Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 05:53     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We're at roughly 4m + pension. I now work part time because I appreciate keeping my brain engaged and being a productive member of society. I stayed at home when the kids were younger and it was fine for the first couple years but then the novelty wore off and I got bored so I went back. A little extra spending money never hurt either.


OP here. For those with part-time jobs, what do you do? I want to downsize to a part-time job, but I don't think my current job could be made part-time. Most part-time jobs out there outside of the healthcare field or working for yourself pay very little per hour, which makes it hard to justify switching to one when I have elementary school-aged kids whose schedules I would need to work around. My spouse is also very much like some of the people earlier in the thread who expect both partners to work and believe the more assets, the better.


I started my career in healthcare. Restarted from scratch in a different govt field. Currently GS11 so it's OK money.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 05:50     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
5 million is not enough to retire. I am aiming for 20 million in today’s dollars.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 05:34     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.


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.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 05:10     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:If your household net worth is at least $5M, what are the reasons that you continue working? Do you and your spouse both work or just one of you?


My spouse and I both work. I don’t love my job, but we both like “working” and feeling productive. We feel too young to retire in our 40s. I like the people I work with. Im excited by the prospect of creating generational wealth. We were raised middle class and feel like retirement now would just feel too precious and entitled.
Anonymous
Post 05/13/2026 00:18     Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Because we want $10m to retire.


This. See also, health insurance, enjoying our work, and risk aversion. We both still work, but DH resigned from his corporate job and launched his own business 3 years ago. While it is a lot of work and hard in different ways, it gave him a lot of flexibility to be there for our kids and set his own schedule. I also WFH on a slightly reduced schedule and can pretty easily accommodate summer schedules, sports practices, or a sick kid.


This but my number is 15 million or higher. Also enjoy working. If you are in a job you do not like you screwed up somewhere and you should fix it.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 22:46     Subject: Re:People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Because we want $10m to retire.


This. See also, health insurance, enjoying our work, and risk aversion. We both still work, but DH resigned from his corporate job and launched his own business 3 years ago. While it is a lot of work and hard in different ways, it gave him a lot of flexibility to be there for our kids and set his own schedule. I also WFH on a slightly reduced schedule and can pretty easily accommodate summer schedules, sports practices, or a sick kid.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 21:31     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
If you have earned 5Mil in your 40s you likely live the sort of life that requires more income for retirement. Golden handcuffs are a real thing. However if it took yoi until age 70 to earn 5 mil you'll be totally fine! More than fine because you haven't lived with large expenses.

So its more about the lifestyle than the actual number.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 20:54     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We're at roughly 4m + pension. I now work part time because I appreciate keeping my brain engaged and being a productive member of society. I stayed at home when the kids were younger and it was fine for the first couple years but then the novelty wore off and I got bored so I went back. A little extra spending money never hurt either.


OP here. For those with part-time jobs, what do you do? I want to downsize to a part-time job, but I don't think my current job could be made part-time. Most part-time jobs out there outside of the healthcare field or working for yourself pay very little per hour, which makes it hard to justify switching to one when I have elementary school-aged kids whose schedules I would need to work around. My spouse is also very much like some of the people earlier in the thread who expect both partners to work and believe the more assets, the better.


I work part-time and make six figures. You have to stay in your area of expertise. People will pay you for your knowledge. You can’t jump to say healthcare or a service job you’ll only be paid by the hour.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 20:45     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
I’m waiting to see what happens over the next two years regarding politics, health care costs and the economy. In the meantime I’ve quite quit and am spending more time on hobbies. None of my friends have retired yet.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 19:43     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:If I had $5M I would retire now. I don't think we will ever have $5M. Goal is retiring in our 60s with $4M but that is still 15-20 years away.
5 years ago late 40, I thought we will never get 8m in our lifetime. Mid 50 now, if we still have jobs and 10% market up yearly average, we may have 8m. Yes, it is a big if but we can dream.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 19:18     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
If I had $5M I would retire now. I don't think we will ever have $5M. Goal is retiring in our 60s with $4M but that is still 15-20 years away.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 18:50     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:I love love love my job. And we have 2 kids in college.


What do you do? I dont love my job at all.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 18:35     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Because working is very easy. Office jobs aren’t difficult. Why would I spend down money when I can make it and be just as happy?

Once you get older you learn to play the game and if you’re well off, you likely earn a lot of vacation, can work some remotely and the holidays are down time too.

Also many of us have kids in school so it’s not like we could travel freely.

If you have that net worth or greater it often comes with a certain lifestyle that with kids includes summer camps, private school, fully funded college etc. You can’t make the math work on 5 million and retiring early.


You must like/tolerate your job. Hard to keep toiling away when you do not when the $$ is there to go ahead and retire early.


Maybe if all of the $5m is in investible assets, you have mortgage (home equity no included in $5m estimate), no private school, and add the "fully funded 529 plan qualification". 3.5% of $5m =$175k/year ($14,583/month). I think you could live well enough on those assumptions/qualifications.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 17:25     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Because I like my job—net worth of over 10 million.
Anonymous
Post 05/12/2026 17:18     Subject: People with $5M+ NW, why do you still choose to work?
Anonymous wrote:Because working is very easy. Office jobs aren’t difficult. Why would I spend down money when I can make it and be just as happy?

Once you get older you learn to play the game and if you’re well off, you likely earn a lot of vacation, can work some remotely and the holidays are down time too.

Also many of us have kids in school so it’s not like we could travel freely.

If you have that net worth or greater it often comes with a certain lifestyle that with kids includes summer camps, private school, fully funded college etc. You can’t make the math work on 5 million and retiring early.


You must like/tolerate your job. Hard to keep toiling away when you do not when the $$ is there to go ahead and retire early.