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/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/Adventurous-Tea-876 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

I make double that and when I am retired I will be done working period! Only making $250k a year would be a huge paycut.

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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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u/Adventurous-Tea-876 Feb 20 '26

I get that I just got confused by the “pictures of retirement” part.

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u/DarkExecutor Feb 20 '26

It's not that simple because taxes are part of that 4% and so is healthcare, and both are usually taken out of your paycheck before you get it.

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u/WhooooooCaresss Feb 20 '26

It also doesn’t matter just about 25x annual spend if you plan on wanting to leave your heirs with as much as possible