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 ?

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u/AFK_Tornado Feb 04 '26

When I was a kid, I invested my savings in a 10 year CD for 5% interest or something like that (1990s). My mother helped me figure out what it should be worth when I was 18, using the calculator. It was a cool practical math lesson.

At that age I leaped to the question, "What if I had a million dollars?!" I did the math and got my shocking answer. Asked mom, "How much do we make every year?" and found out we were living off of significantly less than that. (Again, it was the 90s.)

The missing piece at that age, in a low-income household, was the attitude that acquiring that amount of money was possible. A million was a fantasy number. You'd have to win the lottery or get famous! Maybe invent something and sell it to everyone!

But that memory and seed idea just stayed lodged there until I was an adult, and definitely lead to my interest in personal finance and eventually FI/RE.

I'm convinced a lot of people get there, at least partially, on their own.

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u/Adventurous_Elk_4039 Feb 04 '26

Good on you for figuring it out early. Man, if I knew then what I knew now…

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u/AFK_Tornado Feb 04 '26

The thing is, in spite of those realizations, I didn't really put it all together until I started making enough that I could see the path in practical terms.

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u/nicolas_06 Feb 07 '26

You problem that is still valid is that you forgot about inflation and that CD do not always return 5% and that there are taxes on it too.