Because all these questions make an enormous difference in determining what your X number will be:<p>1. If you believe you can live on $5000 a month then you need to know there is $5000 a month available to you. If you believe social security will exist and you believe you will get about $1000 a month from that, then you really only need to come up with $4000.<p>2. Would you like to have just X in the bank at age 65 or do you prefer to have X + Y, just in case of emergency? If X is your maximum what is your minimum number you would take? That&#x27;s your risk.<p>3. Are you looking to travel extensively, buy a nice home on the water, give to your kids, grandkids, etc...? These all again impact X. And while you may not know the answer for certain, you should at least have a general idea of what you would like to do since you are obviously trying to plan for retirement.<p>4. Simple question, are you going to help your kids with their education or not. Nothing wrong with either answer, but knowing the answer will impact your X number.<p>So going back to your original question of how much wealth do you need to retire at 65, it really depends on what you plan to do when you turn 65. Do you plan to live in a small home that is paid off or purchase a new home, do you plan to have kids or grandkids, will you drive a car, do you plan on being married, do you want to travel at all, I can go on. The point is there is no single answer to your question. I could probably easily retire with $1M in the bank and never look back. But a friend with 5 kids will probably need a whole lot more.