[georgemcbay]

That article may be worth reading, but it is about retiring "rich", not simply retiring. It assumes a yearly lifestyle cost of $200k per year, which is redonkulously high. You don't need to be "rich" to be economically "free".

Most people can live quite comfortably for far less than $200k/yr when they are debt free and (figuratively) sitting on a giant pile of cash, especially if they aren't tied to living in SV, NYC, etc.

[kyllo]

Yeah, that sort of depends on how expensive of a house you want, and whether "retired" really means "zero work and zero income" or just means you have the freedom to work on whatever you want and never need to take a full-time day job again.

If you're the "permanent vacation" type of retired then $200k / year fixed income might be low. Waterfront properties, luxury hotels and first-class plane tickets are expensive. You're at least 1-2 orders of magnitude from private jet money.

If you're the "I paid off my mortgage and cars, set aside my kids' tuition account, and now my only expenses are food, utilities and taxes, and now I have years of runway to build my next project, plus free time to do hobbies, raise my kids, and enjoy life" type, then a 2-4 million payout is probably plenty to qualify for "FU money." That's more than most people make in a lifetime, so if you get it in a lump sum, you're set.

It's all about what standard of living you want.