Washington Post columnist, Michelle Singletary. (Special to The Times)
If you resolved to save more for your retirement in 2014, you may be happy to hear about some new research on estimating the income you'll need.
To have enough money for when you are no longer working, you have to know your "number." That is a calculation based on various factors such as the rate of inflation, how much you are expecting from Social Security, an estimate of how much your investments might earn and how long you think you might live. The calculation also estimates the percentage of pre-retirement income you'll need to replace. That percentage is called your "replacement rate."