I’m in my 30s, very successful, and I’m actually concerned that I might not be able to afford retirement

I’m not a little worried I’m a lot worried. I’m a software engineer at a large tech company and I make good money. Over the past few years I’ve been trying to live as frugal a life as I can. I save big, I’ve invested my money in the stock market and real estate, and I’m still terrified I’m not going to have enough money for retirement.<br><br>I’m 36 right now, and I make 200k/year. I’m debt free other than my mortgage. I’ve saved 500k. I put 20% of my income into a 401k each month. I’ve been trying to read and learn about retirement planning but the more I read the more I realize how little I know.<br><br>I’ve also realized there are a LOT of unknowns that affect how much I’m going to need to save. For example, when do I want to retire? How long do I need that money to last? What will inflation be? I feel like I’m trying to throw a football into the end zone but I have no idea where the end zone is.<br><br>The more I learn the more I’ve come to one conclusion: this isn’t actually a math problem. It’s a psychological problem. I need to be able to manage my fear and anxiety of running out of money one day. I don’t know if anyone else is in the same situation as me but I’m going to throw out a few different methods I’m going to try in order to get my psychology in check. I’d love to hear your thoughts or suggestions.<br><br>Number one, don’t constantly check your investment accounts. I check my investment accounts way to often. Every time there is a dip in the market I feel this intense anxiety and fear. I’ve decided to only look at my investment account on one day each month, the day I contribute to it. <br><br>Number two, stop reading articles about retirement planning. The more I read the more anxious I feel. Part of this is because I keep finding out new things I didn’t know I needed to worry about. And part of this is because every article about retirement planning is essentially saying the same thing: get to work and save as much as you can. This creates a feeling of never being good enough and never doing enough. This article is actually an exception; I’m trying to change my mind set rather than my behavior. I think I’m going to stop reading these articles, at least for now.<br><br>Number three, give up on the idea of a traditional retirement. I’ve always wanted to retire at 59 1/2 and go into full time travel mode. I’m going to try to move away from that and think more about lifestyle design. I don’t think I’m ever going to not want to work, but maybe I can just go down to 10-20 hours per week and spend the rest of my time traveling. Or maybe I’ll work 40 hours/week for 3 months, then travel for 3 months, then repeat.<br><br>Number four, stop comparing myself to other people. I think a lot of people approach retirement planning by trying to guess what their expenses will be and then planning from there. I’ve kind of done the opposite. I know that some people live on 50k/year, and some people live on 500k/year. I know that I’m not going to want to live on 50k/year so I’ve decided to try and save for 1 million dollars of retirement savings before really thinking about what I’m actually going to need. There’s a few reasons I’m going for 1 million. First, that number scares away my anxiety and fear, so I feel better thinking about 1 million than 500k. Second, I feel like if I get to 1 million I can start to feel OK about slightly reducing my savings rate and improving my life now. And lastly I think that 1 million dollars is actually an attainable goal for me. I feel like if I really try I can get there. This is an important part of it for me. I feel like if I ever hit that goal then I’ll feel OK with whatever happens after that, because I at least tried as hard as I could.<br><br>I’m going to try all of these things and then reevaluate after a year. At that point maybe I’ll change some of them, or maybe I’ll come up with a few new ones.<br><br>Has anyone else here went through this? What did you learn along the way? Do you have any suggestions for me? I feel like I still have a lot to learn and I’d love to hear your thoughts.<br><br>Edit: First, thank you so much for all the kind comments and helpful suggestions. Second, I’m not actually freaked out about this. I’m not worried about affording food, or my house, or my hospital bills. I’m not worried about being able to afford to send my kids to college. I’m worried about retirement specifically because I want to travel the world, and I want to be able to do it in style. Right now I’m in South America for a month and I’m staying in nice hotels and eating at nice restaurants. That’s what I want to do for 5-10 years straight when I’m older.