Been lurking here a while, so wanted to get everyone's thoughts about my situation. I've always been "good with saving" having learned this from my parents, who were of modest means for most of my life. Sadly, my father passed away this past year, and now that I'm managing Mom's finances, come to find out he had accumulated nearly $3 million in assets (mostly from inheritance from my grandparents, which kept compounding.) My father worked hard until age 69, and only saw 2 years of retirement, mostly in poor health. Unknown to any of us at the time since he kept everyone in the dark about the money, he could have retired 10 years earlier.
I'm determined not to follow a similar path. I work for a mega corp and am doing well, I just can't see myself being a "lifer". I know many lower level execs that could have retired decades ago, but continue to work because that's their entire identity (my aunt is similar.) That scares me, there's more to life than that, and I work way too much now to want to keep up this pace.
My situation is as follows:
Taxable Investments (all liquid, stocks/bonds): $700k
401k: $200k
Income: $250k/year gross, $170k/year net (though various promotions and healthy bonuses my salary is up a lot recently)
Expenses: $4-5k/month
So saving $100-120k/year
Inheritance: I'll likely have a sizable one at some point in the future. Mom is 64. I'd be quite happy if I never saw a nickle for 30 years.
Houses: I own none, having owned 2 for many years. The freedom is priceless.
I don't live extravagantly, but walking away from a job I like and then having to every worry about money later seems crazy. I'm particularly concerned about the cost of health insurance and lower expected investment returns over the next 30 years, and knowing I'd retired, I would expect my spending to increase over its current levels, though perhaps not drastically.
Given the above situation, wen would you walk away?
I'm determined not to follow a similar path. I work for a mega corp and am doing well, I just can't see myself being a "lifer". I know many lower level execs that could have retired decades ago, but continue to work because that's their entire identity (my aunt is similar.) That scares me, there's more to life than that, and I work way too much now to want to keep up this pace.
My situation is as follows:
Taxable Investments (all liquid, stocks/bonds): $700k
401k: $200k
Income: $250k/year gross, $170k/year net (though various promotions and healthy bonuses my salary is up a lot recently)
Expenses: $4-5k/month
So saving $100-120k/year
Inheritance: I'll likely have a sizable one at some point in the future. Mom is 64. I'd be quite happy if I never saw a nickle for 30 years.
Houses: I own none, having owned 2 for many years. The freedom is priceless.
I don't live extravagantly, but walking away from a job I like and then having to every worry about money later seems crazy. I'm particularly concerned about the cost of health insurance and lower expected investment returns over the next 30 years, and knowing I'd retired, I would expect my spending to increase over its current levels, though perhaps not drastically.
Given the above situation, wen would you walk away?