The point of my post was that in order to answer your original question you need to at least consider what you want out of retirement including the type of lifestyle you intend to live. It doesn't matter the questions asked (i.e. whether social security exists, whether you want to travel, etc), the point is to consider what YOU want out of retirement. Nobody can answer your original question specifically as there is no one specific X dollar answer to the question. What my definition of living comfortably in retirement is and what I could retire on is most likely going to be completely different than yours.

You don't sound "arrogant, insulting, or condescending", but the way you come off in your answer is that you want someone to give you a specific number (let's say X) without providing any context as to what you expect out of your retirement. You come off sounding as if you don't want to take anyone's advice or answer anyone's questions yet you want them to answer your question.

You don't have to predict anything or know the specific answer to any question, and I think that is where you are misinterpreting the questions. There is no right or wrong answer to the questions, they are only asked to gather details about your perceptions. Your answers are then used to compare to known financial data to determine a good retirement amount. They are "real" questions. If you have no intention of having kids or being married, that is significantly going to impact the amount of money you need to retire. If you plan to sell your belongings and live in an RV and travel the country till you die that is going to impact the number. While these may change down the road, you plan for the future on what you know now. You say you plan to live/retire in the mid-west. How do you know that is not going to change in a year.

From my own personal perspective I plan for my retirement based on what I foresee my future holding. I work with a financial planner to determine a good investment strategy based on those plans. However, I am consistently reevaluating those plans on an annual basis. My adviser asks me similar questions. But he also uses freely available data on what current retirees are doing based on the economy. He evaluates my strategy against the pros/cons of what current retirees are seeing in their retirement. I don't know how much my kid's education will cost, but I do know I want to pay, or at least help pay, for that. I base my planning number on current costs and add a cost increase for each year based on previous history of cost increases. The questions are not meant to be answered specifically, they are simply meant to get you thinking about your future and where you see yourself. You are right no one knows what it will cost in the future and you are right you can make assumptions based on past numbers. However, in order to use the numbers from the past you need to know what numbers to use. Thus the point of the questions.

With all that said, I am not going to go back and forth with you here. I am not a financial planner. I can't answer your question specifically. I'll leave you with this: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-retirement/2015/06/25...