From: "Mark" 

What Glenn said Geo. In fact once you do the intial construction the
spreadsheet (what 10 minutes or so?), I'd encourage you to drop the 8%
number down until you get can get that last row in column C down low enough
to match the amount needed to cover the equivilent social security payment.

Better yet, if you get ambitious, plug in the actual average returns for
each of the past years and put them into each cell in column C instead of
going with a straight percent each year. Then I'd say in the years going
forward to plug in a variety of rates including a few years of 0% return as
well as a few negative 10%'s here and there, but if you do that you need to
also stick in a couple of 20% + years as well to give a bigger, better
overall feel for the long-term potential results.

BTW, forget about social security reform, having the numbers in spreadsheet
gives a good view - one you can see the growth in instead of a final number
in calculator - that you stick in your numbers from 401(k) contributions,
IRAs or just savings. I have MS Money and Quicken is the same and you can
do charts etc., but I find it more "real" to manipulate the
numbers and see them in Excel.

"Geo."  wrote in message news:413d0f2d{at}w3.nls.net...
> "Mark"  wrote in message
news:413cf942$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>
>
>> Am I making any sense now?
>
> almost, now find some way to calculate the last 5 years of market activity
> into
> your 1.08 multiplier.
>
> Geo.
>
>

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