There are many variables in this calculation. All of which are based upon your assumptions.

Questions:

1) Do you want to leave money behind, or exit as close to zero as possible. If you are aiming for zero, then the amount is significantly less. But has the risk of being off by a few years.

2) How much do you need each year?

3) What do you think inflation will do? Most calculations assume inflation is a fixed amount. Everyone knows it is wrong but you have to use something.

4) How much will your investments pull in each year? Like #2 you have to choose a number. The higher you choose the more likely you are going for a risky investment and will lose everything.

5) Do you expect to need long term care or some other retirement home facilities? My dad is looking at this, and the retirement home is like 50% more than his normal living expenses. Assisted living is like triple his normal living expenses. But a lot depends upon size of the retirement home.

6) What is your tax rate? Those investments will be taxed, as will, most likely, up to half of your Social Security. Your country might be different.

Simple method: answer 2 / (answer 4 – answer 3)

example: assume 75000 a year (before taxes), investments 7%, inflation 3%

75,000 / (0.07 – 0.03) = 75,000 / 0.04 = 1,875,000

This will leave 1,875,000 for your children.

Oh you expect to draw Social Security and a pension?

How much? Assume 2K a month SS, and 500 a month on your pension. That’s 2500 * 12 = 30000

Then it is now:

(75,000 – 30,000) / (0.07 – 0.03) = 40,000 / 0.04 = 1,000,000

Well, right now I’m in college, so I don’t have a great estimate of my yearly spending. But according to the 4% rule, you need a million dollars for every $40,000 you want per year.

I don’t think I’m super materialistic, the only possessions I really find “enjoyable” are probably my tech - best smartphone, tablet, etc. And fortunately these are orders of magnitude cheaper than being a car-guy. The only big expense I imagine from being an adult would be travel, I really like diving into totally different world views.

So my tentative number is about $1.5 million, maybe even $2 million, for somewhere between $60K-$80K. This is obviously crazy a lot of money. But if you compare it to how much some businesses sell for, it seems achievable.

It depends on what age. If I was 35, I'd say around 6M. If I was 65, I'd be comfortable with about 3M.

If I left CA, these numbers would change quite drastically to 2 M at 35 and 1 M at 65.

these numbers would be total net worth. with a family of about 3.

Here's how I answered this on Quora 2 years ago:

>In short, you want ~25x your annual expenses to be able to retire (not annual income - annual expenses). This allows you to draw ~4% every year and more-or-less never run out of funds (presuming a conservative, stable investment.

________________

https://www.quora.com/How-much-money-do-you-think-you-need-t...

It's an oddly phrased question.

From a religious perspective, I think our purpose should be contributing something to the world as long as we live. Work is one of the best forms of contribution, which is why people pay for it. If I'm just sitting there living off a hoard, I might as well be dead. I would not be happy to not work.

I would be happy to work "half time" though, about 20 hours/week. I'm aiming for $25k this year or next to achieve that.

But if I didn't want to work at all, it would be at least $2M. It would make me very anxious though, with inflation and all.

I think I calculated it to be 4.4 million, but that is assuming I do not move to a cheaper part of the world. I could probably get by with 2/3 or even half that if I had lower costs of living. I never factored that (or made a list of places to live in such a case) because calculating a projected amount of medical costs quickly becomes very complicated in that scenario. I prefer living in a part of the world that has a mostly fixed lifelong medical cost (even if it is on average a little higher for my projected total costs), just for the security this will afford me.

I'd have to invest this 4.4 million at about 4% interest (this is as you can see very conservative and in general seems to be regarded as a very safe interest level) to stay at that level of wealth more or less for the rest of my life. I could then pass it on to my children, which was one of my requirements. If you do not have that, the number can probably be a lot lower. It's possible that investing part of it into a house (with stuff like solar panels and a heat exchanger) might make for a better return month to month (with lower risk, very important). I've not yet made serious calculations to that effect, but the napkin math suggests to me that this is the case. Obviously this would not be enough to cover everything, but it might make the final number lower also. This is complicated further by potential maintenance costs that you need to factor in.

Around £500k to live a frugal existence, and £2m to live it large, assuming the majority of the money was invested in the stock market. It probably wouldn't be very fun never working again though, as you'd miss out on social interactions with colleagues and the rush of trying to achieve some goal.

I'm pretty much starting out in my career though, so the true number may end up being much higher, and my enthusiasm may wane after doing this for a decade.

Estimate your annual income for the rest of your career (with realistic assumptions on promotions, raises to compensate inflation and a bit more, change of jobs...). Add the pension contribution of your employer (if any); discount back with appropriate nominal investment rate (if you included inflation raises in the first place, otherwise you need to net that). This is the value of your career. Now the difficult part: how much annual income are you willing to sacrifice to get free time and being able to do all the things you want to do? You can do it on an annual basis or % basis of the total. You should also project forward your estimated expenses, to double check that you don't value your free time so much that you would not have enough money to pay the rent: if you end up in this situation, move to a cheaper country and redo the calcs. And maybe add a safety factor, for some peace of mind: as somebody else posted, shares or bonds may not do well every year.

EDIT: this approach assumes you maintain your current (and foreseeable) quality of life in terms of disposable income.

$3M to never work again. $6M to never work again AND never worry about money.

I use a well-regarding money mgmt firm.

We run my "number" through a bunch of simulations. It includes two pensions, social security and tax-deferred savings. The total number today, if you runrate the pension & SS assumptions, is $3.5M and gives me a 95% chance of success going forward.

The only reason I haven't already quit is the chance of pocketing another chunk of change from my current startup. Then I'm gone.

$1 million invested in property giving a rental income of around $4000 pcm.

Alternatively, a boostrapped SaaS with $4000 MRR (Monthly recurring revenue.)

The latter is easier to achieve.

To genuinely never-ever do any kind of work I'd want at least $20M. As a European I'd be pretty worried about seizure, future taxation and the likes.

If we're talking not working for others, I guess that's more of a mindset thing. I never have and would rather not. Have enough to last ~10 years and wife is okay supporting me so I'm not particularly worried.

My number is 10,000 USD per month AFTER taxes. Don't ask me but this is what I need to run a family of 4 and just have a little bit extra.

So with absolutely safe investment of a 1% checking account, I would say 12 Million USD in Cash ? I know that there is inflation factor but in 2018, thats the number.

I guess 10 million

4 million dollars (USD). Then I would invest all of it in municipal bonds, and live a modest life from the interest.

Somewhere between €600000 and €1000000, with the higher number being if I wanted to have children. But my personal expenses are pretty low.

I'm shooting for $5M by 45, which should allow for $200k/year spend less taxes. I'll probably still work, though.

Reach goal is $20M.

Honestly, about 60K to keep working for 3 years and then never again (for money, anyway).

1M dollars in tax advantaged income fund

3M in 401ks

Have wife, we both work.

Probably around 100,000 €.

$300 million USD

Housing+utilities+food