Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:31
Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
I have $6 million invested because I got lucky with inheritance 1/2 of which I invested in what I felt was a random stock (nvda) in 2017 and other semiconductor ETFs.
Everytime I look at the balance I can't believe my eyes. So I still work because despite having this much in investments I still feel middle class. I work as a data analyst and make $104k at 49.
The primary reason I work is because healthcare scares the hell out of me in this country. So I'll gladly let someone else pay that for me. I genuinely feel like most of us will never have enough saved if God forbid we get a serious cancer and need to pay out of pocket but here we are. It's kind of sad because we have accepted it's okay for us to be robbed this way.
Everytime I look at the balance I can't believe my eyes. So I still work because despite having this much in investments I still feel middle class. I work as a data analyst and make $104k at 49.
The primary reason I work is because healthcare scares the hell out of me in this country. So I'll gladly let someone else pay that for me. I genuinely feel like most of us will never have enough saved if God forbid we get a serious cancer and need to pay out of pocket but here we are. It's kind of sad because we have accepted it's okay for us to be robbed this way.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:26
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
What's wrong with working to derive self worth and identity from job title and paycheck?
Nothing. If you're insecure and superficial. Everything if you're not.
I work because I enjoy it, I derive some of my self worth and identity from it, my charities sure benefit financially and timewise from my financial and time donations (yes, even while working!). I'm high energy and competitive and have other sources of self worth work in addition to my job. Sorry you don't or didn't like your life's work.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:22
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:dp: perhaps because one person working isn't fair if the other is retired and you are similar ages? Being retired isn't fun without your kids out and your spouse also retired...we want to travel and do things.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We have $6.5M not including the house, and work for health care benefits. Paying out of pocket for 10-15 years for the two of us plus kids before reaching Medicare eligibility seems like such a waste of funds. Since one works for health care benefits, it is only fair that the other works, too.
You sound greedy. If one works for healthcare, why the other?
My spouse has been retired for 4.5 years and I work full time. I don't think it's "unfair" he's retired and I'm not. I choose to keep working. My husband doesn't really like to travel so even when I'm retired we won't be spending our days together. Every person, and every marriage, is different.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:20
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
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.
I am not "giving up my prime years" to work. I enjoy working, even knowing my time is limited.
You do you. Weird outlook on life though.
I think it's weird to work only for cash.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:15
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
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.
do: we had $10m at 45, but kept going because we wanted to. Stopped at 55 once we hit $35M+. Now we have more than enough. But 10m at 45 isn't that much when you have 2 kids to attend college and grad school and you have 20 years to pay for health insurance --$1m will go to healthcare alone in 20-25 years (based on current plans in my area). 10m at 65 isn't very different than at 65+.
Yes time is limited but if you enjoy your job retiring before kids are out of house is not usually on the books.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:14
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote: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.
What's wrong with working to derive self worth and identity from job title and paycheck?
Nothing. If you're insecure and superficial. Everything if you're not.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:14
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
You seem angry and troubled. A lot of people take pride in their jobs, and their jobs do contribute to society, or at least to the society that most of us would like to inhabit.
Neither angry nor troubled. Just calling it like it is. Especially in the DMV where the first question asked is too often “what do you do?”
Many of you define yourselves and others around you by your job titles and income. Fact.
How do you define yourself?
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:13
Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
For some people, working is not about making money.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:12
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
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.
What's wrong with working to derive self worth and identity from job title and paycheck?
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:12
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
dp: perhaps because one person working isn't fair if the other is retired and you are similar ages? Being retired isn't fun without your kids out and your spouse also retired...we want to travel and do things.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We have $6.5M not including the house, and work for health care benefits. Paying out of pocket for 10-15 years for the two of us plus kids before reaching Medicare eligibility seems like such a waste of funds. Since one works for health care benefits, it is only fair that the other works, too.
You sound greedy. If one works for healthcare, why the other?
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:10
Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Retired people generally are:
- Relatively old
- Have similar aged retired people to hang out with
- Have kids that are grown up and moved out
- Feel content in what they've accomplished in life
Unless those things are true it's pretty unpleasant to retire.
We're late 30s with way more than $5M, but what would we do with our time if we retired? We're relatively young, our kids are still in school for 10+ more years, and our friends all still work. We also feel like we can do interesting things in our jobs and get paid a lot of money for it. So we both continue to work.
Also fwiw $5M is not very much to stop working at an early age. The Trinity study wasn't looking at 50 years of retirement, and a family of 4 living on $150k is not much when you consider that most people who reach $5M before retirement age probably made a lot more than that.
$150,000 after tax guaranteed with a paid off house is not tough to live on comfortably, even in a HCOL area, unless you've got 2+ kids in 60k/yr private schools.
Well we would rather work and be able to travel the world--you are not doing that with $150K per year income. Not several trips with 2 hotel rooms (one for the teens). And yes in a hcol area your property taxes can be $20k per year or more. Food for 4 is now $1200 per month (easily spend more if you want organic and fresh fruits and veggies)
Go to ie auto insurance for teens until they are off in their own---$2-3k per year, and that's just insurance
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:09
Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Some people just have that dog in them despite being worth $5M or $20M or $100M or whatever.
Yes. I am the first woman on either side of my family to have a graduate degree and I'd like to leave lots of money to future generations. It's a ego thing, I freely admit it.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:06
Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:“You can’t do anything with 5, Greg. Five is a nightmare.”
This is actually true, especially if you have multiple kids.
+1
$5m is not that much if you are only early 30s/40s. That's when we hit that point. Have to save for kids college (and grad school), and to get the kids to age 18. One kid required multiple therapies and tutoring (none covered by insurance). The other did competitive dance and we did t want to limit their activities because we were retired at 40.
Also health insurance is damn expensive. Fine to pay for 5-7 years but not for 25+ years and for entire family with kids.
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:04
Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:People want luxury, that’s it. You can retire on $5M just fine even with kids, but folks who earn enough to make 5 mil at a young age are accustomed to a certain standard of living that would be hard to guarantee on a mere 150k/yr or whatever.
You can easily blow 20-30k on a single international trip if you travel in style with a family. You can do that if you have 5 mil with an 800k HHI but not with 5 mil and $0 HHI.
We're spending $20K on a one week European cruise for two people in September
Anonymous
05/13/2026 16:01
Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
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.
I am not "giving up my prime years" to work. I enjoy working, even knowing my time is limited.
You do you. Weird outlook on life though.