Riley sounds like a jerk, regardless of expenses you can't be financially independent unless you make more than 3/4 of the country. How about the "if your expenses are lower than the growth of your wealth you are financially independent" index? The best part of that index is that it gets easier every year you are a part of it and does not require your death as part of your investment strategy. On the other side, every year you are not in the index it gets harder to get into it.