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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At 55, if we have 5 million+, one of us could retire. The other would work longer purely for the health insurance.

That being said, at 5 million, regardless of our age, I will feel a lot less stress. We could live on it and be fine. We probably would not have all the luxuries we want, but we would have a very comfortable retirement. It is definitely a milestone for me.

I agree with this. We are 54 and 57, with roughly a $5m net worth, not including 529 and home equity. One kid, who will start college in the fall. We could both quit tomorrow and be fine. It wouldn't be the retirement we envisioned, but we wouldn't be homeless, or hungry, and still would be able to leave something to our kid. At this point it is a constant reevaluation - the longer we work, the more we save and the less time we have to rely on our investments. But it's also less time to really enjoy ourselves, with the active things we want to do - ski, hike, travel, second home, etc. The current plan is for each of us to retire at 60.

I have toyed with "retiring" and just getting a placeholder job to cover current expenses, and rely on market increases to get us the rest of the way to full retirement.

Do the math on this. Obviously, past increases don’t mean the future will be the same. But - I thought the same as you and only recently realized that investments are making on average 90k per month. While I make 8k/month through my job. And new money invested isn’t going to grow nearly as much as earlier dollars. I’m still working for now but I don’t think it’s makes as much of a difference as you think, depending on where your assets are now and how old you are.

What precisely do you think the "constant reevaluation" would entail? Vibes?

Seems like vibes are what you’re going with. Otherwise, you would know additional savings close to retirement doesn’t make much of a difference. $100k invested for 5 years will maybe be $150k. 100k invested for 25 years is over a million. If I’m close to retirement with $5mill plus, I’m not going to keep working for the $150k in 5 years. Not worth my time.

First, you are focusing on the saving aspect, and ignoring "and the less time we have to rely on our investments." Every year we continue working is one less year we are drawing down, which is arguably more significant at this stage.

Also, you ignore that I already made the very same point:

I have toyed with "retiring" and just getting a placeholder job to cover current expenses, and rely on market increases to get us the rest of the way to full retirement.

That means, quite obviously, that I recognize that no additional savings are necessary. So no, I'm not working off of vibes.

[Anonymous]

We just hit $5 million and I retired at 52 because I hated what I did (attorney) and it was killing me. DH is still working for far less income and our health care because he likes his job and we need the benefits. Kids are in college. I'm filling my time with hobbies, exercise, socializing and volunteer work and sure I'm a little bored some days but better bored than stressed and miserable.