The Matt Luke thread got me thinking. How much money in the bank would it take you to stop working? Age is likely a major factor as well.
What's Your Exit Number?
- Thread starter ZombieKissinger
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If it’s taxed, probably 2.5mill. I can create enough income off that to never have a real job again.
if nothing else to live on, $4mil is the minimum I would consider, that would safely produce about $140k/year. If the money has to support a spouse also, I have to go to $5mil. Health insurance, until age 65, would be a killer. Make it Roth too please. Obviously, having a paid for house and paid for late model vehicles would factor in biggly.
Not sure what number I would quit at just because I'd probably keep working just to be able to help kids out more later on. But assuming you are talking about a number in a tax deferred account so that the income I took off of it would be taxable, if I suddenly had $6M, I might quit working at least for a while. That would be enough to fund the lifestyle I want indefinitely with a cushion. At $10M, I would probably feel like I didn't need to do anything else to be able to help my kids in the future as much as I wanted to. I could probably piddle with investments and part time work to stay busy and might not ever do a traditional job again at that point.
My retirement plan:
It's amazing how the older you get the more that number comes down. I'm a couple years or so away from having a low enough give a schit factor that whatever I have in the bank at that point will by default be enough.
Family members that got to traditional retirement age have lived quite comfortably off of less than 1/2 million in long term investments, plus modest retirement benefits, plus social security. Very comfortably. Like golf every day, eating out frequently, traveling frequently, never working again and always having fun comfortably.
No one number fits all. So not going to throw a number out there. I retired at 53 but never married and have no children so obviously that makes a huge difference in what you can accumulate and need in retirement. There are lot's of retirement planning tools to help you plan and decide what you need. Here is one....
firecalc.com
FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator
I'm right at the tipping point of there being more days a week I wake asking "Is this the day I tell them all to kiss my a.s.s?" than not. Yeah, I'm pretty close to having enough.
I semi-jokingly call my retirement plan "hospice".
My investment guy says I'm in OK shape to retire but with inflation and such, I'll believe it when I see it. Even after I retire, I'll probably run some part time side hustle to keep busy.
Well, the average social security check of a retired couple is worth something like $800k in a retirement account (not really sure how to value it since I don't know how to get pricing for an inflation protected annuity, but let's just use 4%). If "modest" retirement benefits are say PERS payments of a retired teacher that put in only 25 years, that's probably equivalent to another $750k (again, not sure how to value the 3% annual Cola compared to a standard annuity, so using 4%). So if they have ~$500k in retirement accounts, they are positioned roughly like somebody with a $2M nest egg.
If both spouses worked and get average individual ss checks and both have a pension, then that's equivalent to a much larger nest egg.
No doubt, and I expect that's what will happen when I get there. But part of that is just reducing uncertainty. If you're looking at funding 50 or even 60 years of retirement, then a 4% withdrawal rate is potentially pretty aggressive. Arguably need to drop it down to 3.5%, which raises the number considerably. And if you're about to draw social security, you can arguably assume you'll get 100% of it, but certainly assume that you'll get 75% of your "promised" benefits and most people would say that's way too pessimistic. If you're 20-25 years away from drawing, I really don't know how you account for its underfunding. To the extent your benefits aren't cut, you'll probably get hit harder with taxes. If you voluntarily quit work when you're young and healthy, you probably should get very little in SS, although I doubt they can get that granular with benefit reductions, but certainly they can hit people for having money in retirement accounts to means test.
It's good to have goals, brother!My retirement plan:
For anyone seriously into this type of analysis, I recommend projectionlab.com. Amazing tool and better output with more detail than what my FA sends me quarterly.
Also highly recommend PocketSmith.com for cash flow forecasting.
Also highly recommend PocketSmith.com for cash flow forecasting.
I dont know if I need an exit number. Pretty sure I will die a week after retirement anyway.
Right now with the current rate of inflation I will have to work till noon on the day of my funereal.
With about 5 mil I could start a side hustle to keep me going part time doing something.
With about 5 mil I could start a side hustle to keep me going part time doing something.
I could “retire” from PERS but I’m not at a point where I could retire completely.
I’ve become more open to non-state positions in the past few months so I can work and receive state retirement.
The great unknown for me was future health conditions of wife and I. Medicare is the great retirement equalizer. That and No debt
For those siting north of $5mil, what’s your annual spend in today-money? I mean, I feel like my family spends more than we should, but nothing that would beget a nest egg like that, assuming my objective is consistent with the accepted annual safe withdrawal rate of 2-4%. Or are you just throwing that rule of thumb out the window? Said differently, is that figure due to annual spend, inflation fears, or some other objective like leaving a legacy for the future?
Everyone depending on a pension may want to check into what the funds for the pension is invested in.
My number is around $20-25M. Annual spend today, let’s just say north of $400k. Yes we spend more than we should but, we have worked our assess off to get to this position. My wife and I both grew up poor. We don’t take it for granted. Now moving forward, I have no desire to change my lifestyle once I retire. I’m currently 40yo and Lord willing will at least get several more years. In order to do that I need to account for inflation over the years and mine and wife’s current salaries. We would also be walking away from preferred and executive stock options over the next 15-20yrs. Taking all that into account if I had my amount I could comfortably continue our current lifestyle and utilize the rest to turn enough of a profit yoy to make up for anything we would miss out on.
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Generational wealth is as close to immortality as humanly possible. $100M, otherwise I'd just assume work til I die.
Everyone has different needs. Just remember that life is a one time only adventure. Don’t retire with just enough to get by and spend your retirement years sitting around complaining about how much everything cost and waiting on death. Figure out what you need to spend your time doing those things that you only dreamed of when you were younger and didn’t have the time or the money. Prepare and enjoy. Do the very specific math over and over until you have no doubt. Then pull the trigger.
I have standards!
Seriously though… I have standards.
I know what I’m good at & you don’t want me coaching…
I’m not sitting north of $5M, but a 4% withdrawal rate and assuming 20% taxes if you’re withdrawing from a 401k (which is probably a little high but something has to change between taxes and spending) leaves about $13,333 a month in spending. I hope I don’t need that much on retirement, but I’m just assuming what I save by not having kid related expenses I will pick up in healthcare costs.
Regardless, Im at least aiming to replace my current spending, with margin for higher taxes. If I get closer to retirement age and feel like taxes aren’t going to go up and/or I can rely on social security or I just don’t need that much, I can look at retiring sooner or having more money to spend or give. But if you aim low and then find out it’s not enough, that’s a much harder pill to swallow.
Ha ha you had to throw that out there!! JK I don’t know Charlie but, I’m sure he could figure out who I am. We do have very good mutual friend. Plus I’m sure we know many of the same University People.
I’m really close. I’ve got these Nigerians that are sending me a large sum of money for helping them with project they want to get off the ground. Sent them my bank info today just waiting on the mother ship to come in. Plan to tell work I have an eye problem, I can’t see my self working anymore
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