Reply to "$5 Million is a Nightmare... the Poorest Rich Person in America."

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Reply to ""$5 Million is a Nightmare... the Poorest Rich Person in America.""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have to admit that we are at $5M and related to the dark humor from this scene in Succession.

We know we're in good shape, especially in our 30s, but we don't feel like $5M is enough to retire on and are still ambitious to achieve more in our careers and financially.

[b]Part of this is because we are in a VHCOL where we hope to stay, and our current net worth and salary barely gets us an old condo that needs a lot of updates. We're also in a high achieving peer group from college and work, and we feel just average among (successful!) peers.[/b] Rich people problems, I know. [/quote]

This isn't part of it. It's all of it.

5-10 million is objectively enough tho set yourself up for life, set your kids up, never have to worry about money again. If my DH and I had 5 million, he'd quit his job (which he hates) and get a job working less than full time doing something he enjoys (he knows what it would be, it's a low paying but rewarding career). I would continue in my job, which I like. We'd invest thoughtfully to ensure income. We'd upgrade our home, but not to a mansion -- we'd buy one of the 1-1.2m homes in our desired neighborhood that we cannot quite afford now, or potentially buy something cheaper and renovate. We only have one kid and have no desire for a huge house.

We'd make some small lifestyle upgrades (regular house cleaners, slightly nicer vacations, buy some items we now deem too pricy for us like an electric vehicle) but would not vastly overhaul our lifestyle. We'd still cook at home a lot, because we like to (though it would be thrilling not to worry about budgeting for groceries and to have a nicer kitchen to cook in). We would not change our friends, who now vary from MC to UMC and where incomes probably top out around 500k (and most well below that).

Kid might go to private school -- we could afford it on that income but we are aware it could change our peer set and our kid's peer set, so we'd really think hard about it. I could see us sending her to a private that is more UMC crunchy liberal families than super rich. But I could also see us just staying in public, especially if we could afford to ensure we were in bound for high quality public schools.

If 5-10m is "a nightmare" to you, that's entirely because of your peer group, personal ambition, and values. It's objectively "enough" money for most things that matter to most people. But if you belong to the subset of people for whom "owning a private jet" matters, then I'm not really sure any amount of money will ever make you happy. Good luck.[/quote]

You stated you would both continue working.  One with a decent paying job.  You could not do what you mentioned (your "desired lifestyle" ) if you were retired.  Medical/health insurance would run you $20K+ for a family of 3 per year.  Cost to maintain/insurance/proptax/etc for a $1.2M home would add another $30K minimum, that's if you have no mortgage. Figure $250-300K needed for the kid to go to college.  This is not going to get you to 85 with any money left to pay the bills, wont get you to 65 really, if you want to retire now and live your current life.

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