People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So basically OP is asking why any parent -- since she's a stay at home parent with kids still at home -- whose family net worth is over $5 million still works.

That really narrows things and changes the nature of the question. She isn't asking why people aren't "retiring" since there's no "retiring" when you're still raising kids.

What's she's asking is why both parents in relatively wealthy family still choose to work when they have kids at home.

OP here. No, I work full-time. I would like to quit my job, but my spouse wants me to keep working. Also, I know people who worked well past retirement age even though they had way more money than they could ever spend, and I wanted to know why.

Who makes more, you or your spouse, how old are your kids, how much money do you have, and do you like your job?

[Anonymous]

I cant get over the fact that someone thinks its logical to need TWENTY YEARS of memory care housing. Dang. Youre going to go straight from your desk to full time care facility! How depressing to be that anxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 years of assisted living would cost about $5M according to Google. Per person so $10 if you need it for both.
3 kids going to private college is another 1.5, and if they want to be doctors or lawyers you can add onto that.
I also have anxiety about one of my kids getting a serious medical condition or injury where you need to pay $$$$ out of pocket to get appropriate care. If that happened and I didn’t have th money because I retired at 50, I’d feel awful.

20 years of assisted living? For both partners?? Risk assessment not your strength I see.

Do: yes most are not 20 years. But the 6-24 months estimates are not accurate for most in my family. Had one relative in memory care for 6.5 years and another in nursing care for 2.5. Had covid not happened (both took turns for worse health after contracting it) it might have been 10+ years for one and 4-5 for the other

So plan accordingly

My grandmother was in memory care for 13 years until we finally got a court order basically allowing us to kill her. They didn’t call it that, of course. And that was full on memory care, not just assisted living. My other grandmother lived for more than 40 years after retiring but she lived with us and my mother cared for her for free. My kids ain’t never gonna do that.

Your most extreme examples are 10 and 13 years. And that is definitely an outlier. So where did 20 come from??? Youre nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How exactly does someone accumulate 5 million dollars especially do many years away from a normal retirement age of 55+?

Lots and lots of living beneath our means. Not buying the nicest house you can, not trading up when you can. Same with cars, same with travel. No “yolo, treat yo self!” attitude on everything. It actually requires a ton of disciple from both partners over and over and over again. You have to recommit every day, every year. And it wasn’t easy watching people buy amazing homes and cars and remodeling kitchens. And we had to wait 20+ years to see the fruit of our sacrifice and diligence.

Doesn’t sound fun. I’d prefer a middle ground where I still sufficiently save but enjoy nice vacations and a nice kitchen along the way. Life is short.

Didn’t say it was fun. The question was “How does someone accumulate $5M so far away from retirement age” without family wealth or a super high income?

And I told you how. You can make your own choices but don’t act confused now money is saved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we want $10m to retire.

Why? Give us an outline of your retirement plans and why you need that much to achieve them, then explain why those plans are so important and desirable that they're worth giving up more of your prime years working to achieve them. I'm genuinely curious. After all, time is limited--for all of us.

Np. Working is not “giving up” one’s prime years just because I have $5M invested. It’s a choice about how we want to spend our time, and some of our years. There’s a sense of fulfillment from that, and it’s no less valuable than puttering around in a vegetable garden.

Oh, please. I retired with less than that and we have a gardener. Your "sense of fulfillment" is more likely from deriving your self-worth and identity from your job title and paycheck. And let's face it, most high paying jobs don't contribute jack shit to society. It's not like you're a fire fighter or something.

This is pretty ignorant. Partner at Goldman Sachs contributes just about everything you do. Without the capital raising nothing you do in your life would exist or exist the way it does now. Computers, cars, electronics, leisure, air travel, the banking industry so you can but a home -- nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cant get over the fact that someone thinks its logical to need TWENTY YEARS of memory care housing. Dang. Youre going to go straight from your desk to full time care facility! How depressing to be that anxious.

I’m not “anxious” about it, I’ve just seen long periods of memory care or skilled nursing required for many friends and family, including my own grandparents. They burned through almost all of their estate on those costs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 years of assisted living would cost about $5M according to Google. Per person so $10 if you need it for both.
3 kids going to private college is another 1.5, and if they want to be doctors or lawyers you can add onto that.
I also have anxiety about one of my kids getting a serious medical condition or injury where you need to pay $$$$ out of pocket to get appropriate care. If that happened and I didn’t have th money because I retired at 50, I’d feel awful.

20 years of assisted living? For both partners?? Risk assessment not your strength I see.

Do: yes most are not 20 years. But the 6-24 months estimates are not accurate for most in my family. Had one relative in memory care for 6.5 years and another in nursing care for 2.5. Had covid not happened (both took turns for worse health after contracting it) it might have been 10+ years for one and 4-5 for the other

So plan accordingly

My grandmother was in memory care for 13 years until we finally got a court order basically allowing us to kill her. They didn’t call it that, of course. And that was full on memory care, not just assisted living. My other grandmother lived for more than 40 years after retiring but she lived with us and my mother cared for her for free. My kids ain’t never gonna do that.

Do you happen to know how much you spent on 13 year of memory kill. It seems like a good example of worst case one needs to plan for financially.

[Anonymous]

NP. What else would I do?

[Anonymous]

NP; got here (at 52) but saving increased income every time it happened and this crazy market. I still work b/c I still have a kid in high school. I intend to retire when they go to college b/c I should also have a retirement health benefit at my work at that point.

That said, working is so much better now that I have financial freedom. We have $5M excluding whatever is in our employer held 401ks and the paid off house. It's nice. And our vacations are very nice. Our house; not so nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cant get over the fact that someone thinks its logical to need TWENTY YEARS of memory care housing. Dang. Youre going to go straight from your desk to full time care facility! How depressing to be that anxious.

I’m not “anxious” about it, I’ve just seen long periods of memory care or skilled nursing required for many friends and family, including my own grandparents. They burned through almost all of their estate on those costs.

This is what the estate is for. It worked as designed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So basically OP is asking why any parent -- since she's a stay at home parent with kids still at home -- whose family net worth is over $5 million still works.

That really narrows things and changes the nature of the question. She isn't asking why people aren't "retiring" since there's no "retiring" when you're still raising kids.

What's she's asking is why both parents in relatively wealthy family still choose to work when they have kids at home.

OP here. No, I work full-time. I would like to quit my job, but my spouse wants me to keep working. Also, I know people who worked well past retirement age even though they had way more money than they could ever spend, and I wanted to know why.

OP, this is a totally different question than the one you asked. You do not want to choose to work with a high NW. You want to stay at home but your DH wants you to keep working. I am going to go out on a limb and say your a DW whose DH makes most of the HHI and in return you do most of the labor with your elementary school kids. If you can financially swing it without taking a lifestyle hit, which it sounds like you can, I would probably feel the same as you do. (Heck, I make more than my DH and would love to quit or at least step back but that is not a financial option for us).

This sounds like a marital disagreement rather than a philosophical money question.

[Anonymous]

We are early 50s and have a net worth of $8.5 mil. It makes sense for us to continue because DH WFH 100% and makes 750k, I WFH 3 x week and make 175k so wear and tear on our bodies is not too bad. Also, our kids are high schoolers so we definitely have big expenses coming up. Lately, I have been feeling that the next generation may not have same wealth building opportunities the way we had them, so we want to give them a decent inheritance.

Lastly, 2 x week interaction with people at work is a good thing for my mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cant get over the fact that someone thinks its logical to need TWENTY YEARS of memory care housing. Dang. Youre going to go straight from your desk to full time care facility! How depressing to be that anxious.

I’m not “anxious” about it, I’ve just seen long periods of memory care or skilled nursing required for many friends and family, including my own grandparents. They burned through almost all of their estate on those costs.

Right. They had multigenerational family money and were extremely frugal and had almost nothing left after death. It’s an indication of the extraordinary costs of intensive elder care.

This is what the estate is for. It worked as designed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cant get over the fact that someone thinks its logical to need TWENTY YEARS of memory care housing. Dang. Youre going to go straight from your desk to full time care facility! How depressing to be that anxious.

I’m not “anxious” about it, I’ve just seen long periods of memory care or skilled nursing required for many friends and family, including my own grandparents. They burned through almost all of their estate on those costs.

This is what the estate is for. It worked as designed.

Right. They had multigenerational family money and were extremely frugal and had almost nothing left after death. It’s an indication of the extraordinary costs of intensive elder care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cant get over the fact that someone thinks its logical to need TWENTY YEARS of memory care housing. Dang. Youre going to go straight from your desk to full time care facility! How depressing to be that anxious.

I’m not “anxious” about it, I’ve just seen long periods of memory care or skilled nursing required for many friends and family, including my own grandparents. They burned through almost all of their estate on those costs.

Right. They had multigenerational family money and were extremely frugal and had almost nothing left after death. It’s an indication of the extraordinary costs of intensive elder care.

This is what the estate is for. It worked as designed.

Well, you are making a value judgment with that that it is okay to work to prepare for elder care costs but not to create generational wealth.

You do you. Who are you to judge other people’s reasons. Different people have different priorities, for the most part that is not your concern.