| Well, obviously, this is for some reasonable definition of have. The numbers work for me. I'm married, and have a mortgage. I guess I was blurring the line between being retired and semi-retired. Were I to earn such a lump sum, my daily activities would probably look the same. I just wouldn't be working for anyone else, and wouldn't have that mental burn-rate / countdown timer going. Controlling expenses is a very powerful tool. For every after-tax dollar you save, you're saving like 2 pre-tax dollars. So, it's much more effective to save $1 than to earn an extra $1. Here's my mental hierarchy of wealth. Each one represents a drastic change in quality of life, and options. It's somewhat logarithmic. 1) Stop living month-to-month. I.e. at the end of the month, you have enough to pay another month's expenses in the bank. 2) Pay of all debt, except mortgage. 3) Stop living year-to-year. I.e. at the end of the year, you have enough money to not work next year, possibly having to reduce your quality of life, but not to poverty. 4) Semi-retirement. If you didn't work for the next five years, you'd still have enough money to start a business at the end of the period. 5) Retirement. You can maintain your current lifestyle, or a slightly scaled-back one indefinitely. Mortgage is paid off. 6) Rich. Your kids could do (5), if you decided to fund the lazy brats. 7) FU money. |