The short story:I decided along the way to baseline our wants and expenses. By that I mean as I got more promotions and increases in pay I didn't increase our expenses. I retired with a small reduced pension, help with health insurance costs from my ex employer and then later we both drew Social Security and went on medicare...still get retiree help with supplemental health insurance costs. We decided at some point we had a big enough house, a good enough car, RV and boat, etc. and did not keep buying bigger and better and racking up debt as we could afford to do. We just replaced things with like items when they needed replacing and didn't do any big upgrades in order to keep expenses down. As the increases in salary came I kept enough to keep up with inflation and invested the rest in a reasonably conservative portfolio of various bonds and equity mutual funds. I wanted to retire young and not have expensive tastes and expenses. It worked. I retired at 56 with a small reduced pension and investment income. We have been retired 22 years and are having a ball in retirement. We are on the road 6 to 7 months out of the year on 2, 3 and 4, week RV trips and a 4 month winter trip. Our investment account has more in it now then when we retired. I could draw more income but you never know what the future will bring...we don't have long term care insurance so that can be expensive and a worry. Buy it young when it is much cheaper...We didn't and that could be a mistake! I should add that our decision to not have children was a huge aid in being able to do this!! We do not regret any of our decisions along the way. Been very happily married for 57 years. We do have 36 nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews and more on the way...there lies an expense with births, birthdays, graduations, etc., etc!