You're making 800k a year now.....

[trapsetter]

Sorry, but this is only a hypothetical question:

Assume you are broke, or nearly broke, and own basically no valuable assets.

If your 2007 income was to be $800,000 before taxes, and you were guaranteed this annual income (provided you showed up at work and did your job competently) for as long as you wanted to work, how many more years would you see yourself working before finally retiring?

For the purposes of this discussion, assume the number increases a bit each year to account for inflation, and assume income tax and capital gains tax laws don't change dramatically from what they look like today. Also, more important, once you decide to retire, your guaranteed 800k deal is gone, and you cannot open your own business or work another job. In other words, once you decide to retire, you can only live off investment income from the savings you have accumulated along the way.

How many years do you predict you'd continue working?

[NU Star]

Can I play poker?

[[Phill]]

Two.

One to buy the house in Spain. The second year to set up a retirement package paying me enough each year to not run out of paella and beer.

If i need to work a third year to make sure im set for the next 50 years, then i might just push myself to do so.

Either way the OP is stupid.

[RunDownHouse]

trapsetter,

Man, what a weird question. The answer is going to vary so widely based upon factors you can't even understand. I have no idea what you're hoping for by posing this question.

I'd say as long as I could get about $40k/year in Nashville, I'd be ok. I think I'd rather live in CA, but maybe in Seattle, or maybe Portland, or maybe Munich, so adjust as needed.

Again, what a worthless question.

[trapsetter]

[ QUOTE ]
Can I play poker?

[/ QUOTE ]

You can recreate yourself in ways that are enjoyable, but you can do it as a means of real income (for the sake of this hypothetical). So assume you can only play for a set amount of time, which will make it a hobby and not a real means of income.

[trapsetter]

[ QUOTE ]
Again, what a worthless question.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am curious to see the range in years people claim would be enough to never work again for an income. It will show me an interesting cross-section on lifestyle, realism, greed, etc.

Sorry that it's worthless to you.

[G_Dollaz]

how many days a week are we working, how many hours, and do we enjoy our job? For example, if it was coaching basketball I'd do it for the next 60 years, but if it was being a historian I'd do it for 2 years and retire....

[RunDownHouse]

[ QUOTE ]
I am curious to see the range in years people claim would be enough to never work again for an income. It will show me an interesting cross-section on lifestyle, realism, greed, etc.

Sorry that it's worthless to you.

[/ QUOTE ]
The range will be from five years to thirty years. The respondents will be 19-year old drop outs to 40 year old fathers. Congrats on your useful question.

FWIW, there are many better ways to ask the question you want to ask, "better" being everything from "more to the point" to "will foster better discussion."

[DavidC]

5.25 years.

I'd want to have 40k/a for 100 years before I stopped working.

That's more than I would require, but would make me feel good about the future. Add a bit more working time to get a house, maybe another half year or something.

[punkass]

I'd work for awhile. I would think my spending would go up dramatically the first few years (buying off my loans, buying house, etc). And I would want to put away a lot of money for when I have a family, fund savings, trust funds, etc. Take care of parents and siblings. Maybe some friends. I'd say if I didn't hate my job, I'd work until I was in my 40s or 50s (Im 26 now). If I hated my job, then I guess I'd work less.

Yes, stupid question.