Building a Millionaire Retirement: 5 Surefire Tips Everyone Should Follow

Most of us would love to retire as millionaires -- and frankly, many of us need to retire as millionaires if we want to continue our current standard of living. After all, the average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was only $1,836 (about $22,000 per year) as of May 2023. So if you retire with, say, $500,000 and withdraw 4% in your first year of retirement, as the "4% rule" suggests, that will only deliver $20,000.

A nest egg of $1 million will give you a 4% withdrawal rate of $40,000. This may or may not be sufficient for you, depending on the size of your Social Security benefit and any other income streams, such as pensions, that you expect to have.

Image source: Getty Images.

Here are some tips that can help you retire with a million dollars or more whether you're a high or low earner, a man or woman, stock-savvy, or not.

1. Save aggressively

First off, you'll need to be saving and investing significant sums over time. Yes, you might win a million dollars from a single lottery ticket, but that's far from a dependable plan.

Instead, it's best to invest meaningful sums over time. The table below shows how much you might amass if you average 8% annual growth and invest $7,500 or $15,000 each year:

Source: Calculations by author.

The table also shows that it's valuable to start early so that your money has a long time to grow.

2. Invest effectively

Saving aggressively isn't going to get you to a million dollars if you're stuffing those dollars in your mattress or investing via savings accounts at banks. For best results, consider parking most of your dollars in the stock market, which is hard to beat for building wealth over the long term. (Over shorter periods, it can be volatile, with unpredictable results.)

The table below shows how various asset classes have performed between 1802 and 2021, per Wharton Business School professor Jeremy Siegel. (In many shorter periods, stocks still outperformed bonds handily, and over the past few decades, the stock market has averaged annual gains close to 10%.)

Source: Stocks for the Long Run, Jeremy Siegel.

How should you invest in stocks? Well, you can read up on stock investing and then study the universe of stocks, choosing which ones to buy and when. You could also consider investing much or all of your stock money in simple yet effective index funds, such as those that track the S&P 500 index.

Here are a few great index funds to consider, each of which is an ETF (exchange-traded fund):

• SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)
• Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI)
• Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT)

Respectively, they'll have you instantly invested in 80% of the U.S. stock market, the entire U.S. market, or almost all of the world's stock market.

3. Use tax-advantaged retirement accounts

Next, make the most of tax-advantaged retirement accounts available to you, such as IRAs and 401(k)s. Both come in two main varieties -- traditional and Roth.

A traditional account receives pre-tax contributions and reduces your taxable income -- thereby shrinking your taxes due for the year of the contribution. A Roth account is funded with your post-tax money, leaving your taxable income and tax bill unchanged. Here's the great thing about Roth accounts: If you play by the rules, all your withdrawals in retirement can be tax-free.

If you have a 401(k) plan available to you at work, consider contributing a lot into it each year. There's a good chance it offers an S&P 500 index fund in its menu of investments.

4. Have a plan

Clearly, there's a lot to consider when it comes to retirement planning -- so be sure to have a plan. Specifically, spend some time (perhaps with a financial advisor) determining how much income you'll need or want in retirement and how you'll get it.

For example, you might be shooting for income of, say, $80,000 per year. If you expect to collect $30,000 from Social Security, you'll need to develop another $50,000 in income.

One possibility: A stock portfolio of $1.25 million with an overall dividend yield of 4% will kick out $50,000 -- and dividends tend to increase over time, too, helping you keep up with inflation. In addition to such a plan or instead of it, you might own rental properties that deliver substantial income, or set up annuity income. There are many ways to build necessary income streams.

While you're at it, read up on Medicare and other retirement topics so that you'll be ready to make smart decisions when the time comes.

5. Stick to your plan

Finally, prepare to stick to your plan. That's easier said than done because when the stock market swoons, as it will occasionally, you'll need to exercise control over your emotions. It's important to hang on to your stocks that have promising futures instead of selling them when they're down.

You can't get discouraged after, say, five years, when your nest egg may not seem to have grown much. Revisit the table above to see how money grows most powerfully in later years. Patience really pays off in the investing world.

If you apply these tips to your financial life, your retirement may become much more secure -- and enjoyable.