Jimbo, this is such basic stuff I read and re-read your post trying to find a particle of intelligent debate, could not. I would normally ignore it but since you are asking me directly I will allow the back and forth to go longer than it should.
Ok, lets pretend everyone lives forever so we don't need to worry about retirement. Everyone should have enough savings to get all their bills paid including groceries for 3 to 6 months about the average time to get another job or get back to work from an injury. If you have ZERO savings you need to get yourself to that point as FAST as you can and in a bad economic climate you may need even more.
Now reality is we don't live forever, so we also have to factor in how many years left you will actually be able to work. The reason to save more when you are older is you have fewer paychecks left in your life to save from.
And to your point that "everyone is in a different situation", I'll say what do you think "depending on your age and lifestyle" means? If you make 20 grand a year and I make 100, and we both want to continue to live our accustomed "lifestyle" <--there's that word again< Then I need more money in savings than you.
Now, if we are going to continue this back and forth you will have to have an intelligent rebuttal. That means: you need to point out something I said that is not true or has some other flaw in it's intended meaning. Good luck. :up
As to your asking for free financial advice I obviously have exceeded my quota in this thread but if you type "how much should I have in savings" in google you will probably have more than you need to determine your own savings needs.
