$2m would make me consider taking a break for a couple years and narrowing in on finding the right opportunities. I almost had that last year but then market crash took all of that away. Add on divorce and you’re looking at a wonderful year.
At this point - I have less than $100k in savings+investments that I can touch. It’s going to be a lot less by end of year because I’m quitting my job and trying to reset everything. Post-divorce things have been extremely bad. I need a new partner and SV is not accommodating to that for a single straight man. I’ll have to move to somewhere I don’t want to in order to find a new partner.
It’s been a bad 30-something years to only have this much left over. Putting my ex-wife through college and working at risky startups for my 20’s probably didn’t help. I mean - it almost worked.
Not having power is going to make looking for work even harder.
Took a bit of time to rest, and took a few consulting projects because I really missed those (helping startups solve hard problems is _fun_!). Turns out I make enough hourly that I can work a five hour workweek indefinitely and spend the rest of my time exploring projects, learning, teaching, and resting without skimping on anything I care about. I won't even need to change much if I decide to start a family.
$250K: Day trade & swing trade 3D / W and every other work item is optional. I think they are one of those who does inverse trading based on market conditions. This is someone with a career in tech currently, but more of an exploratory career with various breaks to try new things, and less of a long-ride career.
$2M: Move all trading positions to long-term investing or longer-term swings. Materially improve lifestyle in a planned way, based on a budget.
They keep to quite a low budget currently, and their only concern seemed to be lifestyle inflation & their own patience.
Somewhat annoyingly, I am thinking they would tell you that they also do your $10M stuff already, since they WFH and set boundaries really well. Just a guess though.
But I do know people like this who can't reach their number, because they have a problem of details rather than a problem of work & income. So their issue isn't retirement, it's un-detailing their lives somehow. They get sucked into overextensions of their energy levels, and this drives their bad spending habits, or drives them to accept jobs out of fear, and so on.
Which IMO is probably way tougher because society doesn't talk about it much and there isn't a college degree you can get in that level of thinking.
>prioritise hanging out with my loved ones, whilst experimenting with ideas and exploring nature.
These type of things can be regarded as out-of-reach sometimes due to insufficient funds which just seem to put a damper on everything.
OTOH, growing up in a retirement community non-work pursuits were widely appreciated as a reward of a life well lived.
Things like this really permeated the culture where people were supposed to actually have sufficient money before they moved there.
It was a bit of a common denominator from people on low Social Security fixed income, up to the minority of those having over $100m.
Without money as a student I would say it was even more enjoyable than for the over-65 crowd at the time.
After decades of work in a completely dissimilar industrial environment, I have no intention of joining the crowd.
For each $1m I would select an additional proof-of-concept or prototype and turn it into an opportunity for an engineer or other operator to co-operate on a sustainable full-scale creation.
This could go on forever.
They would be doing most of the work, but I would not be pursuing a work-free life yet myself.
Without these millions I could always just pick one proven technology and do it myself. Even though I've already done a lot. Not a work-free choice either.
Still making up my mind while I contiunue to put money in to Social Security.
Of course, the only way I could possibly achieve these numbers is if tech doesn't crash horribly, which is seeming increasingly possible. So I'm trying to buckle down for a standard 50 year career.
For a break, just enough to cover expenses during the break and find a new job after really, it doesn't matter too much as long as you can hold up your pants.
Ultimately though, money is not everything, and to me life is more than providing for myself and those important to me. But providing for them and myself is also not meaningless.
What's important is why you're doing what you do. For me, I do what I have to do because I love God and I love my family. That makes everything worthwhile. Whether I am rich or poor, happy or sad, in pain or pleasure, I keep going and I'm content because I do my best and that's enough.
I already do this so it's not a matter of money for me.
But in the spirit of your question, I once calculated that and $2M USD would hopefully set me for life (but not my offspring). It may not be enough as inflation is a real thing + as you get older health insurance becomes quite expensive.
Things to consider:
I live in an inexpensive city and don't plan to move to an expensive one.
I enjoy a frugal lifestyle.
I already own the house where I live in and don't owe anything to anyone.
If any of these things were different, I would definitely need much more money.
I ain’t betting on cake.
Making do is in my control.
Life is short.
We got the option to work 9 out of 12m so I may eventually take that.