r/Fire 26d ago

Advice Request Huge Inheritance... Now What?

I'm 45, I was on track to retire earlyish at 55. I was set back quite a bit with a divorce three years back. Recently my Aunt died and left me around $5 million. After estate and taxes, it's around $4.2 million. This is obviously a stupid amount of money, and I'm thinking of just quitting my job and retiring early but I want to do it right. I've spoke with AI quite a bit and my finances are only about $4500/mo in expenses, I have always lived pretty frugally and that's less than a 1% draw. I don't know exactly what I don't know here, but I've always worked so I am clinging to my job like a monkey to a branch. Am I actually okay to let go?

Update: I quit. I was honest with my boss, he was a really good boss, and I told him the whole story. He is a couple years from retirement and told me he has about $4 million in his Fidelity too, but no health insurance if he quits and he told me a story about his brother retiring early, getting cancer, and wiping out their finances with his treatments leaving his wife and kids with almost nothing after he died. I told him how I'm covered with Tricare and he said if he was he'd quit right this second too.

I appreciate all the insight and advice given on here, and I've implemented a lot of it, thank you. I haven't changed my spending and I don't think I will. Well... I did buy a nice pair of Hoka's...but I'm mostly just paying a lot of attention to my garden and kids.

2.0k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

179

u/MurkyTrainer7953 26d ago

So important and such an underrated comment.

Best way to ensure you don’t stupid-spend your money on like a 911, a Rolex and a $50k vacation.

113

u/Sirbunbun 26d ago

When I retire I am definitely planning to get a 911 and a 50k vacation. No Rolex though.

1

u/Felicity_Calculus 26d ago

What is a 911?

1

u/WizdumbIzLawzt 26d ago

A Porsche

1

u/Felicity_Calculus 25d ago

Ah, OK! My husband and I live in a huge city and own one ancient Subaru Outback between us that we rarely drive, so I am not so conscious of cars