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Personally, at minimum I would need 2MM to "retire" and start running my own money full time

I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold. I'll be fine once I get it
 

No in general. But it greatly depends on your personal situation and spending habits. If you live in a cheap place, have a house paid off with low property taxes and don't have kids, maybe if you spent very minimally but you'd be living like a hermit in the Ozarks. And with life expetancy where it is now you could be stretching that out a long time and your SS check isn't going to be very big because you wouldn't have been contributing for 20 years.

 

assets are only 1 piece of the puzzle. if you still have liabilities (not just debt, but things like kids, aging parents, etc) and expenses and no other sources of income (your SS is probably unimpressive at only age 45) like a pension or partnership interests, then $1mm is a small sum on which to retire.

why do you want to retire? why not switch industries, I'm sure you have an interesting story and may be able to make the leap to something else.

 

OP, I'm curious, are you really 45, or close, with $1MM and want to retire or are you running hypotheticals as a 25 year old thinking you want to retire ASAP on as little as possible at some point in the future?

And @andylouis and @jankynoname are correct: you could take that money to parts of South America or SE Asia and live pretty well. Take that to rural India and you could be a god.

 
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