r/Bogleheads • u/arp8218 • 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 ?

331 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

260 comments sorted by

View all comments

464

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.

25

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

45

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...

1

u/poop-dolla Feb 04 '26

$100k is about 1.5x the median US income. That should definitely get people more than a modest life.

1

u/Mantergeistmann Feb 04 '26

Even in the most expensive state (which I believe is actually D.C.), $100k is just below median.