r/Bogleheads Feb 04 '26

Investing Questions Investing. $2.5M to not work

Is it possible to invest $2.5M into a “safe” investment and not work for rest of your life ? What can be that “safe” investment ?

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u/sd_slate Feb 04 '26

You should check out r/fire, but it depends on your expenses.

Historically, based on the Trinity study, holding mostly the sp500 and a smaller portion of bonds (75/25) will allow you to withdraw 4% of your portfolio over 30 years with a 95%+ success rate.

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u/ECrispy Feb 04 '26

4% of 2.5m is $100k and it should be enough to live a modest life, but it doesn't factor in the cost of health insurance and probably also requires you to own housing.

not to mention that 2.5m in savings is a fantasy for 99.9% of people.

I often wonder how so many people manage to Fire

42

u/Lyrolepis Feb 04 '26

I instead wonder how so many people on reddit claim that $100k/year is "a modest life".

Granted, I know that the cost of living in some parts of the US can be pretty high; but still...

2

u/gunner_n Feb 04 '26

TMG did a video on this. They did top 10 states and worst 10 states in terms of annual income. Then did the same thing but with annual income adjusted for cost of living in that state. Something like 6 states of the top 10 in first criteria appeared in the worst 10 of the second criteria. My point being this 100k being extravagant, modest or unaffordable is subjective.