Agree with this completely. I make almost double what my expenses (Taxes included in that value) are and that I continue to plan on spending post retirement next January. About a third of that is taxes mostly at 24% plus 5% state, FICA and medicare. another good portion is my maxed out 401K contributions then another significant portion is what I put into savings so I can retire.
Now I get to eliminate many expenses like eating in the megacorp Cafeteria, 45 miles (roundtrip) of commuting 5 days a week and a few more misc
Since I have essentially 5 weeks of vacation every year due to my years of service my wife and I have made big expensive trips a priority to Australia, Europe in Business class etc. And I am already funding my hobbies just don't get to do them as much as I like. And just to be sure I can enjoy retirement, I planned another $20K of expenses in the "lets just go do stuff" category. so my planned expenses to achieve a better lifestyle are still almost half of my income
Back to the original topic. I always thought $1M was a lot of money and it is. Raising kids and putting them college it took me until 53 (kids then gone) to have a net worth of $1M, 56 $2M and 59 $3M. This does include property for the classic definition. Got to love compounding earnings. If I wanted to work a couple more years I would be at $4M and the path I was on was to work 2 more years. THEN I did the numbers I figured out I could have retired last January and maintained the same lifestyle for the next 45+ years so I decided that increasing wealth wasn't important once you had enough to meet all your goals. Living life was more important once that happened. The main reason I am waiting until 1st week of January 2022 is Health Care and I also want to make a good transition to the person I hired to replace me. I have a lot vested in this company and this current project which I have taken from a powerpoint design to building an actual spacecraft and want it to succeed after I am gone.
If you are trying to guess the 4% calculation for me (I know someone is
) I also have a pension which makes it easier for me or I likely would have worked another few years
On the flip side. My older relatives now gone never had even $500K, some $200K and lived happily but frugally for a long time. Money isnt the end all for retirement happiness. It just makes it easier