What's your retirement nut?

[Scorpion Man]

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Mine is $10M liquid, with housing paid for. $5M liquid (after housing) also works, but would require us to take more long term market risk.

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In my experience, this is a moving target for people. When they get within sniffing distance of the first target, they simply move it. We used to play this game all the time in biz school. Everybody started at $5m, then got to $10m pretty quickly. People who got there did not pass go and went directly to $20m. I have a good friend who just got there and is still agonizing about whether its enough. And he does not even live a big lifestyle.

These are SF, NYC, Boston numbers. They can be lower elsewhere, I guess.

I often see on these boards people thinking they are going to retire young on $1-2m. I don't see how that is possible unless you continue to live like a student.