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That would depend on what your assets, liabilities, and other income are in contrast to your lifestyle. A young person who makes a 6-figure salary and has no financial obligation would consider himself/herself financially free for at least a decade or two (however, younger people have more "life" left in them and would have to account for that accordingly).
If you are more senior, have children/older parents/other dependents, a mortgage, and other liabilities for the future then you would need more assets to cover all of that. On the flip side, older people have fewer life years to cover.
When I was in my 20s I felt more financially secure than now because my income was significantly higher than my expenses and lifestyle. Now, with the wish to have a family, an appropriate house, and retirement, savings for potential children, etc I feel like I would need a lot more to feel "free", if that even happens.
As a student, you go from zero income to a good amount (in banking). However, most salaries peak at some point during your career and (for most employees) there won't be unlimited upside while the expenses start to pile up in larger amounts.
Rule of thumb is 25-30x your desired yearly expenses in liquid net worth.
This. Although it doesn't neccessarily have to be liquid, as long as you account for it right.
Said liquid for simplicity.. The rule doesn't necessarily hold for illiquid but income producing/yielding assets.
Seems a little high? At that rate $50k in expenses a year means you need to have a net worth of $1.2M to feel "financially secure"? Seems to me like a bit of a high benchmark...
WSJ just actually ran an article on this: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-much-money-will-you-really-spend-in-re…
You're financially free when you don't trade time for money and have enough money to support your lifestyle. As long as you trade tine for money, you're always poor.
This. +SB
Someone already made this thread, "you know you made it when..."
When you're dead, then you can be financially free.
Until estate taxes hit.
passive income > expenditures
That is the guideline yes, but I'm more so looking for the inflection point where you have some passive income, but can also generate some W2 income with ease and comfort.
Totally get the question, but it totally depends on the person. Take the state engineer who gets hired out of school at age 22. Let's also say this person also has incredibly low COL habits. To them, the day they get hired and begin working toward that pension, in essence they will be 100% financially free without stress. Depends on he or shes spending habits, salary, and what their retirement goals are, but at the end of the day, it really depends on a ton of variables...
for me it's all about income stream rather than bank account. I'm free when I make $50-60k p.a. in rents or other recurring income
Nice, best of luck.
also, as it is said, "He is wealthy who knows the meaning of 'enough'"
Different for everyone, and (as others have pointed out) it is directly tied to lifestyle and expenditures, but I know a thing or two about this question, but as for me? - A nice house with no more than $500k of mortgage (that's where tax benefits max out) - Enough $ in the bank that it will accumulate by itself to about $10 million in 2018 dollars by the time you're sixty. So using the rule of 72 and assuming real returns of 4%, you'd want to have about $5m liquid by the time you're in your early 40s - About $250k put away for each kid you plan to put through college
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