Ron Peterson wrote:
- quote -

Not within the spreadsheet I wrote. At 40, it's tough to say whether one
would plan to downsize at retirement, but it's easy enough to account
for it. My house is now valued at about 4x my family income. I can say
that a downsize (it will be paid off well before I retire) pulls out
about half that. So, in today's dollars I'm that much further along
toward the retirement target.
JOE

joetaxpayer wrote:

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Yes, your method is better. Do you include home equity as part of
savings?

--
Ron

"joetaxpayer" <joetaxpayer[at]nospam.com> wrote in message
news:K6-dnaCuPq9dpzjZnZ2dnUVZ_oudnZ2d[at]comcast.com...
- quote -

you miss the point. they want you to contact one of their
sales reps.

Ron Peterson wrote:

- quote -

It too vauge to be of any use, I'm afraid.
The inputs have too wide a range for the result to have any meaning, nor
does it suggest how to improve the results.

The method I prefer is this;
A spreadsheet with current age, income, savings rate (including company
match on 401, if any) and assumed rate of return. Last column calculates
the ratio of net savings to income. This is the number I've chased since
graduating college and starting a real job.

Starting at 22, saving 15%, 8%/yr return, one should see that by 30,
there's about 1.6 year's income as savings, by 40, 4.5 year's worth, 50,
just over 9, and 20X by 64.

Now, given that any one of these variables can change, this spreadsheet
isn't static. I also don't presume that everyone would need 20X their
final year earnings to retire. And the debates here ranged from 50%-100%
replacement target. But when a 40 year old tells me he has less than a
year's income as savings, when I'm looking at a target of 4.5, I can
tell him he has some catching up to do.

JOE

Ron Peterson wrote:
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average".

Considering I closed a new house this year (and have not built up much
equity in it), I think there are more detailed questions it could ask.

I'd also like to see scores as they correlate to income. I think for
people which have the income I do, I score HIGH, but it's much easier
for people which earn more to have a higher savings amount.

"Ron Peterson" <ron[at]shell.core.com> wrote in message
news:1151640864.841750.254680[at]x69g2000cwx.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

It shows that a retired person with more than a million in
household income would have a significantly higher score if
he participated in a retirement program at work or invested
in an IRA. Of course, that is impossible. Oh well, its
just a rule of thumb.

Business Week mentioned http://www.nesteggscore.com/ as an online
calculator from A. G. Edwards to determine how well you are building
wealth.

It doesn't add much insight, but it gives one a way to compare
themselves with others.

--
Ron