I never figured on retiring , or even retiring early. Odd being that I started doing retirement planning and 401k design for a living. The irony. Still dont plan on full retirement anytime soon. My dad never retired, dead at 47. My mom retired at 52 and has done a whole lotta noting for near 30 years. But back to Ron's query.
There are numerous excel-based free programs out there, nerd wallet, and nowadays, if you have a proper 401k, your 401k website ought be very "planning friendly" and allow you to plug in outside data and run analysis. While it certainly can be done on a legal pad with a financial calculator, these retirement planning apps are based on excel and let you input all the various sources of income and, most importantly, what your retirement budget will be, monthly after tax. I still ahve to do a better survey of whats out there for free. Marketing games like "personal capital", that want you to link your accoutns, etc are not what I would recommend. Vanguard yes, Personal Capital , no. PC is a bull**** marketing ruse, not a real deal. To me, imho. Just like some "roboadvisors".
CAVEAT: I just woke and havent even finished a cup of coffee yet, but I'll try and make this professional as possible. It is part of my trade.
The excel spreadsheet behind the apps allows us to input social security benefit, any pensions, and then assets and savings. Of course, the hardest part for most of us is determining our monthly or annual needs. There are simple rules out there 70% of pay, etc, but I prefer to have the client actually work up a budget. If they havent been budgeters, they'll likely have to be much more so in retirement. Some folks show up with an excel spreadsheet, and they'll likely be fine in retirement, as they've already been planning! Once you get your data up in Excel, you can also easily model various scenarios for yourself. ( hard to do with a calculator and legal pad)
So, as I've said here before, it become "legs of a stool", in terms of your retirement income sources. The more legs you have, the more stable it will be. The spreadsheet will also factor in inflation. Good planning programs, like the one I use from MoneyGuidePro, also allow the pre-retiree to goal plan. " Oh, we'd like to tavel more", or " we want to move to FLA", and then we can estimate costs and build them into the plan. Now, I dont do stnad alone financial planning, but Certified Financial Planners can and do. No idea what they'd charge for doing a "retirement planning module" , and I would recommend you use one that will simply charge a fee for time, as opposed to try and sell you some bullcrap variable annuity for commissions, so cavet emptor there.
As mentioned, the big swing factor has been healthcare coverage until medicare@ 65. Spouses can help here, but often the client has to go and buy health insurance on the exchange to cover them until 65. we see rates from $800 for singles, to $1200 for couples to start, per month.
Vanguard and others also have available a " retirement planning worksheet" that entails a broader scope of issues, not just finances. As when we move past finances there are also some personal issues that the pre-retiree has to be mindful of, not least of which is, " So what are you going to do with your time in retirement?"
So while you dont need the advice of a CFP to get started, they can be a big help in planning, especially, if you are not the most fastidious type. Starting a file for yourself, getting a hold of a good free retirement calculator ( I wish I had better recomendations for you) , and start "modeling" your financial future. Many of them allow scenarios, and we certainly do play out different scenarios for clients, in fact, all the time. " try 62, try 63".
So short answer to Ron is, you have to start some mindful planning, get organized, and then set your goals. "Fail to plan, plan to fail" sort of thing.
Interestingly, MoneyGuidePro allows me to setup a "client portal" , which you can then sign in and start doing your own planning. Again, the "numbers" are only one aspect of it, a critical one to be sure. If you have issue finding a decent planning app out there Ron, PM me, and I can make MGP available to you. No agreements, no fees. Just doing a bud solid. For all that time you spent at Chevellebration "in uniform".