Personal Finance

I'm in my late 40's and I'm bored of work. Can I walk away with a net worth of $15 million?

Aaron Webber

Published: January 12, 2025 9:30 am

How much money is enough? When can you safely walk away from work, the rat race, and the corporate grind? Do you have an obligation or a moral responsibility to continue selling your life and soul to a heartless corporation? If you’ve wondered this, you’re not alone, but unlike the person in our post today, you probably don’t have the option to walk away.

Our focus today is a person who wanted to know if their huge amounts of wealth and high net worth was enough to walk away from a job that they were bored with. They took their serious concerns to the community r/fatFIRE – a group of people focused on amassing huge amounts of wealth and retiring with “a fat stash”. Here is what they said.

Please remember, of course, that these are all opinions, including this article, so please speak with an expert and don’t take anything here as legal financial advice.

The Question

The author of the post says they have a net worth of $15 million and earn between $2.5 and $3 million every year. They live in an affordable area with three kids and their spouse.

They say their problem is they have been with their current employer for more than ten years and are starting to get bored and aren’t applying themselves fully to their job. They want a new challenge, preferably a new job, but not in the corporate world.

They are fine with a pay cut, but say that they have to earn at least $325k per year to maintain their lifestyle. Their question is: can they walk away, or should they stick to their current job for a few more years to reach $20 million. They think it’s crazy to walk away when so many people would kill to have their job.

The Community Response

The community was split in their response to the author. Half were wondering why continuing to work was even an option when the author clearly wasn’t happy and had more money than most people on the planet would ever see in their entire lifetimes. The other half suggested he keep working “just because”, though they had no real reason for him to do so.

The first half, those who have a little common sense, pointed out that this is less of a financial question, and more of a personal question that only he could answer. The author has more than enough money to retire immediately and live comfortably, so choosing to stay in a boring job and work to reach some arbitrary financial goal or actually spend time with his family is a choice only he has the answer to.

Others noticed that if he’s being paid so much at a job that is boring, he is clearly overpaid, and since he’s approaching retirement, why would he want to challenge himself anyway? It seems like this post is just a sad attempt at humble-bragging instead of looking for real advice. What is it with rich people wanting to look humbler and more relatable while showing off how much money they have?

Unfortunately, too many of them wasted the best years of their lives chasing after money, and now that they’re old, they realize how sad and empty their lives are and are looking for validation from strangers online.