Personal Finance

I'm Pushing 50 With a $9.4 Million Net Worth but I'm Scared to Retire. What's Wrong With Me?

Maurie Backman

Published: February 1, 2025 5:05 pm

A lot of people have the goal of retiring early — as early as age 50, in fact. But without a nice-sized nest egg, that’s a tough thing to pull off.

This Reddit poster is in a different boat, though. They’re 49 years old with a $9.4 million net worth. Of that, only $1.8 million comes from equity in their primary residence, which means that the bulk of that $9.4 million is money they can use to live on should they decide to bring their career to a close.

The poster is wondering if they’ve saved enough to retire. And I think the general answer is yes, they can retire now if they want to. But they may face some challenges that they’ll need to consider.

The problem with retiring around age 50

With a large enough amount of wealth, you can make a retirement at age 50 work — especially if you’re able to reduce some of your expenses. A good number of people who end up with a large net worth by age 50 get there by having high-paying jobs. And often, it’s necessary to reside in areas with a very high cost of living to get access to those generous paychecks.

But the poster here has the opportunity to move to a less expensive area in a few years, once their last child graduates high school. And that could lower their living costs substantially.

Even if not, when we subtract the poster’s home equity, they still have about $7.5 million to work with. A conservative 3% withdrawal rate from their savings amounts to $225,000 of annual income.

The question, though, is whether the poster here has access to those assets right away. If the majority are in an IRA or 401(k), there are early withdrawal penalties to think about. But if a good portion of those assets is in a taxable brokerage account, that’s not a concern. The poster can tap their non-tax-advantaged accounts first until they turn 59 ½, and can get at their IRA or 401(k) funds penalty-free.

There’s also healthcare to think about. Medicare eligibility generally doesn’t start until age 65. The poster here will need to factor the cost of health insurance into their budget. But given the amount of money they have, that should be doable.

Retirement can have an emotional impact

The poster here clearly needs some reassurance that they have enough money to retire. But it’s also important to recognize that retiring can be an emotional process.

It’s not an easy thing to let go of a career and move on to a completely different phase of life. So I’d suggest that this poster consider talking to a counselor or therapist if they’re worried about the impact of retirement on their mental health.

I’d also encourage this poster to think about ways to stay busy once they do retire so they don’t end up dissatisfied or bored. They could volunteer or start a business doing something they love, but it’s important to keep busy.

Finally, I’d tell this poster — and anyone else thinking about retiring early — to talk to a financial advisor. Even though this poster has clearly accumulated a lot of wealth, it never hurts to have help managing it. An advisor can help them devise a strategy that allows them to be comfortable in retirement without risking a rapid depletion of their money.