[Scorpion Man]

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$2 mill will give you $80K/yr inflation adjusted at a 4% withdrawal rate. That seems like it would be reasonable for most people.

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I assume you mean you own your house outright so your networth is more like $2.5m?

I know people write that, but I don't really get it. For one, if I am retired, I don't want to be on a shoe string budget. Secondly, short term munis pay 3.5%. Total. And that leaves nothing to account for inflation.

I spend over $15k on healthcare insurance alone. $4k for aut0 insurance. $10k for property taxes and that is only because i bot the house a decade ago - it would be $20k if i bought it today. And its not a big deal house - its 3700 sq ft on a half acre. Something goes wrong with the house that costs $15k pretty much every year. Vacations? Even just flying Jetblue home to see the parents a couple times a year with the kid scosts $5k. Have any charitable aspirations at all? Family that needs money? A wife that likes jewelry? Private school for the kids? COLLEGE? Um, that will cost you $35k per year at LEAST in 10 years if they go to private college. And if you have 2 kids? I guess you will be living high off the hog on your $10k of income while inflation eats away at you and you are actually going backwards.

We are talking about RETIREMENT. Not a couple years off. They are very different things.

It's all well and good that the stock market goes up over time. However, it often goes down first and you have relatively little cushion if that happens.

I spend multiples of the figure you quote per year. Again, many on these boards are 21 years old and $80k sounds like a ton, but the only risk free way to make this is munis and if you plow 2% back in for inflation (not enough) you have $30k. If you dont, you will still be making $80k when it spends like $40k.

If you go longer duration on munis you dont get a lot better yield and you take a ton of risk.

Maybe in Iowa. Maybe in a $100k house. But who the hell retires to a $100k house and a 1982 Buick?