Personal Finance

I've got $18 million at 40 years old - but I think I want to retire now because I hate my job

Christy Bieber

Published: January 24, 2025 8:15 am

If you already have $18 million, would you give up a year of your life to make another million? This is a question a Reddit user is dealing with right now.

The original poster (OP) is in his late 40s with three children still at home. He lives in a very expensive area and spends around $300K per year not including his mortgage. His net worth is $18 million, not including his home and the $2 million remaining mortgage balance.  

His job pays him a lot of money and he also qualifies for stock options. He works around 25 to 30 hours per week, but he says his job tires him out, he’s not excited by it, and it interferes with his ability to fully enjoy his hobbies and have “me” time. However, if he worked for a year longer, he could earn another $1 to $1.5 million or more — and he’s not certain he wants to give that up. 

So, what should he do? It’s a hard question to answer since there are pros and cons to both staying and going — so let’s take a look at both. 

The case for giving up the job

There is absolutely an argument to be made that the OP should quit his job now if he doesn’t like it.

A nest egg of $18 million per year is very large. At a safe 3.7% withdrawal rate, the Redditor could spend $666,000 per year. Since the OP said he’s spending $300K plus his mortgage payments, he’s most likely well below that amount (depending on just how much the mortgage balance is). 

Since his income needs would be more than met by his savings, there’s really very little reason to continue doing work he doesn’t enjoy. After all, most people want to make money not just to see their bank account numbers tick up but so they can have the freedom to enjoy life on their terms. 

If you have $18 million and you’re forcing yourself to go to work every day instead of enjoying the money you’ve made, you really have to ask yourself why you’d make that sacrifice. You have enough money and you can never buy back a year of lost time that you spend in misery when you could have been enjoying yourself. 

The case for keeping the job

On the flip side, you could argue that the OP should keep the job. He’s only in his 40s so he should have plenty of time left to enjoy his life. In fact, he’s only working 20 to 25 hours per week, so he should have plenty of time right now to do the things he enjoys. Plus, since he has three kids at home, he probably can’t do the types of things that work would really interfere with — like going off traveling for weeks on end. 

Those three kids may also be reason enough to keep working. While he may have plenty of money now, they are going to need college educations. The OP may also want to help them get a leg up financially, by doing things like helping them to buy a house near where they grew up in the high cost of living area. And, while $18 million is a generous inheritance, it may be less generous if it is split three ways after decades of the OP living on it. 

Sacrificing one extra year of work for an extra million or more that could fund education or give each child hundreds of thousands more may be a small price to pay.  That’s even more true since the OP doesn’t need the million. He could leave it invested to grow year over year and it would turn into $6,727,499.95 in 20 years assuming 10% average annual return. That extra year would allow him to give each kid more than $2 million more as an inheritance. 

Ultimately, the OP will need to decide which of these arguments is more persuasive: Would he rather have more time or more money? A financial advisor can help guide him in making that choice, especially if the advisor can run the numbers to show him how that extra $1 million could change his total net worth over the long haul.