Clawing our way to financial independence

I got to thinking about retirement savings this past week. I think it was because I was enjoying myself so much. One day a friend and I and her 1 year old took the ferry across the inlet here to go visit my mom. We had such a nice relaxing time, having lunch, visiting, looking around Mom's garden. We all went to a park and then into the town for a cup of tea at the Italian Bakery before heading back on the ferry by dinner time. Little baby girl was so sweet and my mom enjoyed having the visit from both mom and baby immensely. I came home pretty sure I could fill my time happily as a retired person. And that was just one day, there were other relaxing fun days all week long.

I wanted to know: 1) how much we would need to retire in 21 years or so (me at 55, Mr Wooly at 65), and 2) how much we should start saving (once debt is paid off) a month to get there. I made the assumption that the mortgage would be paid, leaving us the house free and clear.

With that assumption to live as now we would need about $2000 a month. To give a bit of room (about $500 a month) and to factor in taxes (this is all rough!) I am going to round up to $3000 a month, or $36k a year. Mr. Wooly currently has a pension which will pay $900 a month today (at age 65) because of his time working with the union.

So the calculations:
1) Using this calculator and many assumptions, I estimate we will require $520,000 in 20 years.
2) Using this calculator, this means we will need to save at least $1000 a month in RRSPs. That seems doable, given that our current debt payments each month are $2500.

It is comforting to know that being debt free and planning for retirement can be achievable! And that even when planning for retirement, we would have an extra $1500 a month (!!!!) in our pockets once the debt is gone.

Just for laughs I plugged in saving $2500 in RRSPs and we would reach our goal 9 years earlier. Or if we invested $1800 a month, in 20 years we would be millionaires. Who knew? Good incentive to keep chipping away at the debt.