> but the vast majority of people in the world retire on way less than that
You’re missing something big here. Most people who retire on way less than that are doing so at retirement age.
For example, let’s assume death at 78. The money required to retire at 30 needs to last 48 years. The money required to retire at 65 only needs to last 13 years. And that’s not even taking into account that social security is only available at normal retirement age and you wouldn’t be contributing to it by retiring early.
$3 million is not going to be a secure retirement. It’s going to be very modest living subject to ruin by either inflation (if you go the bond route) or depressions (if you go the stock route).
Two points: In the context of the upthread wager, as a California employee, you’d be left with just under $1.5M if you worked for one year and paid your taxes. No way does that provide $10K/month for possibly 70 years.
Even if you somehow got it entirely tax-free and had no living expenses such that you could start with a $3M balance after a year of work, I’d wager that the vast majority of people would choose to work at least 2 years and many would choose to work 4 or 5 years and that only a small minority of them would quit after 1 year.
Wouldn’t you rather work 2 years and live on $20K/mo rather than just 1 and live on $10K/mo?
You’re missing something big here. Most people who retire on way less than that are doing so at retirement age.
For example, let’s assume death at 78. The money required to retire at 30 needs to last 48 years. The money required to retire at 65 only needs to last 13 years. And that’s not even taking into account that social security is only available at normal retirement age and you wouldn’t be contributing to it by retiring early.
$3 million is not going to be a secure retirement. It’s going to be very modest living subject to ruin by either inflation (if you go the bond route) or depressions (if you go the stock route).