Point is that people need to really think about retirement -- their planned needs, wishes and so on -- REALISTICALLY, and not based on someone else's ideas as to what they will necessarily want or need.

I agree. But I don't think the 4% SWR is pushing anything unrealistic on anybody - the principle is not concerned with how much you save for retirement, or what you choose to spend it on; it's just a simple, conservative rule of thumb to calculate how much you ought to save based on your projected expenses.

Our projected expenses are a LOT less than our current income, and our plans for retirement would be considered terribly dull and restrictive by a lot of people. Therefore the total amount we're planning to save will look small to a lot of folks. But we used the 4% SWR to come up with the total.

-lizmonster