Halfway to my $20 million retirement goal but feeling stuck — how can I boost my cash flow to reach it?

Key points

• Your retirement goal should be based on your expected/anticipated yearly expenses.
• Don’t set arbitrary financial goals based on someone else’s life, set goals for yourself
• Also: Take this quiz to see if you’re on track to retire (Sponsored)

It is always unfortunate whenever we find someone who has bought into the modern, money-making hustle culture hook, line, and sinker. These people sacrifice the best years of their lives, their families, spiritual health, and even other people in the pursuit of profit.

One particular person was disappointed they hadn’t reached their astronomical financial goal, so they went to the strangers on Reddit for advice. The author of our post in question went to r/fatFIRE, a community of people focused on financial independence and retiring “with a fat stash.” Here is what they said.

Obviously, the financial advice of strangers online, including this article, does not constitute legal advice, and you should always talk with a financial expert before making any kind of financial decision.

The Question

A photo of retirement finances.

The author of the post says they have a goal of reaching a net worth of $20 million and are currently halfway there with $10 million. They are married with a young child living in a high-cost area, and they both work. Their net worth includes $200k in cash, over $1.1 million in retirement funds, several investment accounts, and some investment properties. They have a combined income of $600k per year and spend around $250k on living expenses. They had three questions for the community.

First, are they managing their finances effectively?

Second, what would be the best strategy to increase their wealth?

Third, how much money is enough for a FATFIRE (retiring early with huge amounts of money)?

The Community Response

A photo of a retirement savings jar.

The vast majority of people who responded were confused about how and why the author had arrived at the goal of $20 million for retirement. Usually, and by design, people of this community use their desired spending as the metric for determining how much they need for retirement.

For example, if someone has an expected spending of $100k per year during retirement, and they expect to live for 20 years after retiring, they will need $2 million to retire.

What the author has done, however, is set an arbitrary goal for themselves, probably based on something they say online or heard someone bragging about, and are looking to adjust their finances to somehow make it work. This is backward.

Besides the fact that the author was not counting their income, assets, and expenses correctly (another issue for another time), trying to fit your expensive lifestyle into the financial goals of someone else is a quick way to become discouraged.

It is sad whenever we see another person become so focused and obsessed with reaching random financial goals, sacrificing everything else they have so they can enjoy the last few years of their life with more money than most people will ever see over multiple lifetimes. Don’t forget the whole reason you began working in the first place.