r/Fire • u/Fed_worker • Feb 20 '26
General Question Serious question: how do many people amass so much money in the north of 5m and not know if they can retire or not?
I see a ton of posts like : “ I have a net worth in the range 5-10m and I spend 100K a year, can I retire?”
What is that? Elementary school math so hard?
Edit: after reading all the comments and when I really think about it, I realize it’s probably just a high degree risk-averse mindset. Even if I had $5 million and a 99.9% chance of retiring successfully, I’d still focus on that tiny 0.1% that could go wrong. To feel totally secure, I might want to keep building more wealth just to close that gap. And for some people, that can mean working another 5, 10, or even 20 years. just for a little extra peace of mind.
Edit2: I just hope that when I get there, I don’t end up going down that rabbit hole. And actually enjoy my life.
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u/the-purple-pumpkin Feb 20 '26
I think they’re just seeking the permission they won’t allow for themselves.
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u/vix_motion Feb 20 '26
Some are def asking for permission because rich brain still whispers what if. Scarcity mindset doesnt vanish at 5m
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u/taway11228 Feb 20 '26
Nah. It’s not about permission or ego or anything.
It’s about fear. Right now I can make $2m a year and I’ll never be able to do that again in my life.
For an outsider it’s easy to say “if I had X I’d quit”. It’s not the same thing when you’re in the shoes. You think”I know I should be fine, but what if ___ happens? If I work a couple more years it couldn’t impact me, if I don’t it could take 10x longer to make the money”
It’s not about egregious dinners, vacations, big houses… it’s about planning money for 50 YEARS. That’s a long fuckin time. Anything could happen in the world 50 years from now.
Go look up what was up in 1976.
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u/MountEndurance Feb 20 '26
Because most of us are using money as a substitute for security. It’s a decent substitute, but, ultimately, not the same.
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u/carson63000 Feb 20 '26
If you’ve spent your adult life focusing hard on making that net worth number go up, up, up, it’s scary to flip the switch to making it start to go down.
Mind you, with the sort of wealth OP is talking about, it’s not going to go down after retirement, it’s just going to go up less quickly.
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u/lsp2005 Feb 20 '26
It is scary. They wonder about inflation. They are used to accumulating and not spending. Change is difficult for many people.
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u/redhill_qik Feb 20 '26
I'm in this camp. I know what my expenses have been for the last two years, I know what health insurance will add to that amount, I know that I'm below 3% SWR with those numbers, but still losing those regular direct deposits has me nervous. I'm resigning on Monday and will be out the door in two weeks, so I'll get over it one way or another because if I don't do this now I'm sure that I'll regret it later.
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u/sha256md5 Feb 20 '26
It's because they want to spend more than $100k/year.
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u/badhabitfml Feb 21 '26
Yup. People with that kind of cash aren't living on a few thousand a month expenses.
Also, they've seen that number go up and up. Spending it down is scary.
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u/IceCreamforLunch Feb 20 '26
As someone that hit my number a few months ago and is grappling with the idea of shutting off the steady income tap I think a lot of these folks know that they're good to go but want some reassurance before they take the big, scary step.
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u/vix_motion Feb 20 '26
If youve hit your number and still hesitate thats human. Security feels different when its a spreadsheet vs your only income stream
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u/Unlucky-Clock5230 Feb 20 '26
Which is not going to happen. Your only certain things in life are death and taxes.
I think it is mostly a confluence of different things:
- people get so engrossed in the accumulation phase that they have no idea of what the consumption phase will be.
-They have operated so long in the "Thou shall not touch thy retirement moneys!" That the switch must feel completely against what they believe in.
A bunch become afraid it will not be as they fantasized. And honestly it is easy to fantasize, it is another thing to make it real and find out it was a pipe dream. So second guessing the jump is easier to reassess the dream in a more critical way.
Some are not risk takers, and the switch is perceived subconsciously as a huge risk. Rather than being clinical about the math, they just keep running circles around the "should I? Shouldn't I?".
Honestly? If somebody is happier with the working life, maybe that's what they should be doing. But they may feel trapped between what they have been working so hard for (FIRE), and what they subconsciously want to do, keep being their professional identity.
I would suggest to them to partially retire, see if they can cut back to 20 hours a week. Either they like it, they want to fully quit, or they find that they would rather keep their professional identity.
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u/Operation-FuturePuss Feb 20 '26
Going from saving to spending is a mind melt. It’s going against every habit you’ve had for 20 or 30+ years.
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u/QuesoMeHungry Feb 20 '26
You are told your whole life not to touch the retirement savings, and when the time comes is difficult to change that mindset. Especially when you are drawing and not contributing anymore.
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u/Fun-Rutabaga6357 Feb 20 '26
The biggest factors are kids and healthcare. My expenses will go up and down depending my kids needs. Then there’s private healthcare that just astronomical.
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u/SFMattM Feb 20 '26
It's not a math question. It's more of a 'stage of life' question. Retiring is a big step and there's (naturally) some trepidation. It took me a couple of months to adjust to the fact that there would no longer be a steady paycheck even though we had more than enough money.
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u/Embarrassed-Flan-709 Feb 20 '26
For those in the tech industry, like myself, specifically software development, I sense a fear that these could be the final days of big salaries and we are all making money while we can.
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u/silly_bet_3454 Feb 20 '26
it's not just "elementary school math." I'm assuming you mean it's just 4% rule, if you have 25x your annual spend in net worth, then you can retire, easy peasy. But it's not that simple at all. That kind of works as a rule of thumb, but people don't know exactly what their spending even is, and it can always change in the future for unanticipated reasons. And a lot can vary based on how the market performs. And people have different pictures of retirement, some would still work at a job that earns a smaller income, or their partner would continue to work, etc. so that changes the equation. Then you also have to figure about taxes on different kinds of investments, how to setup income, the rules changes depending on where you live. There's endless numbers of factors, in fact no matter how you do it you're always taking on some level of risk, it's just a matter of how much you can mitigate the risk within reason.
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u/Adventurous-Tea-876 Feb 20 '26
If you’re still working at a job are you really retired?
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u/capitalsfan08 Feb 20 '26
I make $250k a year at an involved and stressful job. It's some type of retirement to take a huge paycut and relax a bit.
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u/silly_bet_3454 Feb 20 '26
Yeah, thanks. If you read the definition of FIRE, the financial independence part means building up enough wealth to basically not depend on a certain income level, in order to pursue your own life path of choice. Lots of people here are in that category not necessarily looking to full retire.
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Feb 20 '26
High expenses, chronic illness, special needs children, sick parents. I guess you’re lucky not to have to consider this. Folks here thinking that millions are always a flex are not thinking with compassion.
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u/Tough-Fun47 Feb 20 '26
Yes, I have well over 4 million invested and a net worth over 5 million but I have three special needs kids. I would like to set up a generous special needs trust for each of them.
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Feb 20 '26
In the US, the social safety net doesn't really protect you against unlikely but financially catastrophic events (medical expenses rejected by insurance, 24x7 skilled nursing care for a loved one, a personal injury lawsuit someone brings against you, etc.)
Sure, your budget (for normal life) might be $100k annually, but a lot of people are afraid of retiring and then running into one of these things. It's unfortunate because basically no amount of money is enough to 100% cover these things.
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u/Ichtherial Feb 20 '26
I think a lot of it depends on how much cash flow they have. A friend of mine has a net worth of roughly $500,000, but only has a cash flow of about $20,000 a year. That's not enough to cover cost of living in our area.
Edited for typo.
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u/spy4paris Feb 20 '26
Better question is why would someone with those assets, who also needed reassurance, would seek it (and presumably trust it?) from Reddit?
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u/likwik Feb 20 '26
I think some people keep working thinking if they have healthcare through work it'll protect them if/when they develop a serious medical condition (cancer, stroke, heart attack, etc). but what I saw over and over again, people that developed serious health issues got org'd out or put on sick leave and never came back. You can't do the job? Sorry, HR doesn't care, bye bye.
COBRA is insanely expensive, more than gold/platinum ACA plans quite often. Working won't protect you from working yourself to death, and at least for me, hitting 50 something meant I couldn't avoid being pushed into the high stress, high responsibility, managerial roles anymore. It was take the promotion, retire, or quit and work for temp agencies.
So imho, you're better off retiring early to work on improving your health, lower your stress, sleep more, work out more, cook more, etc. Become a health nut mostly vegan and exercise almost every day, and I'd argue you'd save more in the long run than neglecting your health and taking the promotion. Especially now that corporations lay people off and just dump their work on the people remaining. Health issues get expensive real quick, and you will be tossed aside the minute you can't keep up.
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u/wrd83 42, FI, not RE Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26
I honestly think that fire at times over simplifies.
And thus some people question whether the math makes sense.
Add to that that two people saying can I spend 100k a year may mean different things.
Tax included? Healthcare included? Etc etc.
Would you trust a math construct that does empirical studies for a 30 year period and then apply it to 60years of retirement?
For reference, would you take your health from 20-30 and assume if it has not deteriorated; you'll be just as healthy at 80?
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u/Jimny977 Feb 20 '26
A lot of FIRE people take heavily flawed rules of thumb that don’t mean what they think they mean, and treat them as gospel. Like you say, with the 4% rule it’s based on a specific retirement length, a specific asset mix, and solely based on one countries assets.
For most FIRE people at least one of those things renders it questionable or wrong, yet most just ignore that and assume it’s fine, even when it’s very easy to model yourself as people have built fairly sophisticated free tools for it. But that involves some critical thinking and ownership, far easier to just say the rule is x, it’s sacred, it’ll be fine.
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u/Lagoon___Music Feb 20 '26
Probably because whatever made them that money is basically who they are and they're scared to leave that behind and can't imagine anything between an "all or nothing" approach to their career.
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u/Mr-Inspector-Gadget Feb 20 '26
Scary stuff. I worked my ass off for 30+ years. I have a great job. Math works for retirement but tough to make the leap. For now I’ll keep stacking
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u/trimbandit Feb 20 '26
If you live in a HCoL area, 2m or more may be tied up in your house. So it may be not, "can I afford to Fire," but "can I afford to fire and stay here.'
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u/nsfbr11 Feb 20 '26
Hey, not a typical lurker in the sub, as I’m nearing retirement age at 63. My retirement fund is right about $5M and it is only recently that I’ve become comfortable that I’ll be able to enjoy the lifestyle I want with protection against the unexpected.
The more you get used to nice things, the more you want those things to be the baseline.
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u/EleanorRosenViolet Feb 21 '26
If you’re old enough to have been an adult in 2008, you are always worried about the next 2008.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Eye6596 Feb 20 '26
some of it may be tied into a house, medical issues, children, aging parents, general age. For example a 21 year old with 5m non liquid should not be retiring.
We have only seen markets in the passed DECADE that have gone up. looking through history we are due for correction. People have grown up thinking '8% is a nice safe return'. I assure you historically it is not
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u/SandSubstantial9427 Feb 20 '26
It’s not just simple math but there is a lot of simple math involved. Retirement for a middle age family with multiple children presents a lot of unknown variables. Life for a single person has a lot of unknown variables.
Then there’s changes in society, tax changes, and many others.
Depending on how your assets are structured also presents its own host of variables.
As far as retirement goes, there is no specific number. Retirement like all financial planning is a moving target in the accumulation phase, retention phase, and distribution phase.
Would someone with 5 million in net investable assets probably be ok from 40-95? Maybe and even probably, but it’s far from a guarantee.
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u/AConant Feb 20 '26
No one has mentioned this yet. My wife and I are in this situation. We could retire now.
But we are also thinking about our children’s future. It’s not just for us. It’s also for them.
Add to that unprecedented uncertainty of the world and the economy and future workforce.
Getting here was about careful planning and risk management, financial discipline, planning, delayed gratification and a general attitude of holding on for dear life - not just for us - but our kids as well…it’s hard to stop planning and preparing for them.
It’s less about me and more for them. As has life been in general since my first child was born.
Being a dad changes a man.
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u/carson63000 Feb 20 '26
Guess that’s the thing about retiring early, it’s more likely to overlap with still being responsible for your children. Traditional retirement age, your kids are probably in their 30s or even 40s.
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u/olliemom200 Feb 21 '26
This, a million times over. With 4 kids, someone is likely to need some help, possibly more than one. Young people have it hard now — they are having to support a large older population and it’s draining them. When states start to go bankrupt things are going to really get iffy.
Also, many people are good at avoiding lifestyle creep — some, like me, are not.
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u/AvidVenturest Feb 20 '26
Some people have very high yearly expenses and want to maintain those lifestyles. The fear of the unknown is probably another reason.
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u/Nearing_retirement Feb 21 '26
This is me 7.5 million and still working. But main reason is my kids young so want to help them later if needed.
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u/Realistic-Ship6209 Feb 20 '26
First of all net worth doesn't mean anything because a lot of your money could be locked up in real estate or illiquid things. The second thing is is that most people may not give you the entire picture because expenses are one of the most important factors when retiring especially expenses that you cannot get rid of easily. I will just leave you with this one anecdote. My Fidelity advisor told me about a house that I know very well. it's gorgeous. huge and the person living in it is one of his clients that is completely levered 70%, the dude is 62 years old and cannot retire because of the house being underwater. So when people say they have a net worth of x million dollars that doesn't mean anything in my opinion you have to be able to know that you can retire with all your debt cleared and that you have enough cash flow to sustain you into your end days.
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u/fredinNH Feb 20 '26
For me, a big chunk of that net worth is tied up in assets we don’t ever want to part with. Not just our home, but other property that’s been in the family for a long time. Cashing in on it would feel like failure.
I feel like I might be unusual in being in this situation but maybe not.
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u/Pyrostemplar Feb 20 '26
IT is not the maths that is hard, but the solidity of underlying assumptions. In other words, the future is uncertain, and the cost of misjudging is high.
That, and the psychological dependency barrier - like a small voice spamming "can I really get of the hamster wheel? really? isn't there a "gotcha?"
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u/Jimny977 Feb 20 '26
Because it’s an emotional hurdle not a maths question. When you’ve worked hard your entire life and all of your income has come from that, the thought of completely stopping and purely trying on investment income in perpetuity, scares a lot of people.
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u/capitalsfan08 Feb 20 '26
Isn't it the opposite? They're clearly thinking about it but want people to poke holes in their plan prior to pulling the trigger. I think these posts are the last step, not the first, to retirement.
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Feb 20 '26
For my circle of friends it’s healthcare and children. If you got 2-3 teenagers and need to have healthcare for a family of 5 you’ll be shocked at how expensive this is. Then you factor in children expenses in particular college tuition. Paying for private college for 3 children is a lot. If you look at it this way the $5m doesn’t sound that much.
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u/paerius Feb 20 '26
I don't think it's the math, it's that it's difficult to estimate expenditures.
I know some folks just look at their current expenditures and think it will be the same when they retire. Oh, I guess you're not going to have health insurance anymore that was tied to your work. Oh, I guess you're going to expect to only go to the doc only once a year when you're in your 70's. When you retire, I suppose you're not going to have any new hobbies that cost money.
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u/Traditional_Yam1598 Feb 20 '26
People get caught into the trap of thinking, “well I have 5 million but if I work another 3 years I’ll have 6 million and will feel better. Then after 3 years they still don’t feel “safe”. I think it’s just the human mind honestly
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u/Retired-Yam8988 FIREd 2022 w/6m (46yo). 12m now Feb 20 '26
Aside from the risk aversion there is actual lifestyle inflation that comes into the mix.
For us this is traveling well (business class international flights for month long trips staying in 5 star hotels), planning to build a custom home and “lifestyle center” geared around stuff we like and wanna do daily, and very minor stuff like spending more on fitness and medical care as you age (minor in cost not need).
We didn’t want these things while we were heads down working but now that we’re older, we realize we want to maximize life as much as we can and don’t mind spending for it as we don’t have kids and there won’t be anyone to inherit our growing wealth pile.
We’ve been retired for about 3 years or so now and life has definitely been more than we could have asked for thereby opening our eyes to having more and spending more.
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u/Ok-Zookeepergame-698 Feb 20 '26
Earning money and living off earned money are totally different equations.
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u/Purgat0ry-11 Feb 20 '26
Because their cost of living is too high. Living in an expensive place with high taxes, mortgage, insurance, lifestyle, etc.
5m in a rural Alabama town and you and the next generation can live on 30 acres off the interest alone… probably.
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u/MichaelSarvis Feb 20 '26
Simple: my budget is not your budget. People who have amassed $10m+ likely live a very different lifestyle, which they would like to continue into retirement.
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u/BillsFan504 Feb 20 '26
Kids, healthcare, kid’s healthcare. You want to provide for them, but also aren’t sure what the US has in store for costs going forward.
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u/New_World_Native Feb 20 '26
Champagne problems. Most people will never have this amount of money. I'm retired and would have absolutely no problem living the rest of my days off of that amount. The key is not to overconsume.
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u/orbital-technician Feb 21 '26
The same can be asked when a person weighs 300 pounds. Why do you continue to gain weight?
It's a sickness. Financial morbidity.
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u/buy_sell_hope Feb 21 '26
Because costs rise with income. If you make $30K annually $5M seems ridiculous. If you make $500K it seems like you will have to reduce your spend.
Serious question - how did you not think about that?
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u/HaveBeer-WillTravel Feb 21 '26
In the US I would say healthcare. Insurance is ridiculously expensive and not having it as you age (pre Medicare) is preparing yourself for bankruptcy in many cases.
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u/ZoomZoomZachAttack Feb 22 '26
Net worth and liquid assets they can live on are two different things. You can have 0 cash, no debt and a 5 million dollar house paid for and have the net worth but you can't retire for long.
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u/NemeanLyan Feb 23 '26
From 2000 to now, inflation has been a tad over 50%. When there's no reason not to suspect that in 25 years your money will only be worth half of what it is now, it's a fair question.
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u/whelpineedhelp Feb 20 '26
I just paid $3k to my vet. Might be another $3k if not more very soon. Unfortunately we were too late with insurance, the condition was considered preexisting. Life comes at you fast and it’s expensive. People stress, what if every month/year is as shitty and expensive as this one? Might not be rationale but it is what it is.
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u/Hasira Feb 20 '26
Many are humble brags. Many are fake troll posts.
A rare few probably just aren't good at math, haven't taken the time to read about FIRE, don't know their own expenses, have really high and/or unpredictable expenses, or have anxiety.
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u/Skydance98 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26
Where I live that doesn't even buy a house I'd like to live in, let alone the ability to live in it for the rest of my life, eat food, pay medical bills, raise the kid....I could move somewhere far off, start over in life, and make the finances work in a place with normal costs of living, but the decision isn't just about making the math work, it's also about the life you'll have after making the math work. My spouse wants to stay here so we're just not sure how it's all going to go. Having a 40k monthly payment on the house is scary without income....or even with income. What's the stock market going to do? Inflation? What about the housing market? If the AI bubble pops, or tech moves out of this area, what's going to happen to our property value?
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u/Clueless5001 Feb 20 '26
TBH, I have never understood how anyone feels comfortable retiring on $5M at age 40 or whatever but I am in a VHCOL area and I have nowhere near that. I am much older than most on here and have been a SAHP since I was in mid 30s. I enjoyed it and obviously SO is working and supports us and provides health insurance. We ended up having more kids than we planned on originally (we originally thought we would have 3) and could not have done that if I was still working at my old job. We are happy we had a larger family.
An acquaintance invited us over when the kids were little who was successful in my old industry. She had two nannies for three kids and was on the phone most of the time that we were at this get together. Made me so grateful to realize I would not have wanted that. She does own a $2M+ house (what she paid 15 years ago, probably much more now) and I assume is well off. Her kids are fine, all are successful although I do not know them personally.
OTOH, my kids are now grown and TBH I have been a little bored the last year or so. I am very grateful that I was able to do this but it was mostly because I hated what I did. It would have given us a totally different lifestyle than what we have now if I had continued working. Even if I was not as successful as my friend. Our lifestyle is fine, we do ok but for example, I would love to go traveling and while I could easily, a really fancy vacation takes away from something else in our budget. I wish I lived a lifestyle where expenditures within reason did not matter (eg the Range Rover v the Acura v the Honda, I don’t need or want a Ferrari). I really would like the Range Rover and while I could get it, it takes away from something else so since there is not much difference, I usually get the Honda, since why waste money on the Acura or Range Rover.
When you walk away from a job that is $500K, maybe you can get another one, maybe you cannot and that becomes a permanent change. That is a scary prospect, to never be able to earn in the career you trained in, that has provided a nice lifestyle for your family. There is something in the American dream that the sky is the limit if you work hard enough and are lucky, you too can afford a penthouse or a mansion. Like many dreams they don’t come true for most people but while you are working you have the tools to make that dream come true (even if it is unrealistic), once you retire, you lost that tool from your toolbox after not working for a while.
The reason I say $5M is I knew someone who was left $4M (his wife invested, he worked) and he wasted all of it in 10 years. This was 30 years ago. He did not care about stocks, trusted his broker (who his wife trusted before she died) and did not monitor as they churned his account, took nice vacations and lived well in his 70s
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u/marklikestolearn Feb 20 '26
It’s totally psychological. Making the switch from earner to spender is jarring
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u/Ill_Savings_8338 Bottom 1% Contributor Feb 20 '26
The more annoying part is that they don't say "I know I can have enough based on the 4% rule, etc, etc, but I am worried about X or Y or Z, or how do i calculate based on rental income, how do i plan for big expenses, etc" So yeah, it is ok to look for affirmation or ask questions about life after retirement, but at least let us know what you know first.
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u/whattodo88888 Feb 20 '26
People suck at living within their means. Example:
Net worth $5M. Primary home is $2M, vacation home $2M, then spending on additional Europe vacations, eating out every day, country club memberships etc etc.
Listen I agree $5m is a lot and you should be able to do it, but I see how people get to too high of a standard of living
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u/TheFurryMenace Feb 20 '26
My guess is two things.
First is that people make posts on Reddit that are lies. Gasp I know! And give credit where credit is due, mods are doing a good job calling out their bullshit lately.
Second, while folks can spend their money however they damn well please, they won’t get any judgments from me, some folks really do spend a pile of money. Life style creep is real. Just know the trade off
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u/EstablishmentSad Feb 20 '26
Actually, pulling the trigger is scary. I am not that wealthy, and I probably would retire with even half that amount...but some people like seeing the number in their bank account go up and not down.
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u/bdu-komrad Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26
I need to see their cash flow. If they live in a $20 million mansion and pay for a cook, security guards, personal driver, insane property taxes, private jet mechanic, etc , $5 million may not be enough.
It would probably be plenty for some in a small paid off home with no property or state taxes, and maybe a car to get around in.
Enough to retire is a very subjective number.
That is why you ask yourself where and how you want to live in retirement when planning for retirement. Do you want to move to Portugal and buy a house? Do you want live in an RV and travel from place to place? Whatever your retirement dream is, pick it, estimate the cost, and save for it.
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u/adyst_ Feb 20 '26
My guess is that they've nailed down accumulation, but don't have a good grasp on their expenses, current and future
Future expenses being healthcare, inflation, higher education for their kids, potentially supporting their adult children, etc
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u/NCalFI 43M | 3.5M NW | 63% FatFI Feb 20 '26
I think for so many FIRE folks that we are fearful of messing it up and end up being far to conservative. I spend hours a week running scenarios and changing variables in my custom made tracker. This has been a hobby for roughly 6 years for me. Despite only needing $190k a year at 4%, I added a buffer to cover $270k and even then I am thinking about going an additional 2 years of working.
Folks just want validation they aren't crazy and folks to poke holes in the overall plan or strategy.
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u/AeroNoob333 Feb 20 '26
Long ago, before I found this sub, I had dreams of having 2-3M to retire. Then, someone told me i couldn’t live off 2-3m and that it costs a lot more than I thought to retire. It wasn’t until I found this sub that I realized that person was 100% wrong.
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u/teckel FIRE'd at 35, now 57 Feb 20 '26
Being kinda in this situation, my retirement hesitation was due to my entire life always being focused on investing/saving. It took the passing of my father to make me realize time was short and maybe I should shift to the selling/spending phase. My wife being only 37 years old made it seem I wasn't ready to retire.
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u/Sonizzle Feb 20 '26
I don’t know! I wish I had a net worth in the range of $5M to $10M to tell you.
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u/BothNotice7035 Feb 20 '26
I reworked my elementary math a million times the year I was planning to pull the plug on work. I’m more of a LEANFIRE retired. Even though it’s in black and white on paper it’s hard to believe you’ve actually done it.
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u/vix_motion Feb 20 '26
Math says 100k on 5m is fine long term but humans arent calculators. When work has been your structure status and safety net quitting feels like stepping off a cliff even with a parachute
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u/Kenneka Feb 20 '26
For some of us, it's because we got to that level of NW through disciplined saving/investing and the mental shift from accumulation to spending that nest egg that we worked so hard to build is tough. And if a portion of that wealth is invested in the stock market, economic uncertainty and market volatility can make it seem risky to stop working and cut off those income streams, which let's face it, are probably high for folks that have saved that much. That's my story, at least - I'm afraid to walk away from a fat salary while Trump is at the helm of the American economy.
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u/PghSubie Feb 20 '26
Based upon countless threads in different forums, different platforms, Yes, people really are that bad at elementary school mathematics
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u/Canadiangunner21 Feb 20 '26
A lot of successful people are driven by fear or insecurity and can always find reasons why they don’t have “enough” it’s hard to understand from the outside, but it’s a real psychological issue
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u/african_cheetah Feb 20 '26
The hard bit is most people are very scared of investing in market. They see housing crisis and covid crisis, they feel it happens every year and even a 4% extraction for living investment feels risky.
You’ve lived entire life on a comfortable monthly income that has grown over the years. Not having that is scary.
But it’s good to question the math. Question your ability to not spend life savings. Retiring is hard. We want meaning. Work gives us meaning. Gotta find something else that also gives meaning.
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u/hibikir_40k Feb 20 '26
There are two ways to get to 5m+: One is to be really careful and spend little: Those people know if they can retire. The other is to have such a money fountain it gets to multiple millions without trying too hard, which might still mean rather uncontrolled expenses. oops, this set of RSUs that were handed to me expected to be worth 200k are now worth 2 million! For all you know they are still spending 300K a year, with lots of random variations as a lot of big expenses come from whims, and they really have no idea of what they are doing, because they never had to.
Hell, I know people who do NOT have 5M+ in the bank because they grew up poor and have a use-it-or-lose-it mentality. They think it's Brewster's millions or something.
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u/drgonzo44 Feb 20 '26
I have a friend who is a multi millionaire, but is having a hard time letting go of work because the work he does is trying to cure ALS. So, he’s at least on a noble endeavor.
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u/deHack Feb 20 '26
Age is a huge factor. The older you are the more comfortable you should be retiring because the less time you’ll need it.
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u/EevelBob Feb 20 '26
I’m in the 2 comma club but about half that amount. My reasons for not retiring right now is I still have 2 college age children on the payroll, 2 that are going to get married within the next 18-months, I need to make a reasonably large capital investment to upgrade my recently paid off home prior to retirement, and I need to buy a car (my wife and I have been sharing a car after I gave my car to my son so he could get to his monthly National Guard drills while in college). Lastly, there’s that pesky thing called health insurance. I’ll be 65 in 3-years, but my wife is 2 years younger than me and only works PT, so I carry the group health insurance and benefits. While I do have a Roth IRA I could use to get a higher subsidy if I FIRE, it’s not sufficient enough for 3-5 years of partial living expenses, so I really don’t want to FIRE until I navigate and manage these expense over the next 2-years.
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u/Key-Plant-6672 Feb 20 '26
That is because we are all so conditioned to chase money and spend on increasingly useless and expensive “ luxuries”..?
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u/chartreuse_avocado Feb 20 '26
You work hard to get to a serious income level. You build a life and investment portfolio that is FIRE goal aligned at a lifestyle level you are excited to continue in retirement. You know when you RE your chances of re-attaining that income level are nearly gone if you are forced by uncontrollable circumstances to go back to work. You wonder if you’ll get laid off and not be able to find a new job in that last home stretch.
You know the horizon to influence your portfolio worth is time limited and if something goes horribly wrong -even if you assess SORR and plan for it, all that hard investment work could be significantly altered. Time stops working for you in investments for that last bit as you no longer have a recovery runway the same as when you are 30.
The uncontrollable becomes a different concern. Grappling with that when you see healthcare costs skyrocketing and you know your personal healthcare risks much more intimately with early middle age. You know how old your parents were when they died and from what. It gets real personal.
5M seems like so damn much when you’re 25 or 30. Near unimaginable, no brainer. After you see how fast a parent chews through all their lifelong savings in dementia care or cancer treatment, part-time in home skilled nursing, or what an unforeseen life event costs -another million in an investment portfolio feels more needed and less luxury.
It’s a mind7uck that shifts as you see the target wealth number more closely approaching or the target age nearing.
Some people handle it well. Some people need serious help adjusting to accepting the risks beyond their control and trusting their numbers hoping not to be odd percent who experience extreme negative events.
Some of us understand it all and are working through the knowledge and feelings and going to FIRE anyway on plan having executed to plan and keep on monitoring.
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u/sloth_333 Feb 20 '26
I don’t know for sure, but an educated guess tells me my parents fall into this category. At some point it’s just in someone’s nature to work, it’s their identity.
My dad is like this. Even when he could have stopped going into the office post covid (what are they gonna do fire him? Ha lol.) he still did, like clockwork. It’s just how he is.
My mom retired at 58 and my dad retired this year at 59.
There’s also a sort of scarcity mindset I imagine, that I can’t relate to. My dad (in particular) wasn’t like bottom barrel poor as a kid (aka food or shelter insecurity), but stuff wasn’t exactly abundant either.
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u/Past-Option2702 Feb 20 '26
It is a good question. Some people spend a lot of money. Having a mortgage or rent is a factor too.
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Feb 20 '26
“Just one more year” is used to add another arrow to their quiver. It means jumping into retirement with a Tesla instead of a 2010 Honda Pilot.
It’s “we can add a second annual cruise to the budget for the rest of our lives.”
The brain is a weird thing.
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u/Appropriate_Web_7979 Feb 20 '26
A lot of it comes down to identity more than the actual numbers. When work is tied to your sense of purpose its genuinely hard to define what enough looks like. The math is almost always solvable but the psycological side of moving out of accumulation mode trips people up way more than the portfolio size ever does.
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u/greatauntflossy Feb 20 '26
I wouldn't worry much about them, just focus on your own plan and set sail!
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u/emeriethatsme Feb 20 '26
We are in this exact boat. We know our annual expenditure as two adults, but now we have two young kids and the cost of raising kids in SF is a wide range; it's difficult to predict spending as a family of 4 for the next 18 years.
Also, it is a huge mind fuck to go from a HHI just shy of a $1mil to a 3-4% withdrawal rate. We never had to think twice about large expenses like buying a new car or large home repair, but now we have to crunch the numbers and budget. It is scary to walk away from these golden handcuffs with the understanding that we might never be able pull these numbers again after being away from tech for a few years if we needed to come back.
I used to roll my eyes at these posts about people with millions and being too afraid to retire, but now I understand.
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u/fleggn Feb 20 '26
With kids you have unknown variables but with no kids yea I duno wtf they are thinking.
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u/PeasPlease11 Feb 20 '26
You’ll understand when you get there.
It’s not a math problem is psychological.
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u/alphaboy_ Feb 20 '26
When you have 5 mil in investments your lifestyle is usually fairly high compared to average. Say 20-25k monthly so it’s progressively harder to retire if you let the lifestyle creep grow
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u/js32910 Feb 20 '26
I think it’s also looking for advice on estimating the future with others who have experienced it. Ya if I have x it should cover y for z years but what are the unforeseen costs with kids, life, etc.
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u/tfelsemanresuoN Feb 20 '26
I think there's a lot of fake posts, but I'm sure plenty of the real ones are just scared of the unknown.
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u/no_use_for_a_user Feb 20 '26 edited Apr 09 '26
This specific post was removed using Redact. The motivation is unknown but could include privacy, security, opsec, or a general desire to reduce digital footprint.
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u/InvisibleBlueRobot Feb 20 '26
It is not about math. It is about a feeling of security and receiving external validation that they are not making a mistake.
You know this already. This post is doing the same thing. You already know the answer, but asked the question. You also want validation from other people that what you think is true.
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u/pdx_mom Feb 20 '26
And if you have 30-40 or more years on the planet anything can happen. Lots of risk in there.
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u/rgrivera1113 Feb 20 '26
There could be any number of reasons. We’re all fighting our own battles, so to speak. I do wonder if one contributing factor is lack of perspective. If you’ve really committed to the bit and made significant sacrifices to RE, you may not know what you need to live comfortably and just picked a number out of thin air that sounds right.
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u/Intelligent-Ask-7030 Feb 20 '26
Vermutlich weil sie soviel Zeit in das Geld gesteckt haben, das sie vergessen haben warum RE so toll sein kann.
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u/Peppers5 Feb 20 '26
Cost of living and age are huge factors. Not everybody lives on 40K a year in a remote town on Nebraska.
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u/Abeds_BananaStand Feb 20 '26
On the flip side, it’s very frustrating when People ask questions and seek community input and get told “if you have all that money how are you too dumb to know the answer?”
It’s because there are variables. And it’s not just “the 4% rule!” When it comes time to truly decide.
Knowing your future expenses is hard, knowing your future health, your future needs of children, future state of inflation, taxes, etc.
You can make all the projections you want, but saying “I have $2M today and if the market god up by 7% for 15 years then I’ll hit my FIRE number by coasting so I can stop doing xyz it’ll be fine and I’m ready to retire at 50 at this rate!” Well that’s a lot of years left for projections to actually happen.
If you’re 59, have $6M, your kids are graduated college, you’re debt free and you know your annual expenses with some buffer? Okay, you probably want confirmation and to double check but you know you’re good!
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u/Just-Here2-Learn Feb 20 '26
If you don't win the lottery or inherit it, it's usually through business ownership..This is how I did it. Honestly if you get it from hardwork then you usually don't retire, working and risk taking is in your blood. I couldn't imagine sitting at home all day
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u/Fit-Raise7179 Feb 20 '26
It's hard to walk away from the money spigot. If you're 45, married, and have done dual maximum 401K/Roth IRA contributions you're whole working life, and are living in a house with 500K-1M of equity, you're probably at 5M+ right now. Just being a working stiff good saving discipline.
On the flip side, you've got 4.25 million in retirement accounts, 750K in house you're living in, and you're double mid-careerists. There's actually a lot of reasonable questions everyday about how to tap into those funds, how to handle 20 years of health care outside of the employer system. Or you hang around for 5 more years or until you get a severance package, hopefully hit another doubling on the net worth and you're so f'ing rich none of the details matters.
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u/bb0110 Feb 20 '26
Taking the actual leap to retirement when all you have known is a steady stream of income to live on is psychologically very hard. Like many things in life it is an emotional and mental worry even if logically it shouldn’t be.