Personal Finance

Worth $15 Million, Not Yet 50, And Mentally Done With Work. Should I Just Stop All Together?

Christy Bieber

Published: March 2, 2025 5:55 pm

Amassing a $15 million net worth is pretty impressive, and it provides you with a lot of financial freedom that many people will never enjoy. If you are worth this much money and you are mentally done with working, you should be able to quit your job even if you are pretty young. 

If you’re not yet 50, you may be torn about whether to retire for good — even though your net worth would most certainly allow you to do so. Here’s how you can decide if the time has arrived to give up your career or if you should continue working in some capacity.

Do you have enough money to retire?

First things first. Before you quit work, you’ll want to make sure you have enough money to support yourself for the rest of your life once you have given up paychecks.

If you have a net worth of $15 million, that absolutely should not be an issue — although,  of course, it does depend a little bit on exactly what your assets look like. If you have a $5 million house you plan to live in and a whole bunch of expensive personal property that you don’t plan to sell, the income that your assets will produce is going to be smaller than if you have the entire amount invested.

Let’s say, though, that your $15 million net worth consists of around $12 million in either retirement accounts or a taxable brokerage account. You’ll need to decide on a safe withdrawal rate to avoid draining your accounts too fast. Experts now recommend a 3.7% withdrawal rate, which is a pretty reasonable rate to choose to make your money last. So, if you had $12 million in assets not counting things like your home or property and you withdrew 3.7% of it, you’d have an annual income of $444k. Unless you plan to spend incredibly lavishly, that should be more than enough.

Of course, if you retire at 50, you’re going to have to pay for your own medical insurance once an employer is no longer covering this cost. You’ll likely also shrink your Social Security benefit which is based on an average of what you earned in your 35 highest earning years, as you may not have an earning record that lasted that long. Still, with $444K a year to play with, you should easily be able to afford good insurance and your Social Security benefits are just a drop in the bucket. 

Do you have a plan for your days?

Since you clearly have enough money to retire, the only big question remaining is what you’re going to do if you walk away. While you may be mentally drained by your job, it can be overwhelming to have empty days to fill without work to give you a purpose. That’s especially true if you retire young and don’t have many peers who have left the workforce yet.

Think carefully about what you want to do before you stop working entirely. Will you travel? Volunteer? Take up a hobby? Can these things keep you busy both now and in the future? You may find you have plenty to fill your time, or you may decide that you would be bored and want to keep working in some capacity. 

By addressing these issues, and perhaps talking to a financial advisor to ensure you have a plan for using your nest egg wisely, you can make certain the money you have worked so hard to acquire enables you to make choices about work that make you the happiest.  You’re lucky enough to be in a position where you can make these decisions without worrying about money, so take advantage of that privilege to do what’s right for you.