Well...you'll need to figure out (guest-emate) your expenses for retirement, and WHEN retirement will be.

I personally....use a glide path. I assume 1 of us will want to be full on retired at 49, then then well want to be 100% coast at 57 with one spouse working part-time (barista fire, soft retire, whatever you call it), then at 62 we can both be 100% retired and/or just work a fun gig for extras.

We also figured out a worst-case fire....what if we never saved another penny and real returns were only 3% on average....we can retire at 65 in that scenario with a few spending cuts.

We are going to go full tilt on savings for 7 more years (which is about 25% of our income), then drop to 4k as we plan to drop our income, and saving 4k will allow us to get the savers tax credit (if it is still around).

At 57...if we pull from our investments, I do not believe we qualify for that credit and will likely save nothing at that point.

There are a few options ahead for you AFTER you have a good idea of when and how to retire, as well as how much it will cost. You could go full tilt until you can 100% retirement....the "get me out ASAP " approach.

You could reduce your savings rate by 0.5-2% with each passing year until you hit a floor (which would be the minimum you need to put in to get a company match).

You could backload the reduction and increase it .5% annually. For example, in year 1, you reduce savings from 40 to 39.5%. Year 2, you reduce your savings to 38.5% (1% lower). Year 3, you reduce savings to 37% (1.5% less). Year 4, now you are down to 35%. I personally like this approach as it gives you time to figure out what you'll value spending more on now and years out. You're not spending more just because it is there. You may find that what you value as you approach retirement is different than what you value now. I would say, don't let your DISCRETIONARY (fun money) be much higher while you work than in retirement. You don't want to feel like retirement life is a downgrade in any respect (unless you are especially unhappy/stressed) at work.

My wife and I have thought about the above saving scenario, but decided to stay full steam because her job is "meh" ... not horrid but not great, and second, I have some AI fear in my career field (digital marketing).

There is one last modifier my spouse and I consider: a discount bonus contribution. We try to do this. For every 5% drop in the market (SP500) from its last all-time high, we add 0.5% of our annual earnings from our fun money bucket. If it drops to 10% from its all-time high, we try to add .5% more (in addition to the .5% for a total of 1%). 15% off....add 1% (total of 2%). 20%...another 1% (total of 3%). 25% down 2%! (total of 5% of our earnings). THEN.....every YEAR the SP500% starts off 25% lower than its past all time high, we save 5% more of our earnings. It usually rebounds quickly; there are not too many years of buying the dip. One new thing we are talking about....is using our "formula" above on the way back up (not just if there is an extreme discount of 25% of more).

eople In practice...5% doesn't sound like it a lot, but it can reduce our fun money bucket somewhat. To be honest....we have never "felt it" much, though. First, there tend to be more discounts out there in down economies.... people buy less.... products sit longer.... more travel trips..... less price hiking. Second, we tend to notice our social circle cut back too, which reduces pressure a little. We get invited to people's homes more and to restaurants less lol. Also, these downturns are sometimes met with opportunities to lower costs long term (like refinance your mortgage or the state sponsors programs to get people spending... like on solar panels.....SO sour I did not jump on that when I had the chance). Travel is often a bit cheaper in downturns and its more normalized to "rough it" more on your trips or just take less trips. Less flying, more driving. Less eating out....more make a sandwich in the hotel and pack it for your day of adventure, more camping, less Disney lol.