I’m in my late 40s and I’m bored of work. Can I walk away with a net worth of $15 million?

Some people think about walking away from work long before they reach the traditional retirement age. That option tends to belong to those who have built substantial fortunes during their careers, and one Redditor in their late 40s is wrestling with exactly that question right now.

In a post on the FatFIRE subreddit, the individual shares that they have a $15 million net worth and earn roughly $2.5 million to $3.0 million per year from a W-2 job. Married with three kids and living in a medium cost-of-living area, the poster has one child already in college and two still in high school, with annual lifestyle expenses running $325,000.

He wants to leave the corporate world and pursue something more stimulating, though not necessarily something that pays the same. Full-time executive life no longer holds any appeal. What do the numbers say? Can he retire now, or does waiting a few years make more financial sense? The math is fairly encouraging, but the non-financial questions carry just as much weight. Consulting a qualified financial advisor before making any move this significant is always worthwhile.

Is a $15 Million Portfolio Enough?

A $15 million portfolio is almost certainly large enough to support this lifestyle. At a 3% withdrawal rate, the Redditor draws $450,000 in pre-tax income annually, well above the $325,000 he needs. That buffer absorbs taxes on the withdrawal and still leaves meaningful room to spare. Three percent is considered quite conservative by most retirement research standards.

Morningstar’s 2025 State of Retirement Income report, published December 3, 2025, pegs the safe withdrawal rate for a standard 30-year retirement at 3.9% for a balanced portfolio holding 30% to 50% in equities. The same research found that retirees who adopt flexible, dynamic spending strategies can start at meaningfully higher rates without materially raising the risk of running short. Bill Bengen, who originally proposed the 4% rule in an October 1994 Journal of Financial Planning article, went further in his August 2025 book “A Richer Retirement: Supercharging the 4% Rule to Spend More and Enjoy More,” raising his recommended safe withdrawal rate to 4.7% based on a more diversified, multi-asset-class portfolio. For a FatFIRE retiree in their late 40s planning a retirement that could stretch 40 or more years, prudent planning calls for a more conservative starting rate than the standard 30-year benchmark. A 3% withdrawal rate on $15 million sits comfortably below even the most conservative widely-cited figures.

Expenses are also likely to shrink over time. With one child already in college and the other two approaching it, the household’s largest discretionary costs will probably ease over the next decade as the children become financially independent.

Sticking It Out for a Few More Years

The Redditor is not entirely ready to pull the trigger. He floats the idea of waiting until he reaches a $20 million portfolio before stepping away, and that instinct deserves careful examination. The decision to retire is rarely a purely financial one.

The most important question to answer before leaving any high-paying job is a deceptively simple one: what comes next? Research on early retirees shows this question trips up a significant share of people who leave. A September 2024 ResumeBuilder survey of 750 U.S. adults ages 65 to 85 found that 42% of those still working cited avoiding boredom as a reason for staying in or returning to the workforce. A follow-up ResumeBuilder survey conducted in December 2025, covering 3,574 respondents ages 64 to 91, found that figure had eased to 34%, though boredom remained one of the top reasons seniors give for continuing to work. The initial honeymoon phase of freedom tends to give way to a loss of structure, purpose, and professional identity that many high achievers underestimate.

This Redditor has said he wants to keep working in some capacity, just not in a full-time corporate seat. That distinction matters a great deal. Having a clear next chapter, whether advisory work, a passion project, or a lower-key role, makes the transition far smoother than walking away with nothing lined up. Boredom in a $15 million retirement is not inevitable, but it does require real planning.

There is also a networking consideration worth keeping in mind. If any of his children want to enter the same field, his current connections are a genuine asset. Those relationships tend to fade quickly once someone steps away from a senior role. Staying on for another several years could meaningfully help a child advance in the same industry, though that consideration alone should not anchor someone who is already tuning out at work.

Have More Money with Fewer Years to Stretch It

Continuing for a few more years at $2.5 million to $3.0 million annually means the Redditor can cover all living expenses from salary while the portfolio compounds untouched. A $15 million portfolio left alone for five years at a modest 5% annual return would grow to roughly $19 million, pushing him close to that $20 million target without drawing down a dollar. Retiring at 55 rather than 49 or 50 also shortens the retirement runway by several years, which meaningfully reduces the statistical risk of outliving the portfolio.

The stronger argument for staying is less about the math and more about the motivation. This Redditor is bored, not burned out, and those are meaningfully different situations. Someone fleeing an unsustainable workload or a toxic environment has an urgent reason to leave regardless of the financial cost. Someone who simply wants more intellectual stimulation has the luxury of being selective. That kind of boredom can often be addressed by negotiating a different role, reducing hours, or taking on a special project. All of those options are far easier to explore from inside a well-compensated position than from outside it.

Walking away from a $2.5 million-plus W-2 salary is effectively a one-way door. Re-entering the corporate market at a comparable level after a multi-year absence is genuinely difficult, especially in executive roles where relationships and a recent track record matter enormously. This Redditor has spent decades building the kind of financial cushion that creates generational wealth. A few more years of patience, paired with a concrete plan for what comes next, could make the eventual exit both wealthier and more fulfilling.

Editor’s note: The flexible withdrawal rate figure from Morningstar’s 2025 State of Retirement Income report was updated and the unverifiable “nearly 6%” claim was removed; the December 2025 ResumeBuilder survey details were corrected to reflect that it surveyed 3,574 respondents ages 64 to 91 (not 65 to 85), and Bengen’s original 1994 paper was confirmed as published in October 1994 in the Journal of Financial Planning.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.