how much money would you have to have in the bank to feel like you never needed to work again?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
These are 2 legs of the 3-legged stool. The 3rd leg is healthcare. Assuming these two items are paid off, then a reasonable healthcare premium would give most people comfort. So $5M would conservatively generate $200k per year, minus local/state/fed income taxes you're sitting at around $120k. Take off another $20k for healthcare and you're left with $100k. That should be plenty without the mortgage (which usually makes up 1/3 of a monthly outlay). |
Anonymous
| 10 million, and I could just live off interest. Don't touch the principle. Married with one child, we're in our 40s. I kind of like my job though so I'd probably still do it but volunteer |
Anonymous
| 3 million and I would never "need" to work again. I would probably want to work, at least part time, so I could afford a more extravagant lifestyle. But at 3 million.. it would definitely be a choice and not a necessity. |
Anonymous
| My wife was a SAHM throughout our marriage. We got married young, and had four kids before turning 30. At 53, without about $4.3 million and college completely behind us, I stopped working. I'm now 57 with a net worth of $5.8 million. We have found that this is plenty of money. |
Anonymous
|
Anonymous
What was your hhi before you stopped? |
Anonymous
That's a good point which is why I might continue to work a few more years to build more net worth and have a company sponsored health plan. But that gap health insurance gap before Medicare can be very expensive. |
Anonymous
This is so true. I know too many stories of someone who had made a ton of money, could have retired at 55-60 but retired at 65-70 and then got seriously ill a year or two later. Retiring too early could lead to boredom but retiring too late could lead to death. Aging becomes very rapid after 60. |
Anonymous
We hit six figures sometime in the mid 1990s, and the last ten years I was working we averaged about 650k a year (before taxes). We paid for college out of current income as the kids went (no college savings plan). Bought the family home in the burbs for around 350k in the early 90s and sold it 18 years later for $1.1 million. "Downsized" at that point (close to a decade ago) for a much smaller house in the city. Paid around the same as what we sold the old house for, but the new place has a basement rental that more than covers the mortgage. The house is worth about $1.7 million now. We sent the kids to good public schools, avoiding the whole private school rat race, and our kids either went to UVA (in state) or to well regarded privates offering substantial merit aid. Bottom line: we were smart about money but not at all frugal. We took very nice family vacations every year and paid for very nice weddings. It worked out well for us. Obviously we aren't living on anywhere near $650k a year now, but we haven't had to cut back on our lifestyle in any meaningful way because we never lived like we made that much money even when we did and we don't have any kid expenses anymore. |
Anonymous
| 6 million. 2 college kids, not sure what they're planning for grad school. Self employed 50 yr old. put aide 1 million for the kids' schools etc, and then 5 mill should give me 25 yrs of 200k income. Move out of DC, to a lower tax state, and I'm good as the equity in my house could get me mortgage-free housing most other places |
Anonymous
oh, and people in my family seem to tap out around 75-80 
|
Anonymous
I think i know who you are.... |
Anonymous
| $2.5 million - following the 4% rule, we could then safely live on $100k year, which I think would be very doable for us, even if we were buying a health plan in the Marketplace. If Obamacare gets repealed, then I guess I'll be working until Medicare kicks in. |
Anonymous
|
I like my job so to quit now (I'm 40), I'd need enough that I could live an even better life without it. So it would probably be $50 million or so. But that's so I wouldn't want to work, not so I would never need to work.
I calculated that for me to live another 50 years with an inflation adjusted allowance of $250k/year and not to reasonably worry I'd be destroyed by either bad investments or inflation would be about $15m. Quite a lot! That said, I also have a child with disabilities who may never work so I have to take him into account. So realistically $25m to account for his subsistence and care. May not have this but will probably be close if DH and I each retire at 75 as planned. And probably don't need this much except in the worst possible case. |
Anonymous
|
$10m, enough to replace our $250k HHI for the next 35 or so years.
I'm 33, DH is 40. We've got an infant. |