Thursday, December 13, 2007

Get a Retirement "Quota"

This evening I asked one of my colleagues a simple question: "when do you want to retire?". Once again I am on a business trip, this time in good ol' Florida. I am traveling with one of my colleagues, a Director of Sales in his late 40's. When I asked the retirement question, I got a very thoughtful and encouraging answer. Here is what my colleague said (loosely paraphrased):

"Retirement is like sales. You have to meet a certain quota, and that quota is the amount of money you will need to fund your retirement. Just like in sales, to meet your quota you have to shoot for a higher number than you really need and build some safety margins into your plan. I am shooting for retirement at 58, but I know that I want to retire by 63. As far as I am concerned, if you don't plan for a specific retirement date, you will have to continue working for the rest of your life. I have plan, but I have built some flexibility into it. At the end of the day, being able to retire doesn't mean that I will actually retire. As long as I enjoy my work, I will continue do it."

Amen to that. A well thought-out and well explained retirement plan AND from a sales guy no less (sorry, I couldn't resist the dig at sales folks, being a marketing guy myself). I don't yet have a target retirement date myself, but I do have a target "quota" of $4 million. This is a stretch goal but I think that my wife and I can achieve it by developing our careers and living modest and balanced lives.

What about you? Do you have a target retirement age and "quota"? If so, are you on track to achieving those goals?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Currently, I'm 30 years old and my target quota is $5 million. I don't have a target retirement age, but I am trying to reach my target quota ASAP. If I assume annual returns of 8%, it looks like I will reach my quota around age 55.

frugal zeitgeist said...

Can you see inside my head? It kind of seems like it sometimes.

I'm 38 and my goal is $5 million. I'd like to retire by 56, but it's more likely that I'll retire at 60. I'm on track.

Unknown said...

Frugal - I think we probably have the same concerns because we are the same age and have similar professional background.