<prompt> Human: So heres what I dont understand. Im extremely frugal, live significantly below my means, I put 5k into my roth on Jan 1st each year, and 10 of my income with 5 matched goes directly into the Thrift Savings Program. Im 30 years old, I bought my first home a little over a year ago with a 20 year mortgage and 20 downpayment, Im paying about an extra 10 on my mortgage payment every month. I just ran a few calculators as to how much I will need to retire, and maybe its because they were so basic, but they all told me I wasnt saving nearly enough, like I needed to sock away about another 4-5 of my income. I have zero debt outside of my mortgage, and Ive got two roommates who with their rent basically pay the full mortgage amount, and I pay all the bills elecwaterinternetetc. Running some baseline numbers, just to survive and pay all my bills in my home and feed myself, would costs about 2k a month. This doesnt include gas I ride a bike to work, but own a vehicle, any required home improvements, gifts, gym membership and other extra things I could lean out on if I HAD to. All the extra stuff only comes out to about 300, so the point is kind of moot, Im not blowing money like crazy.I come from a very poor family that cant I dont expect anything from anyones passing or any big windfalls, but looking at the 2 million figure Id need to retire in 2050 at the ripe age of 67, why is it Im falling short of that?Granted, I wont need as much money once my home is paid off, and Im on a good track to do that in about 15 years from now, freeing up a significant amount of income, but will it be too late for that to make an impact?TL:DR I feel like Im doing everything right financially, but retirement, even 30 years away still looks impossible. What am I missing, how does anyone retire without a big windfall or something?Edit: Is there any software or program that I could plug in my past 4 years of Mint.Com data into to generate what my future could look like?UPDATE Through some solid suggestions, Ive switched my current investments into the L 2050 TSP fund - added a new to-me finance blog to follow - and will probably toss an extra percent or two of my pre-tax income into my investments. Thanks for all the critical and thoughtful discussion. While I dont disagree with the top comment about investing the extra mortgage payments Im making, there is a financial peace of mind for me that comes with not being in any debt. Ive run the numbers, the 123 a month Im putting towards my mortgage would make me about 17k in interest IF I get a guaranteed 7 back over the 15 years. Paying my mortgage off early takes 10k OFF...GUARANTEED. I can rest just fine knowing Im out a hypothetical 7,000 over 15 years, I dont feel thats the super-duper key to retiring. Would it help, absolutely, is it required, no. Is it worth the risk to me, nope.Lastly, I boosted my pre-tax contribution from 10 to 15, Ive got enough in liquid cash that I should be able to comfortably sustain that for the time being. I get 5 matching, so that should come out to around 12k total per year into traditional TSP, and then another 5,500 into a ROTH account, putting me at 17k per year.Assistant: What kind of returns are you getting on your retirement accounts? What funds are you invested in? You would likely be better off mathematically speaking putting the extra 10 on your mortgage payments into retirement investments instead - with as low as mortgage rates are, its just not worth paying it down more quickly.Human: While this one I logically understand, and makes a TON of sense, and I have a great mortgage rate 3.25 - there is this emotional fear of debt so Im doing everything in my power to pay it down as quickly as I can. I can almost guarantee if the day comes where I have enough liquid cash to pay it off and still have about 3 months of expenses left over, Im going to do it. Debt scares the shit out of me, its a hugely un-reasonable paranoia that I recognize exists, but I cant break from.  <response>: I dont think its unreasonable - not having debt is freedom, because your burn rate goes down drastically, and it lets you live for significantly longer stretches on savings. And sure, maybe you could make more than your interest savings by investing that money in the market, but you could also lose it, and you cant make near that risk free anywhere else. Humans are typically risk averse, and for good reason - the difference in utility between having 5,000 saved and 55,000 saved is much higher than the difference between 500,000 and 550,000. 