Personal Finance

I'm in my late 30s with $14 million saved — why am I still hesitant to retire and give up my full-time salary?

Aaron Webber

Published: December 11, 2024 8:30 am

Key points:

• After a certain point, it doesn’t matter where you put your money, you will have too much to spend.
• Don’t forget why you work, you weren’t born to live in a cubicle.
• Also: Take this quiz to see if you’re on track to retire (Sponsored)

We underestimate the power that money has over our lives. Even just the idea of money, the need to always earn more of it, sits at the core of our culture and ideologies. If you’re not making money, you’re lazy, parasitic, useless, and even sinful.

This is a cultural barrier many retirees, especially early retirees have to face. One particularly rich individual thought it might be a good idea to ask strangers on Reddit what to do, and why he was so reluctant to retire early. Here is our analysis of the response.

Keep in mind, please, that anything you read online, especially on Reddit, is not legal financial advice, and you should always consult with an expert before making any expensive financial decisions.

The Question

The author posted their question in the r/fatFIRE community, which focuses on financial independence and early retirement with substantial amounts of money. They are in their late 30s and married with two young children. They have around $14 million in total assets, of which around $7 million is in liquid accounts. Their wife works a stable government job making a great salary.

The author recently left their job and is reluctant to go back to work, especially since they don’t really have to. They wanted help making financial plans for the next 50 years if they end up never going back to work. So, they have five main questions:

1. Can they get an 8% nominal annual return on their portfolio, or is that too conservative of a goal?
2. Where else can they invest their money besides private equity and venture capital?
3. Should they sell their commercial properties and reinvest the money somewhere else?
4. They have no leverage, so is there somewhere they can leverage to get higher returns or better tax shielding?
5. They have higher risk tolerance than most, what investments are available that have outsized upside potential?

The Community Response

The answers varied depending on the comment and the specific question the responder was answering, but generally, the commenters agreed with each other on most things.

For question one, an 8% return is not too ambitious a goal or too conservative. The real return rate over the last few decades has been around 7%

For question two, there are plenty of alternative investment options available depending on risk tolerance and desired return. Diversified real estate and small businesses were suggested.

For question three, commenters recommended selling the properties if they could find better returns elsewhere or if they wanted investments that required less oversight and management (as a responsible landlord should be taking care of their properties).

For question four, increasing their leverage will have no impact on taxes, but will allow them to achieve higher returns (or losses). Having access to more leverage simply allows someone to put more money into the market. If they don’t sell those assets, then there will be no taxes at all.

For question five, most commenters agreed that there’s no reason to look for any investments more risky than what the author already has. There’s no point in looking for risk for its own sake, as their existing investments are already risky as-is.

In the end, responders had to remind the author of the whole reason they were working in the first place: to provide for their family and survive. Since they have many times more money than most other human beings will ever see over multiple lifetimes, any choices they make about where to put their money are simply personal preferences, and this whole post was either a blatant attempt to brag to everyone, or someone sadly trying to maximize making money while not working.