Do you have 1 million saved for retirement? May not be enough.

[badtoworse]

158. I've never had any luck trying to time the market.

The times I have tried, I usually lost money. I don't think the average person has the knowledge and experience to do it, so I would advise against an investment strategy that uses that approach. I'm a big believer in "dollar cost averaging" whereby you invest of money each month and nearly all of my investments have been in mutual funds. In a down market, you keep investing the same amount and pick up more shares at a lower price. If you select quality funds with low expenses, such an approach is an almost guaranteed winner if you can and do stick to it. That's the way I've invested for more than 30 years.

I'm not denying that wages have dropped in real terms, but that does not eliminate the need to save. I've always funded my retirement savings first, before I spent on anything else. It was deducted from my check before I got it - I wouldn't have had the discipline to save any other way. Are there people who absolutely can't fund any savings? I'm sure there are, but I believe that most people could adjust their lifestyle to have 5% deducted from their wages and put into a savings plan. If you are lucky enough to have an employer that matches, I think you're crazy not to put enough into the plan to get the maximum match - it's free money.

There is no denying that luck is a factor and I won't deny that I've been lucky in a number of ways. I work in electric power, one of the few industries that can't be offshored. (I would strongly advise young people to look into electric power as a career because the experienced people are retiring faster than they're being replaced. Brain drain is a real concern in our business.) I'm lucky in that I have a strong network of people that know me and want me on their team which is why I'm still working at 64. I believe I'm good at what I do, but I'll be the first to admit that my success has had an element of luck as well.

I'm not oblivious to what's going on in the country. Lots of people are long term unemployed with little or no income. Others have lost their homes or have been devastated by extraordinary expenses, like medical. I get that and I empathize with those people. The OP was about needing at least $1 million for retirement. I posted an approach that could get at least some of the people here (especially young people that have decades to work with) to that level of savings and I'm lambasted as not being empathetic. It's almost as if I should have posted "Can't be done; don't bother trying". Sorry, but I don't look at things that way.