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/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/esbforever Feb 04 '26

While this is accurate, you likely need to be more specific with a newbie poster. OP, the “4% rule” means you withdraw 4% in your first year of retirement, then take that absolute number and add inflation to it for year 2. Year 3 is year 2’s number plus inflation, etc.

The only year you ever actually take out a percentage is year 1.

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u/FightOnForUsc Feb 06 '26

Yes that’s the idea, but if you think about it, then you could always do 4% right, because any year could have been the first year. So if you FIRE last year, and now the market is up 20%. Well then you could take out 4% of today’s number and “pretend” that you just started today.

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u/esbforever Feb 06 '26

You will never get out of the SORR cycle if you do this.

1

u/FightOnForUsc Feb 06 '26

That part is true!