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View Poll Results: How much is too much to walk away from?
$100k/year 2 1.60%
$200k/year 10 8.00%
$400k/year 29 23.20%
$800k/year 18 14.40%
1.2M/year 7 5.60%
1.6M/year 2 1.60%
2M/year 10 8.00%
3M/year 0 0%
4M/year 4 3.20%
no amount is/would have been too large to keep me from my FIRE dream 43 34.40%
Voters: 125. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 07-24-2017, 08:15 AM   #41
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Since DW and I were pulling in $450k between us at the time (2002), I answered $1.6 million. But it is theoretical because we were ready to go and had enough. That amount after paying the tax on it would have probably advanced our purchase of a snowbird residence.

But family dependencies would have kept us close to home.
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Old 07-24-2017, 08:22 AM   #42
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I voted for $400k in the poll, but my real number is probably a bit higher. I think I'd go back for one year at $500k if a job offer like that magically fell into my lap. After all, that's over $40,000 per month.

I'm not yet 50, and I think a situation like that could make for an interesting year and would certainly pad my FI numbers. They don't really need any padding, but it would be kind of tough to turn down so much money for a relatively modest amount of time and effort. And... I could always walk away if I ended up hating it or feeling restless, etc.
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Old 07-24-2017, 08:24 AM   #43
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Did not vote.. If I assume that I felt the same way about my w*rk life and it's effects on my physical and mental health I would still walk away no matter how much I made a year. The key is reaching FI and if the numbers work to allow you to ER with the lifestyle you want to live then you are FIRE'd. Any more money just make you greedy IMHO. Having more stuff with not make you happier and you can not take it with you....

Edit: Okay, I voted.. Did not see they added the last option ...
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Old 07-24-2017, 08:45 AM   #44
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When I was in the middle of my career, I prostituted myself for $. I gave them my mind, my body and most of my awake hours in exchange for a paycheck. Once I had enough to be FI, I continued to work. not for the paycheck but for the challenge and fun. At that time, I told myself that no amount of $ would get me back to being "used". I can't be bought (anymore).
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Old 07-24-2017, 08:51 AM   #45
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For me it would depend upon the job. If I loved it and was satisfied with the money, I would stay. If I hated it and was making crazy lots of money but was FI...I would leave.

How I spend my time is more important that the money, so no survey answer seems to fit.
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Old 07-24-2017, 08:57 AM   #46
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Im a bit confused here, the people that chose a number, all said I picked $x amount of money and I would stay a few more months ,years etc. If thats your number, then you would stay forever. Because then its really not your number to walk away from.
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Old 07-24-2017, 09:18 AM   #47
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It's all relative to the "number" you need for FI, your age, and personal circumstances (children, illnesses, family, goals, current income).

I stayed when I got wind of a coming layoff. For me, between the extra 10 months, the package of severance, etc., that meant about 2.5x my annual income/bonus, and it meant 10+14 months of continued MC health insurance. So that was a good deal.

So no number is "enough" if it just means continuing to cash the same paycheck, IMO. But if it means a significant step up, then that might do it, all depends what you can see doing with that extra.
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Old 07-24-2017, 09:22 AM   #48
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Im a bit confused here, the people that chose a number, all said I picked $x amount of money and I would stay a few more months ,years etc. If thats your number, then you would stay forever. Because then its really not your number to walk away from.
I chose $400k (but really it would have to be $500k), because that's what it would take to get me back into a Mon-Fri 9-6 situation for one year. I would be willing to put up with a fairly high stress, demanding job for that long in return for $40,000 per month. I think that's a reasonable trade-off, but it would be for a limited time only -- not indefinite. Just one year to pad my FI numbers and give me a bit more breathing room for more extravagances, more travel, more healthcare and LTC certainty, etc. And after being out of the rat race and daily grind for about 4 years now, I think it might make for an interesting experiment to see how it feels to jump back in for a little while... especially if I'm getting paid $40,000/month to participate in the experiment.
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Old 07-24-2017, 09:40 AM   #49
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How much annual income would make you think twice about walking away from work?
"Too much to walk away" is not an amount, it's an attitude. Walking away is not about the money, it's about life, understanding that there is a balance, and money is just one element of that.
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Old 07-24-2017, 09:53 AM   #50
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I answered $400K. I make just over $100K. I don't make $400K and never have.

a $400K salary might make me stay.
Similar here. Even $400k wouldn't make me stay forever. But instead of retiring at 52, I may have stayed another 3-5 years.
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Old 07-24-2017, 09:53 AM   #51
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In my case I would stay OMY for 4x what I was making then walk away. That would have created a buffer which I might have needed. Now I realize I did not need it. But that was then.
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Old 07-24-2017, 10:01 AM   #52
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I haven't read the thread but I generally walk about 2-3 miles a day. A longer hike on weekends 6-7 miles.
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Old 07-24-2017, 11:05 AM   #53
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Im a bit confused here, the people that chose a number, all said I picked $x amount of money and I would stay a few more months ,years etc. If thats your number, then you would stay forever. Because then its really not your number to walk away from.
Perhaps we all are considering what we would decide today, based on today's level of financial security and today's health and today's urgency about pursuing the bucket list. It doesn't mean that those parameters won't ever change in months or years, at which point we would decide differently.
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Old 07-24-2017, 11:23 AM   #54
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The key is reaching FI and if the numbers work to allow you to ER with the lifestyle you want to live then you are FIRE'd. Any more money just make you greedy IMHO. Having more stuff with not make you happier and you can not take it with you....
..
I think many people here would agree with you, but is your lifestyle really that "set" that an added 25% or 50% to your net worth would be useless? What about helping others? Don't agree with your use of the word "greedy" though.
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Old 07-24-2017, 12:11 PM   #55
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I have (had) an acquaintance who "retired" at 50 after making about $10MM by starting a start-up within a MegaCorp. But he was soon drawn out of retirement by a package of stock options and nice salary (guessing $500k salary) from a well-funded bay area startup who recruited him as CEO. He commuted back and forth to bay area weekly from another state and got into the whole start up thing, promising his wife this would be the last hurrah and then they'd really retire right. Fast forward 3 years, and he suddenly got diagnosed with aggressive cancer and died within a few months. I often wonder what those last three years of his life would have been worth had he spent them with family and kids instead of tinkering at yet another "world-changing bay area start up."
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Old 07-24-2017, 12:29 PM   #56
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I think many people here would agree with you, but is your lifestyle really that "set" that an added 25% or 50% to your net worth would be useless? What about helping others? Don't agree with your use of the word "greedy" though.
Not for me.. My physical & mental health was worth more then adding 25% or 50% more to net worth. We do not require any more $$ to be happy... For us the simple things bring more fun than stuff. As far as working longer to help others, well I needed to save myself first. Did not want to become one of those guys that dies from stress before retiring... If that make me selfish then so be it...
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Old 07-24-2017, 12:46 PM   #57
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I was just thinking about having that decision earlier in my career, before the dotcom bust. I had enough, but still had a lot in unvested options. I can't recall the figure, but I"ll bet it would've increased my worth another 25-35%. Seemed like easy money, and the kind of money I'd never get another shot it (partly because I wasn't going to take on another heads down, working crazy hours start-up job again) and it seemed foolish to walk away.

The bubble burst, making my unvested options worthless, along with a lot of my vested options that I hadn't yet exercised. It was another 10 years before I could ER. But I'm not sure what would've happened had I cashed out. I'd like to think that I would've diversified and rode out the bust fine, but I might've stuck it back in tech stocks, losing a lot of money AND being without a job. When I finally did ER I had learned and was much better diversified.

Anyway, stock options can be a very real test of what you'll walk away from, and what you won't.
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Old 07-24-2017, 01:02 PM   #58
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Interesting discussion. I retired at 56 in 2006. I was supposed to go a year earlier but my boss asked me to stay, asking me "what would it take". I said 4 day week same comp. I was very glad that I did stay in the fall of 2008 when the financial crises hit. In retrospect, even though I was very ready to go, staying until say 2009 would have been "brilliant" from a net worth perspective. Afraid to calculate how much more I would have had but it would have been a lot. Not sure I would have stayed though even knowing the future. More money certainly has a decreasing marginal utility. There is more to retirement than money, but money is still pretty important, at least in my mercenary little mind.
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Old 07-24-2017, 01:27 PM   #59
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Anyway, stock options can be a very real test of what you'll walk away from, and what you won't.
For years I received stock options from megacrop #2. They were always worth something by the time they were vested and exercised but some weren't worth very much at all. About 6 or 8 years before I retired, my company started issuing restricted stock instead if options.... Turned out much better.
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Old 07-24-2017, 01:33 PM   #60
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I clicked on 4 million. It's such a large amount compared to what I ever earned I'd have to take it...
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For us it comes down to not the amount but what we would do with that additional money vs the value of the freedom.
I've been retired for a few years and tried to put myself in the mindset I was just before I left and they offered me a one-year contract to stay and work full-time.

I answered 2M, with the logic that I'd do their bidding for another year and then splurge with the earnings. I'd spend part of the workday day dreaming of how I was going to splurge. Get a yacht? An island home? On the day I left, I'd have the whole thing lined-up so I'd walk after a year and go into my splurge activity. Then, after a year of that (or however long the 2M lasted), I'd (attempt to) go back to living at the "normal" burn rate that my original savings had been able to support.

So for me, it was kind of a "winning the lotto" thought exercise.
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