Personal Finance

I'm 54 and am ready to retire with my $7 million nest egg - what should I do if my employers offers me a big raise to stay?

Christy Bieber

Published: March 18, 2025 3:27 pm

A 54-year-old Reddit user has reached his goals for retirement. His wife left work already, and he’s now finally in a position to join her because he has saved $7 million for the future. He has a plan for retirement, including managing the family’s rental real estate, traveling, and enjoying his hobbies, and he’s looking forward to not going into the office every day.

The issue, however, is that when he informed his employer of his plans to leave, the employer countered with a raise and asked him to stay. He’s a little leery of actually pulling the trigger and giving up all of the extra money and he’s not sure what the best way forward is. 

Should you accept a lot of money to put off retirement?

The big choice that the Reddit user is facing here is whether to put off his retirement dreams in order to stay at work for an extra period of time just to make some more money. Since he already has enough money to retire and spend comfortably, he would be keeping his job and putting off his future plans solely to get richer on paper and to amass more money that he does not really need to spend. 

The reality is that, it is always possible for anyone to work longer and to make more money if they do. But, at some point, the cost/benefit tradeoff doesn’t work on that decision. Yes, the OP could make more money thanks to the raise and he could end up wealthier — but he does not need more money.

He is wealthy enough to do everything he wants during the rest of his financial life with no further money worries, and he will be just giving up some of the limited time he has left on earth to enjoy retirement to pad his account balance with no noticeable lifestyle improvement gains. 

At some point, it’s time to just pull the trigger

When you make a lot of money, and you are offered a lot more to try to convince you to keep working, it can be hard to give up those big numbers and stop earning that high salary. But, at some point, you need to stay committed to your retirement plans, recognize that you’ve accomplished your goals, and move forward to the next phase of your life.

While the OP could talk to a financial advisor about how staying at work longer could impact his lifestyle and the kind of retirement he’s able to enjoy, the bottom line is that the $7 million he has is enough and he should just start enjoying the money. 

If he gets bored in retirement or it turns out that he wishes he could go back once he stops working, he would most likely have that option available to him so turning down the job offer is not necessarily closing the door forever. But, if he has plans for the future and wants to start living and carrying out those plans, his financial advisor can hopefully help him to see that he has plenty of money to do it and doesn’t really need to work for more. 

With expert professional advice on the state of his finances, the Redditor can hopefully feel more confident in pulling the trigger and leaving with his $7 million to support himself and his boss is just going to have to find a new person to replace him because the extra raise simply isn’t worth trading more years of life for.