<prompt> Human: I was lucky early in my career to make good money with little expenses, and started maxing out my retirement funds when I was 20 25 years ago. I was self-employed for a while with good income and being self-employed could put away up to 20 of my income in an IRA. There have been a few bull markets since then. Long story short I have upwards of 900k in retirement accounts.Im 45 and not really close to retirement but in 6-10 years would consider it. Everyone says to always max out your retirement accounts every year. But how much is enough?If I contribute 10k in a year thats only an increase of about 1 which can get erased in a single bad day in the market -- or can be made without me contributing anything in a single good day in the market. Basically on a percentage basis my contributions have become meaningless. Meanwhile I have mortgages on my house and rental properties, kids that will need to go to college, and hey I might want to go on a nice vacation or something. So that money could be used on a lot of other things besides being locked up for 15 more years. Yes Ill have to pay tax on it but is that ok if I use it for some other purpose like paying down my mortgage or saving for college?The standard answer is well how much will you need when you retire or what is your withdrawal rate and all that and frankly I have no idea. I cant really get at the money for at least 15 years and its not unreasonable to think it will double at least once by then at 8 it will double every 10 years. Also my house will probably be paid off am on a 15 year mortgage now. That sounds like a lot of money to work with and so it doesnt seem like I need to add to it.Thoughts?  <response>: The only reason to keep adding to retirement accounts once your basic retirement needs are taken care of is to take advantage of the tax benefits of doing this. Essentially, if you can add pre-tax dollars to a fund when you are earning a lot and take the money out again and get taxed on it when you are earning less, you will be taxed less.There is nothing to stop you from just adding money to an investment fund that is post-tax. There is nothing stopping you from spending money on a vacation home, rental property or nicer car, too. 