One of the saddest things about modern culture is the need to compare our finances to each other and judge our success by how much money we make or spend compared to everyone else. Too many people have lost sight of the whole reason money exists and instead work just to watch the numbers go up.
One person, in particular, is living a very expensive lifestyle, spending more money per month for a “fun” life than most people make in their entire lives. They wanted to know if their retirement goal was realistic given this monthly spending. They took their questions to the r/fatFIRE community, a group of people focused on retiring with “a fat stash”. Here is what they said.
The Question
A person with a lot of money.
The author of the post begins by calling most of the other posts in the community “too conservative”. Way to set the attitude, bud! The author is 48 years old and would like to retire in ten years with a monthly expense of $50,000. He says he and his wife live below this, but would increase their spending during retirement to “make not working full-time adventurous and fun”.
They list their assets, with a net worth between $8 million and $29 million depending on volatility and projections of growth between today and his anticipated retirement date. It takes the form of private equity, retirement funds, real estate, ETFs, and more.
They had a handful of questions for the community. First, given their high amount of private stock, they don’t have any bonds and haven’t seen the point of investing in them ever, but they wonder if they are wrong. They don’t want the “drag” of bonds.
Second, if they manage to achieve $16 million by retirement, their “simulations” say that they will be able to afford their expensive lifestyle, but they want to know if this is too aggressive a goal.
Third, how much should they keep in private company stock when they retire?
Please remember that the comments in the original thread and this article are opinions and divorced from the reality that most people live in. Please speak to an expert before making any financial decision.
The Community Response
A person showing off their money.
In response to the general attitude and overarching question of aggression of the original post, many commenters agreed that the author was being too aggressive, with one user saying “For some reason, you’re throwing hail mary’s in the 4th quarter with a 28-point lead. […] You’ve already won.”
Others pointed out that private company equity is “make-believe” money until it is liquid. Factoring that value (or even the potential value, like the author was) into your finances is silly and dangerous. Since they are so close to retirement, many people recommended he begin selling that stock as soon as possible and convert it into more stable assets.
Most agreed that private company equity is dangerous and unpredictable. That being said, others helpfully advised the author that his question about how much private equity to hold as a percentage of his net worth was the wrong way to think about it. It doesn’t matter the percentages and doesn’t matter the amount. What matters is what is outside of private stock. If you have enough outside of private company stock to keep you safe and healthy and preserve your wealth, then any value from private company stock is just a bonus. Focus on what you have, in real assets, and that way you can play around with private company stock without risking your financial future.
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