[aceupthepants]

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If you have 1.7 million in investments that are earning 9% a year then I am pretty confident that you could comfortably retire in many places other then Montana.

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No, you can't. You are going to want to own a house, for starters, and this won't even buy that.

You have to keep it in today's terms -- it ain't $1.7m, its less than half that. And where is that 9% coming from? If you want "safe" money that you have to live on, you will be in bonds, earning 3.5% after tax. So you now have no house, and in today's terms, are earning like $25k per year after tax to support your wife and kids. You can't earn 9%, because you would ahve to be fully in stocks to do it and you need the cash flow.

I have friends with a lot more money than $1.7m who are nowhere NEAR being able to retire.

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Where do you live? In 2004 the average cost of a house in the United States was $264,540. To say you can't even buy a house for 1.7 million is absurd. Not to mention the vast majority of people who will have paid off a large percentage of their mortgage by the time they decide to retire. The average household earns around 45,000 dollars. If you were to deduct the average income from the 1.7 million you’d be able to live off of it for 37 years. Add that to the fact that you will be receiving interest greater then the cost of inflation and this allows for an even longer retirement. Not to mention by this time one’s kids will have moved out and no longer be an expense (hopefully), which would lower the cost of living. I guess the additional medical attention might be an equivalent trade off though.

I don’t question your investment credentials but your mind appears to be a bit warped due to the fact that you make mega money, don’t forget there are a lot of “average” people out there and they are ok with that.