[clarky07]

Sure it is. You just have to have more reasonable expectations. A million bucks can easily generate 30-50k a year in dividends, and without a mortgage, that is enough to live a comfortable lifestyle. You can't go on permanent vacation, but you can live and work on whatever you want to without needing a job.

200k is a silly number to use in this calculation. Most studies show that "happiness" stops having big returns past something like 70-80k. Could I spend 200k a year? Sure no problem. Do I need to? No way.

[gaadd33]

While 200K is silly, I don't think 1M is really enough to never have to work again assuming a family.

You would have to purchase a house, it should be in a safe area with a good school district, so that's probably 200K? (I don't know what prices would be far away from the coasts)

So now you have 800K generating dividends for you, plus you have to save every year to be able to cover your kids college tuition since you can't get any need based money due to your nest egg. Even assuming you somehow do that on 50K/year (or your kids get merit scholarships), in 30 years (by the time you are 60) your 50K has the purchasing power of ~25K.

[clarky07]

I'm personally not planning on retiring at 30 and never doing any productive work ever again. The point would be, that with 30-50k coming in passively and no mortgage to pay, I could live comfortably and work on whatever I wanted to whenever I wanted to.

As for kids college, I had parents that helped some, and I paid for a significant portion myself (i also paid a significant portion of my wife's). I plan to save for my kids college, but it will be on the order of 1k a year or so. With 18 years of stock returns, it should be a decent amount for them. If it isn't enough for their desired school choice, they will have to pay the rest. That seems more than fair to me, but it won't be a huge sacrifice to put away 1k a year.

Also note, that the above linked article was doing math based on 4.2 mil. I think 1 mil would be enough to consider myself totally free, I'm certain 4.2 would be way more than enough.

Edit: Also, by only taking dividends and not principle, any inflation should also be reflected in the stocks. This means the purchasing power should stay constant assuming competent investment decisions.

[ry0ohki]

1) You don't need to pay your kids college tuition

2) Without a mortgage or debt, even 25k goes a very long way. Add up all of your non-housing bills, it shouldn't come anywhere close to 25k, I just did a sample budget and it still leaves 500 in savings per month.

[gaadd33]

1) So shoulder your kids with massive debt or hope the educational system has changed enough that college degrees aren't required for everything and things are affordable. Nice.

2) Assuming a low cost of living state, and you live frugally for just yourself, I totally agree. I don't think that anyone would say raising a family on that much is easy in any part of the country. (I'm not saying its impossible, just not easy, probably to the point where you would say screw it and go back to work.)

[ry0ohki]

1) I paid for my own college and know others as well. I also know many people whose parents paid for their college. Guess who earns more out of this admittedly small sample? When you have to shoulder your own education you make many more money-making decisions, so that poetry degree from $200k school doesn't look so hot.

2) It's not that frugal, that's my point, here's the budget I put together, which still has luxuries like cable tv, smart phones, and $250 a month for going out. https://www.budgetsimple.com/budget/DKwEDsxt

Assumptions- You own your house outright, you own a car outright. There are other costs like property taxes and car repairs, but with $500 savings per month, those should be easily covered in a year.

EDIT- It's also worth noting, we're talking about income solely from dividends on $800k. Once your kids are going to college if you want to help them out, you have 800k (plus the $500 in savings per month to help them.)