How To Create A Passive Income Website

how much need retire early

I was ~~goofing off~~ networking on Twitter the other day, and came across this fun 7-question poll by USAA which purportedly gives you "The number you need to retire." So obvs. I had to click it.

Now, I don't know if I'm a dummy and filled it out wrong, or if I'm actually the smartest – and soon to be RICHEST! – man in the world, but the results it passed back just about knocked me out of my socks.

Here, look:

how much need retirement

*Ahem* a SURPLUS?? Of 7 MILLION DOLLARS??? Drinks on me this weekend, woop woop! ;)

I then changed the retirement age from 67 to 47, which is much more likely at this point anyways (especially with all those extra millions!), and here's what that resulted in:

how much need retire early

So. Basically I stop working for 20 years – AND INVESTING – and I still have 3 Million to my name? EXTRA??? Those USAA funds I'm in must be KILLIN' it! Haha… (Perhaps that's their ultimate plan for pushing out this poll? ;) I shouldn't joke about that actually – in all seriousness USAA is by and far my favorite financial institution EVER, and I trust them with my life. Also, my finances.)

I didn't take the time to read in detail how these numbers were actually calculated ('cuz remember, I was ~~goofing off~~ working hard), but as you can tell I'm a bit dubious. For one, it leaves out one of the most important factors: expenses. And for two, it never asks me about my hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that I have. Or all that consumer debt I could ALSO have for all they know (fyi I only have mortgage debt. "Only" – hah).

All that being said, it was still a fun way to spend 3 minutes of my time. And the very last question they asked, #7, got me to hit pause for a hot second and really think about the ultimate strategy:

"Do you plan on yearly income in retirement other than Social Security?"

It's funny. We spend so much time thinking, and strategizing, about speeding up retirement, but I've never really thought about what the money looks like once IN retirement. I mean, I know I'll have investments and money in 401(k) and IRA's etc etc to pull from – which pretty much answers that question up above (I'm not even COUNTING on Social Security!) but my mind immediately wanted to include "passive" before that income word up there. Like, stuff outside of investments.

What would it look like with other forms of passive income pouring in? How would that change my plans now before we get to that point? Or, as USAA so kindly thinks about my investing skills, would it just be overkill since I'll already have a surplus of $7 Mil in my account? (I keed, I keed)

I really don't know the answer as I've kinda stumped myself here, but I reckon I'd have to own some solid businesses or more real estate properties in order to have such a recurring benefit pouring in over the long haul. Either that, or concentrate more on dividend funds while investing, but then I'm back to what I'm pretty much doing now anyways, in which case I just answered my own question?

I might just be confusing myself here now, haha, but I'm gonna think on it some more and see what percolates over the next few days. Regardless, I thought it was an interesting exercise to share with y'all today. And a nice takeaway from a poll that really only gave me a few chuckles ;) I swear I just entered normal answers to all their questions!

So here's your homework assignment over the weekend:

Take the poll yourself and let us know what it says for you.
Think about what retirement REALLY looks like, financially-wise. Are you just pulling from investments and Social Security too (don't laugh)? Or do you plan/want/dream of extra income streams coming in as well? And if so, are you working towards that right now? If not, you should be… Says the guy who's not exactly doing it himself.

This is yet further proof that the Twitters and Facebooks out there really do help change our lives… And that, of course, you should be following me on both too :)

Twitter: @BudgetsAreSexy
Facebook: http://facebook.com/budgetsaresexy

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when she makes more book
I almost forgot! Here were the winners of our "When She Makes More!" book giveaway last week, courtesy of the beautiful (and smart as hell) Farnoosh Torabi. Congrats winners!

Sarah Harper
Savvy Financial Latina

Her book drops May 1st, but you can pre-order it here if you aren't one of the two names listed above ;) Hope you guys learned a lot!

[Top photo by grantlairdjr / Tweaked by J$]

Jay loves talking about money, collecting coins, blasting hip-hop, and hanging out with his three beautiful boys. You can check out all of his online projects at jmoney.biz. Thanks for reading the blog!