Yes, retiring early with $3 million is possible. If you plan to retire at 55, you will have to account for 11 additional years of expenses and 11 fewer years of income compared to retiring at 66. However, with careful planning, $3 million can provide a comfortable retirement starting at 55.
You can probably retire in financial comfort at age 45 if you have $3 million in savings. Although it's much younger than most people retire, that much money can likely generate adequate income for as long as you live.
If you're dreaming of $3 million or more, though, you're officially aiming for a financial VIP club that represents less than 1% of retirees. Don't Miss: Can you guess how many Americans successfully retire with $1,000,000 saved? The percentage may shock you.
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In 2024, Americans stated that the average net worth they consider “wealthy” is $2.5 million.
As mentioned above, $3 million can easily carry you through 40 years of retirement, making leaving the workforce at 50 a plausible option. Many dream of early retirement, but if you're lucky enough to already have $3 million set aside for this phase of your life, you could do more than dream.
If you have $3 million to invest, you can safely and reliably earn anywhere from $3,000 to much as $82,500 a year in interest. If you are ready take more risk, you may earn more. But risk also means the possibility of lower returns or even losses.
But it's considerably more so if you want to retire early. One rule of thumb recommends multiplying your desired annual income in retirement by 25 to come up with a savings goal. So, if you want to have $50,000 a year for 25 years, you'd need $1.25 million.
How much does a $3 million annuity pay? As of January 2025, with a $3,000,000 annuity, you'll get an immediate payment of $18,000 per month starting at age 60, $19,825 per month at age 65, or $21,333 per month at age 70.
Retiring at an age as young as 55 is a dream for many Americans. However, turning this vision into reality involves some significant financial planning and maneuvering. For example, you'll need to build significant savings, invest your money, account for early withdrawal taxes and take a lot more into consideration.
By age 40, you should have three times your annual salary already saved. By age 50, you should have six times your salary in an account. By age 60, you should have eight times your salary working for you. By age 67, your total savings total goal is 10 times the amount of your current annual salary.
Those will become part of your budget. The 50-30-20 rule recommends putting 50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. The savings category also includes money you will need to realize your future goals.
Probably 1 in every 20 families have a net worth exceeding $3 Million, but most people's net worth is their homes, cars, boats, and only 10% is in savings, so you would typically have to have a net worth of $30 million, which is 1 in every 1000 families.
To figure out just how much money you need to save to retire by 55, Doe suggests using a common rule of thumb: Take your current salary and multiply it by 10. Keep in mind that this is just a jumping-off point — there are many other factors you'll need to consider.
According to estimates based on the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, a mere 3.2% of retirees have over $1 million in their retirement accounts. The number of those with $2 million or more is even smaller, falling somewhere between this 3.2% and the 0.1% who have $5 million or more saved.
Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. It's the total value of all your assets—including your house, cars, investments and cash—minus your liabilities (things like credit card debt, student loans, and what you still owe on your mortgage).
Conclusions. We did not find an association between early retirement, compared with continued work participation, and mortality. On-time retirement, compared with working beyond retirement, was associated with a higher risk of mortality.
The top 10% of earners have an average net worth of $2.65 million. Even if you're squeaking into the upper class (the 80-90% range), you're looking at about $793,000. Moving down to the middle class, things get a bit more varied. The upper-middle class folks have an average net worth of around $300,800.
Americans believe it now takes an average net worth of $2.5 million to be counted as rich, a 14% increase from last year's $2.2 million, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab.
Example of a 4% Rule Calculation
Let's say you're ready to retire, and you have a retirement account of $3 million. Using the 4% rule, you could withdraw $120,000 to cover the living expenses for your first year of retirement ($3,000,000 x . 04 = $120,000). The next year, you adjust this $120,000 base for inflation.
If you inherited from a multi-million dollar estate, you are going to need professional help. Your team could include an attorney, CPA, and a financial advisor who works with inheritors. Depending on what you inherited, you may also need to add in other advisors who can help value or sell illiquid assets.
The good news: As long as you plan carefully, $3 million should be a comfortable amount to retire on at 55. A financial advisor can help you make projections for various retirement scenarios.
“For example, if you retire with $3 million saved, you would start withdrawing $120,000 in the first year and adjust this amount for inflation thereafter,” he said. To stretch your money further, Kayikchyan said you can consider withdrawing less than $120,000 annually.
Bottom Line. Most people will be perfectly capable of supporting a $5,000 monthly retirement budget on $3 million, as long as it's adequately liquid and properly diversified.