Its pretty hard to say for someone else. Much depends on how you want to live, and where you live. Even more depends on what and how you eat. I personally love going out to eat. Might just be a bad habit, I don't know for sure. I do know that if I stopped eating out, buying cars, going on vacations (from what?), stopped giving my grown kids things, stopped giving my grand kids things, stopped going to gun shows, gave up reloading, stopped working on my jeeps, stopped going to antique shows and flea markets, I could get by on significantly less money. But my wife and I like doing what we do.
We took all the adult education courses offered around here on retirement, and we even took some of the self serving courses offered by local brokerages. In the end I've kept my profound distrust for anyone selling anything. That includes all forms of investments, mostly those guys are more concerned with their own current income than my welfare. But take the courses offered, with a jaundiced eye on what they say. Take it to learn, not to buy into their favorite financial vehicles. Take an assortment of them from various sources. I know, it takes time.
In the end, some investments perform so well and others so poorly, the book value you use means little. That means $1,000,000 in a loser won't be worth nearly as much as a few hundred thousand in a top performer. And don't let others ideas influence you too much. Follow your own instincts and diversify. Remember also that some would do well on a few hundred thousand, while others might really need the million or $10 million to be happy.
So the story goes back to the summer pool party I was forced to attend in 2002 and 2003. It was my wife's party for her work. It was a doctors group, and she was one of the administrators and an RN. I didn't want to go, my experience being husbands are bored to death. And I was warned in advance not to drink too much adult beverage. The women all get together and chatter like hens. The head doctor saw my suffering and demanded I sit with the 5 or 6 doctors he was with. And they were playing a game, a rich mans game. They were going around the table bragging and telling what their greatest and current investments were. It got to me. So I was honest and told them I didn't want to say because they'd all laugh. But I relented and said we'd just been buying U S Government I bonds - Savings Bonds if you pardon the obscenity. They were all in hysterics that in this day and age, with the sophisticated investments available and double digit gains, why would anyone be that stupid!
So the following year, in the midst of the dot com bust, I had to go back for the same annual party. I would have preferred to swim in raw sewage or muck out a stall. But wives usually win. And the same head doctor started in on me early, demanding I sit with them. So around the table they went, each bemoaning they were down 10%, or maybe 20% and the year wasn't over yet. When it came to me, the head doctor asked my how my I bonds were doing. I just said fine, kept all the "gains" of 7 or 8% last year, and they were paying the same or so this year.
I took the unorthodox approach and went my own way, against conventional wisdom. The other night I did a test/guess at what those bonds from 2000 would be paying over the next 6 months. Its looking like the compounded interest has more than doubled the value, and I'll be receiving 5.34% between May and November. Since that time I've had others scoff at what we did. I particularly liked it when the brokerage that holds our IRAs made a comment. I suggested to him he look at how poorly they had done with our money compared to how well the bonds had been doing.
Deciding on when and how to retire is a real problem these days. I had little choice due to some health problems. I got out for my own sanity, so I wouldn't die, and so I could at least enjoy some retirement. These days the only pressure I have is when my wife comes home from work and asks me what I did today. I tell her "Nothin!" Its my favorite thing to do these days.
