Crunching your retirement numbers

It's never too early or too late to plan for retirement. Even the most cursory web search will find a retirement calculator to help you make that plan. But before you go crunching numbers with a retirement planning calculator, there are some dollar amounts you need to know up front. Fortunately you don't need a retirement savings calculator to come up with them. Perhaps the most important is how much money you will need to live on once you have retired (after taxes). This is the amount to cover all living expenses for an entire year. You should enter no less than 70% of your current income, if you intend to maintain your current standard of living.