Want to retire worry-free? Here are some simple ways to do it.

For most of us, there’s nothing simple about planning for retirement. We sweat it out trying to figure out that magic number we need to step out of the workplace. And then there’s when to tap Social Security.

In his new book, “Retire Today: Create Your Retirement Master Plan in 5 Simple Steps,” Jeremy Keil, a certified financial planner, tries to put a damper on all that anxiety. His low-key, “you’ve got this” approach slides through all the planning basics from trimming taxes to investing in your retirement years. The cornerstone: have a plan beyond simply socking away money for those so-called golden decades. You have to plan to spend.

Here are edited excerpts of our recent, anxiety-free conversation:

Kerry Hannon: What’s the biggest fear that people have about retirement?

Jeremy Keil: Have I saved enough? People don’t feel confident in retirement planning because they’ve never retired before. Simple as that.

When ideally should you plan to retire?

The average person retires three years before they plan to retire. If you ask a 55-year-old, when do you think you will retire? They’ll tell you 65. But if you ask a 65-year-old, when did you retire? They’ll tell you 62. You ought to be ready for retirement three years earlier than you imagine. And if you like work, you can keep on going. Oftentimes, it’s easier to walk into work knowing that you can just walk out anytime you want because you’re already prepared for it. Sometimes, though, if you get ready for retirement three years early, you look around and say, “Well, what am I waiting for? I’m ready to go. I’ve got the ability to do that.”

Read more: Retirement planning: A step-by-step guide

You write that there’s a whole lot more to retirement than setting aside a cool million, $2 million. Can you explain?

The goal is not to have millions of dollars saved. The goal is to replace your paycheck to make the same amount of money you’re making now but not having to work. The most important number for your retirement is what I call the retirement longevity number — a combination of when you might retire and how long you might live. And add in how much you are likely to spend each year in retirement.

It’s not that you need $2 million to retire. It’s how much you need to generate … income to replace your paycheck. The problem with things like the 4% withdrawal rule of thumb is that it focuses only on what to pull from your investments and ignores all these other things, like you might have just paid off your mortgage, and you have Social Security checks landing each month. These are all things that factor into how much you have to spend.