While $10 million is a lot of money, retiring at 50 means you can plan on approximately 40 years of retirement if you expect to live to around the average age. Even if nothing catastrophic happens to you or the economy in the meantime, inflation alone can make a dent in what you can expect from your savings.
Costs and Lifestyle
As we noted up top, with $10 million you can generate more than enough income to live a very comfortable life. After all, even if we disregard all investments and gains entirely, this portfolio is still enough money to take out $100,000 per year, every year for the next century.
And given that the average American spends $66,921 per year (as of 2021), $10 million is more than enough to retire at 30 in most cases. However, that may not be true if you have an expensive lifestyle when you retire. Factors like inflation, healthcare costs and a volatile stock market can derail your retirement.
If you are lucky enough to have set aside $10 million, can that get the job done? While it certainly depends on your needs and lifestyle, the answer for almost everyone is yes, as long as you invest and manage your money wisely. With $10 million on hand, you can comfortably retire at age 40.
Imagine you're retiring at 50 years old with $20 million in the bank. Even if the money generated little interest or even none at all, you could afford to withdraw $500,000 per year for the next 40 decades. That means you could spend nearly $42,000 each month for 40 years if you live to 90.
In fact, statistically, around 10% of retirees have $1 million or more in savings. The majority of retirees, however, have far less saved.
That figure was up 5.5% over the prior year. Spectrum also found that the number of U.S. ultra-high-net-worth individuals—they count UHNWIs as owning between $5 million and $25 million (excluding the value of their primary residence)—grew 21.3% in 2020 to a total of 1.8 million households.
Once you have $1 million in assets, you can look seriously at living entirely off the returns of a portfolio. After all, the S&P 500 alone averages 10% returns per year. Setting aside taxes and down-year investment portfolio management, a $1 million index fund could provide $100,000 annually.
With a traditional savings account, you might find an interest rate near the national average of 0.06%. But with a high yield savings account, that interest rate might be around 0.80%. On a $10 million portfolio, you'd receive an annual income of $6,000 to $80,000 per year.
For example, a $10 million 30-year annuity with a 5% annual growth rate would produce a monthly income of $53,459. But a $10 million annuity with a 10-year term and the same annual growth rate could produce a monthly payment of $105,625.42 per month.
Someone who has $1 million in liquid assets, for instance, is usually considered to be a high net worth (HNW) individual. You might need $5 million to $10 million to qualify as having a very high net worth while it may take $30 million or more to be considered ultra-high net worth.
Is it wise to deposit such a large amount of money into a regular bank account in the United States? While it's good news to have 10 million dollars, depositing the entire amount into a regular savings account might not be the best strategy due to low interest rates.
When it comes to saving for retirement, the common advice is to aim for $1 million. This number has been cited so often that investors may feel as if they're failing if they don't reach it. But that shouldn't be the case. In fact, statistically, just 10% of Americans have saved $1 million or more for retirement.
Decamillionaire is a term used for someone with a net worth of over 10 million of a given currency, most often U.S. dollars, euros, or pounds sterling. The term decamillionaire is made up of two words, “deca” and “millionaire.” The word “deca” or “deka” is of Greek origin, meaning ten.
Around 2,132,856 households in America have $10 million or more in net worth. That's 1.62% of American households.
Bottom Line. With $8 million in savings, even a modestly invested portfolio can generate enough money to live a very comfortable life indefinitely. Of course, that's all relative as the amount of money you need in retirement is going to vary based on an individual's life choices and desires.
Low-income people may retire by cutting their expenses, downsizing their homes, taking Social Security benefits early, and/or applying for financial assistance through government benefit programs.
“Meaning if you spend $40,000 a year, multiplying that $40,000 by 25 would get you to a million dollars.” “This million dollars essentially is how much money you need to reach financial independence and live off that amount of money for the rest of your life.”
Americans need at least $2.2 million in assets to be considered rich, according to Charles Schwab's 2023 Modern Wealth Survey. The investment platform surveyed 1,000 Americans to determine the average net worth required to be considered wealthy in America.