Old Guy replied: "Lets assume for a moment that you live to be 120 years old. See the Social Security Life Expectancy Table link below. The table goes up to age 120. And in case you are wondering whether you can make it to 120, remember that many people live to over a hundred. And there's a woman named Jeanne Louise Calment who lived to 122. She died in 1997. So it can be done. See a short biography of her at the link below. Well, assuming you retire at age 70 and live to 120, you would have a 50-year retirement. Wish you all the luck. My current plan is to make it to at least 100. We'll see how it goes as the years slip by. But the question is whether you could make it financially for another 50 years if you started out your retiement at age 70 with a $50,000 income. I believe the answer is yes. And if you have doubts about that, consider this. According to the Social Security Administration's COLA History Table (see link below), the average annual cost of living adjustment people have been receiving over the past 34 years is a pinch under 4.5%. If that percentage is accurate, and I trust them more than anyone else, then what would it cost for stuff 50 years from now? To give you an idea, let me tell you that a loaf of bread that you could buy for $1.00 today, would cost you $9.03 in another 50 years. That's based on an average increase of 4.5% per year over 50 years. The thought of that will make many people shake in their boots. But, in my humble opinion, it's really nothing to worry about. And incidentally, to figure out that $9.03 number with a scientific calculator, you simply key in 1.00(1.045)^50 and push the execute key to get the answer. With a regular (non-scientific one) you key in 1.00 and multiply it by 1.045 fifty times. Now, why do I think that having to pay nine bucks for a loaf of bread 50 years from now is nothing to worry about? Well it's because your income will increase by and average of 4.5% per year too. It's the same old stuff; life will go on then just as in goes on today, but with bigger numbers. The cost of your bread will be nine time more, but your income will be nine times more too. Your $50,000 will then be $451,631.81 and the way to calculate that is 50,000(1.045)^50 on a scientific calculator. On a regular calculator, it's 50,000 x 1.045 repeating the times 1.045 fifty times. But this doesn't mean there won't be some scary times. We could experience periods of only 1% increase in income, but 4% increases in cost of living, but over time, it will all averages out. If it hadn't over years past, people wouldn't have been able to survive."