If you have $500,000 in savings, then according to the 4% rule, you will have access to roughly $20,000 per year for 30 years.
As mentioned, $500,000 can last for over 30 years if budgeted correctly. However, there are a number of caveats to this, including how long you need your retirement savings to last you. For example, if you retire at 40 and need enough retirement savings for another 40 years, you may struggle.
Monthly Income From A $500,000 401(k)
A $500,000 401(k) can generate different amounts of monthly income, depending on withdrawal strategies and market conditions. If following the commonly used 4% rule, it would provide an annual income of $20,000, or approximately $1,667 per month.
At the current Treasury rate of 4.3%, a $1 million portfolio would generate about $43,000 per year, or roughly $3,500 per month. With your Social Security payments that would generate about $6,000, again enough to live comfortably in most places.
Retiring in comfort at 45 with $1.5 million is likely doable as long as your retirement living expenses are no more than average, your investments generate a typical return and you have good health. Challenges include waiting 17 years for Social Security and 20 years for Medicare.
As an example, your annual withdrawal at age 68 could be around $15,000, and by age 80, that withdrawal could be around $18,000. In sum, a $250,000 annuity could realistically pay you from $1,071 (guaranteed) up to $1,912 (non-guaranteed) per month.
If you have $400,000 in the bank you can retire early at age 62, but it will be tight. The good news is that if you can keep working for just five more years, you are on track for a potentially quite comfortable retirement by full retirement age.
If you were to place $500,000 in a high-yield savings account with a 2.15% APY and wait one year, you will have earned $10,750 in interest. This rate is likely insufficient to keep up with annual inflation, which means your money will become less valuable at a higher rate than when it's accruing interest.
Retire at 55 with £500k.
However, if you're a bit more conservative over your expected returns and want to withdraw 4% a year, you'll need a stash worth at least £973,500. When you find the answer to the question of how to retire at 55, you might realise it's a bridge too far.
If you have $500,000 in a pre-tax IRA and expect $2,000 per month from Social Security, you may have enough money to retire at age 67. A half million dollars is a relatively modest nest egg, but it can still generate a comfortable income depending on your standard of living.
$3,000 X 12 months = $36,000 per year. $36,000 / 6% dividend yield = $600,000. On the other hand, if you're more risk-averse and prefer a portfolio yielding 2%, you'd need to invest $1.8 million to reach the $3,000 per month target: $3,000 X 12 months = $36,000 per year.
Rounding up for safety, you'd need at least $1.3 million saved to generate $53,000 per year using the 4% rule. That means if you had $500,000 saved, as O'Leary suggested, withdrawing 4% annually for 30 years would only provide a safe spending amount of $20,000 per year.
Based on that figure, an annual income of $500,000 or more would make you rich. The Economic Policy Institute uses a different baseline to determine who constitutes the top 1% and the top 5%. For 2021, you're in the top 1% if you earn $819,324 or more each year. The top 5% of income earners make $335,891 per year.
The time it takes to invest half turn 500k into $1 million depends on the investment return and the amount of time invested. If invested with an average annual return of 7%, it would take around 15 years to turn 500k into $1 million.
Depending on how you manage your money, you can probably expect an annual income between $48,000 (at roughly $4,000 per month) and $63,000 (at roughly $5,300 per month). More is possible if you invest for more aggressive returns, but that will mean taking on more risk.
However, CDs are unlikely to provide you with the returns you need to build wealth for the future or live off the interest — unless you already have a large amount of money and ladder your CDs to avoid penalties. Additionally, CDs lack the liquidity you'd need for something like an emergency fund.
Making $4,000 a month based on your investments alone is not a small feat. For example, if you have an investment or combination of investments with a 9.5% yield, you would have to invest $500,000 or more potentially. This is a high amount, but could almost guarantee you a $4,000 monthly dividend income.
Just 16% of retirees say they have more than $1 million saved, including all personal savings and assets, according to the recent CNBC Your Money retirement survey conducted with SurveyMonkey. In fact, among those currently saving for retirement, 57% say the amount they're hoping to save is less than $1 million.
It is 100% possible to retire with $400,000, provided you're not looking to enjoy a particularly expensive retirement lifestyle or hoping to leave the workforce notably early.
The $1,000 per month rule is designed to help you estimate the amount of savings required to generate a steady monthly income during retirement. According to this rule, for every $240,000 you save, you can withdraw $1,000 per month if you stick to a 5% annual withdrawal rate.
A $500,000 annuity could pay $2,997 a month, or $35,958 a year, for a 65-year-old woman purchasing an immediate single life annuity. Annuity providers calculate the monthly payout of a $500,000 annuity based on factors such as the type of annuity and the annuitant's age and gender.
According to IRS standards, a monthly income of approximately $45,000 qualifies someone as wealthy. However, if you're aiming for the top 1% as measured by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), you'd need to earn about $68,277 monthly.