running short on saving for retirement, which baffles me. I think they are overestimating what I will need and am wondering if this is a common issue. What income are you aiming for in retirement as a percent and total?Here are my details:Income: 180K yr in a low cost of living area. Spouse stays at home with kids. Income has risen a lot since I graduated college, so I have supported a family on a much lower income in the past.Family: One child has a permanent disability. This complicates retirement savings, since we will also use it to support him. On the other hand, he will also get SSI income.Age: Early 30sCurrent retirement savings: 225K - would be higher, but my starting pay out of college was 50K, so I have not always been able to save as muchAnnual savings: Maxing out 401K 18Kyr, maxing out Roth and spousal Roth 11K, employer 401K match 11K. Total annual retirement savings: 40KWhat am I missing here? I would think that having over 200K in savings at 30 and saving 40K per year would allow me to retire at 60 my goal, but every calculator says I am will fall short of the needed amount. I am assuming that is because we are higher income and they are overestimating what we will need. Thoughts?I am also saving for college for kids, so I prefer to contribute any extra savings to 529 plans.Assistant: With those savings rates, I think you will be fine. Did those retirement calculators take into the account your investment strategy of your retirement savings? Even at a fairly conservative 5 yearly growth rate, for 27 years, you will end up with over 15 times your yearly salary over 3 million. An estimate often thrown around is to retire with 10-15 times your annual salary. With a high-cost lifestyle it could be closer to the 15, but you would be nicely within that number. Adjust the yearly growth rate by a few percentage points, and you will have millions more. Human: Thanks, yes they are assuming about 80 of my income and a return of about 5 per year. I am aiming to have about 3M- 4M in retirement, which seems reasonable.  <response>: You should use an assumption of expected EXPENSES, not a percentage of current income. You are saving 29K, so first, remove that. 180-19152K. Then, remove other expenses you wont have in retirement - SSMedicare taxes, 529 savings, mortgage if you plan to have it paid off. Income taxes will be lower; maybe travel budgethealthcare will be higher etc. Then, use that estimate to see how much youll need to save.Im projecting our expenses in retirement will be about 55 of our pre-retirement income inflation adjusted, so the 80 would be wildly inaccurate for us as well. 