You’ve all probably been Blogging, Google Reading, Tweeting & Emailing about this, but I thought I’d throw it up on here as a short post.

The short 20 minute video is well done and called “The Story of Stuff” by Annie Leonard and is an interesting look into our stuff. Where it comes from & where it goes.

Check it out!

Isn’t this the cutest picture ever?

*cue awwwwwwwwwwwws*

Moving on, look who has become the new purse for my electronics?

Meet Sade, from Mat & Nat.

Priced at $45 CAD at Winners (who knew you could find cute things there if you took the time to sift through the stuff?), originally $145 CAD.

*squeal*

Okay, I know, not spending at all, and just saving that $45 should have been a priority since I AM going to New York, but screw it.

It was a beautiful purse (it feels like washi paper, seriously!) and it doubles as a clutch AND will now hold my cords for when I travel.

(No really. It’s my GPS purse. Isn’t it hot?)

Women, when faced with crap choices for carrying cases in this world, we must seek to repurpose what is cute and geekify it to our advantage.

Honestly, the only design flaw is I wish it had a wrist strap on the sucker, or a little side handle so I don’t have to actually clutch it. *shrug*

Which defeats the purpose of a clutch.. but hey, a girl can’t have it all.

Inside is soft and cute.

It has 2 pockets on the side and a zippered one, perfect for my cords (I fit everything in there wonderfully).

This is the front opened up. The zipper is fabulous. Not cheap at all.

The front also has 2 open pockets to stick things in. Handy, if you are using the purse as a clutch and it folds over — it keeps everything inside the pockets then.

The back has a zippered pocket too.

Just wish it had a hook or a wrist strap. I may McGuyver one.

Man, I love the texture of it. Felt like paper.

Okay. Shopping on hold until this Friday when I see my sister. I am going to cook most of the weekend to cut down on costs and fat being added to my waistline, and do a lot of walking around with her.

How much should anyone have saved for retirement or in savings at this point?

It’s an answer I ask myself constantly, and naturally as a consultant, my answer always ends up being: it depends.

So let’s go through the exercise with a couple of charts.

AVERAGE SAVINGS OF UPPER MIDDLE CLASS INCOME EARNERS:

And you may be looking at this going: WOO HOO! I am doing GREAT! SUCKA!!!

Not so fast.

This is the average of what each age group has saved for retirement.

It isn’t what you SHOULD have saved for retirement.

If you want to withdraw 4% of your retirement saved for every year you are retired (as recommended by financial planners) then let’s look at this:

You’re in the age group of 65 – 74 and you have saved $143,920

Then 4% of $143,920 is $5756.80 per year, or $479.73 a month

Fun fact: The 4% suggested to be being taken out each year is actually indicative of financial planners assuming that you’re going to live for 25 years after you retire.

That is not enough to live on unless you don’t have any real bills to pay for, assuming you have your house paid off, no debt, not planning on travelling, eating little, using little utilities and so on.

See what I mean?

So let’s take a look at a quick table that will show you how much you should have saved, to bring out 4% a year.

Look at what makes you comfortable in terms of income withdrawal (and don’t forget, you get taxed on that withdrawal with an RRSP in Canada), and you’ll know what you have to save.

JUST FOR FUN: QUICK AND DIRTY RETIREMENT AGE CALCULATOR (ONLY FOR BOOMERS):

At age	Multiply your income by
45	4.1
50	6.1
55	8.5
60	11.4
65	15

So if you’re 45 years old, and you earn $50,000 a year then it is:

$50,000 x 4.1 = $205,000

If you are 65 years old and you earn $50,000 a year then it is:

$50,000 x 15 = $750,000

To push it further, with 25 years to live after the age of 65, you are going to withdraw $30,000 a year, which to me, is reasonable since that’s the average salary of a Canadian anyway.

A QUICK AND DIRTY NET WORTH CALCULATION:

Calculation for your Target Net Worth: Your Age divided by 10, then multiplied by your current salary

Age: 25
Salary: $65,000

25/10 = 2.5 2.5 * $65,000 = $162,500

I find that number to be unrealistically high, but possible, if I had not graduated with student debt.

I had $60,000 in debt and now a net worth of around $70k=$80k, which is close to that amount up there.

So there you go. The logic behind the answer of “It Depends” in terms of retirement savings.

RESOURCES:

• FB’s Retirement Calculator using Compounding Interest