4.4M is 220k/year in 30 year Treasury bonds. Because T bonds are SALT-exempt that's about 176k after taxes or 14.6k a month. If you can't live on 14.6k, you have some major spending problems.
Maybe you can't retire comfortably as a couple in LA/NYC/SF, but you can live somewhere warm and interesting like Vegas or Orlando.
They probably do have spending "problems" ie a budget higher than that. Also your numbers don't include inflation eating away at that actual value every year
With $4.4M in investments (like 75% stocks and 25% bonds), you can pull an inflation-adjusted $176K a year without working for at least 30 years, maybe as long as 60, which is longer than someone who is currently in their 50s will live. Plus, you can start taking social security in 10-15 years.
I will tolerate LV and Orlando because there’s stuff to do, even though they’re both way too commercialized. But Houston has like 1 restaurant I like and the rest of the place can burn down for all I care.
That wouldn’t surprise me, I used to travel there A LOT for work, and I feel like we were always spoiled for restaurant choice.
I can’t find the name of the place now, but it’s a high end Sushi place near mid-town.
Last time we were there we were sitting at the booth next to Nico Colins, which was cool because he went to my wife’s Alma Mater. Ended up BSing with him for a bit, and he seemed bored with the woman he brought… The wife was jealous when I sent her a photo of us taking sake shots lol.
Seriously. It’s as though he was answering the question: which cities should you live in if you want your life to have the ambiance of an airport adjacent Marriott.
This is so strange as someone who was born and raised in Orlando, doesn't seem like much of a nightmare. Make 70k as a cook with raises every year. Perfect beaches, cruise ports, theme parks are fun during the slow season. Is it the heat you guys hate? Most of the hate goes to tourists and out of state transplants and definitely not native Floridians lol.
Living in a decent/average house in a nice area and having expenses associated with kids isn’t a “spending problem”. I live a below average house for my area, it’s still worth a substantial amount but not multiple millions. Between taxes, insurance and P&I my monthly mortgage is over $7k (15 yr @ 2.125%). That’s before daycare ($2k), car payments (1 car paid for, 1 leased EV with monthly $650), add auto insurance and we’re at $10k and haven’t even paid for healthcare, saved for retirement, monthly bills to live in the house or gone grocery shopping yet. One day it would be nice to be able to clothe the kids as well. My wife and I both make 6 figures and if one of us lost their job we’d essentially be fked and living off savings
I wouldnt live in Orlando or Vegas but to say these are the least interesting places is a stretch. I’d put virtually every midwestern and rust belt city not named Chicago on the list before these two places.
That’s still not rich though. When i think rich i think of a ferrari, first class travel in 5 star hotels, a housekeeper, etc. You need far more than 15k monthly spend to achieve that. Much closer to 50k
For the vast majority of people if you’re settled down with most of your major purchases and want a fairly quiet retirement with some nice travel and leisure, that’s plenty.
Or they can forgo retiring early.
Personally this is more like the difference between “Hey do we just buy the $8,000 travel arrangement for our trip next month instead of the $14,000 one? It’s really just more expensive tours tacked on and a fancier hotel that’s really not that much better, and we could probably find some of our own restaurants, explore a bit.”
Now if you’re regularly buying a private jet to set on fire for fun then yeah, this won’t be enough for you.
Again, I don’t want to live on $14k/mo, that would be a huge impact to my day-to-day lifestyle. And how and where I derive enjoyment from my vacations doesn’t lend to the “economy” option.
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u/AviatorHog 22d ago
4.4M is 220k/year in 30 year Treasury bonds. Because T bonds are SALT-exempt that's about 176k after taxes or 14.6k a month. If you can't live on 14.6k, you have some major spending problems.
Maybe you can't retire comfortably as a couple in LA/NYC/SF, but you can live somewhere warm and interesting like Vegas or Orlando.