| Friend of mine in his 60s who was semi retired for the last 15 years had all his brokerage accounts emptied by hackers this year. He might get his money back, but might not. Make sure you use 2fa for all accounts. I prefer RSA secureID where you have a detached fob. Your phone can be hacked and hackers can then get verification codes. Dont invest in anything except (almost) guaranteed returns for now(1 year CDs are starting to pay 2-3%) . An emergency fund of 2+ years expenses in cash. Slowly increase your standard of living over a long period of time (or not at all). I operate from a budget, not from cash in the bank. Religiously stick to the budget (this is hard) but dont beat yourself up if you go over. Quicken does a reasonably decent job of setting up a budget and allows you to keep spending in various "accounts" under control. The standard safe withdrawl rate is 3%. Im planning for a more conservative 1.5% approach. This means you can take out up to 3% of your total funds each year and never run out. At 8m and 1.5% safe withdrawl you still need to work. The strategy requires you to have a reasonably significant percent in the market. While the market could keep going up, I think you can wait a few years for the inevitable recession, but eventually you will have to get it into index funds. I make a good income from my business and it is easy to get sloppy when I have too much cash. Last year at a fundraiser I got drunk and dropped 30K. Im not mad about the donation, but Im mad about the way I did it while being out of control. Also this account is an example of a wasted $100k :) |
$8m at 1.5% is $120,000/year. Since he's already mentioned the house and cars being paid off already, that's going to be a living wage even in Silicon Valley, especially considering he also said the $8m is AFTER taxes. He doesn't need to work.