<prompt> Human: Salary x10 seems to be a popular rule of thumb. I also plan to have my house paid off by 55. What are good numbers to track my progress at say 35, 40, 35, 50? How many X times salary should I be at at each age? Right now Im 34 and a around 1.5x, I feel like Im behind.edit: This is the article that inspired my post  <response>: Just to chime in - at 1.5x at 35, youre on track for a good retirement, but not a good early retirement. And as other comments have noted, the rules of thumb are very rough guides, as evidenced by the fact they go off salary, which is fairly meaningless.Once you get to 25x your expenses, you should be okay. That 4 125th withdrawal rate is also a rule of thumb based off a large study Trinity study which most people stick by, although it of course makes assumptions. FWIW, it assumes a slow economygains and a life span of 95 years, so thats why its the safe withdraw rate. Youll find plenty of people saying 4 is too low and plenty of people saying 4 is too high, so just do your best to apply your particular scenario risky investor? able to work part time? healthy lifestyle? to adjust that up or down. 