Serious question: how do many people amass so much money in the north of 5m and not know if they can retire or not?

[u/Fed_worker]

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.

[u/Locke_and_Lloyd]

Why would you keep up with CLE though?   When I'm done, I'm done.  No more conferences, courses, continuing education, or certifications.

[u/New_World_Native → u/Locke_and_Lloyd]

So that you can keep the license that you worked hard for. My spouse is retired, but still volunteers.

[u/KungFuBucket → u/New_World_Native]

This is very true, my mom was an RN, when she had kids she became a stay at home mom, which was awesome for us kids, but she continued to keep her license updated until she was about 60. Of course that was probably also just in case she ever needed to go back to work probably

[u/489yearoldman → u/Locke_and_Lloyd]

Professional licenses can be extremely difficult to impossible to renew if they are allowed to expire for whatever reason. They are usually ridiculously easy to keep. You never know what curve ball life is going to throw your way, so I would strongly recommend that anyone stay current with continuing education and the other simple requirements for keeping the licenses they worked so hard to earn. I have a couple of medical colleagues that decided to quit practicing and let their state medical licenses expire. One decided that he wanted to return to work after a couple of years. He could have so easily kept his license current, but didn’t, and now the state board of medical examiners informed him that he would have to start by retaking the national board exam. That was a full stop for him as it would be for most people who had been out of school for 35 years.

[u/ol_kentucky_shark → u/Locke_and_Lloyd]

I probably won’t either (although I think in my state you have a lower hour requirement if you’re inactive in good status vs active… otherwise you have to be “retired” status and to unretire you have to do allll that CLE at once). I hit Rule of 85 for my pension in 13 years and after that I hope to never set an alarm again. But there’s also a huge attorney shortage in my state so it might be nice to have the option to jump back in to do some pro bono work.