One Million Dollars: food for thought

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What does $1,000,000 mean to you today? A lifetime without worries? A new car, in a new garage, attached to a new house? What will $1,000,000 mean to you when you retire? Will it have the same meaning? Will you someday be worried that you only have $1,000,000 to live your life with?

I was looking at an inflation calculator today, and found some interesting (if not slightly depressing) info. If I were to retire at age 65 (39 years from now) with $1,000,000 assuming a 3.0% inflation rate, that money would only be worth roughly $300,000 in today's dollars. Punch in 3.5% inflation, and the amount drops to $250,000. That's a little scary considering that you would be depending on that money to live off of for up to 25 years (or more).

Of course there's other factors that come into play, it's not a cut and dry scenario for the future, but I thought it was interesting. Just food for thought.

The calculator that I used is right here. http://www.simplejoe.com/web-calcula...calculator.htm