[stupac2]

[quote author=stupac2 link=topic=14712.msg158173#msg158173 date=1457547400]
$11M is absolutely enough to retire on, unless you want to lead a stupidly extravagent lifestyle. My wife and I have calculated it and our number, including our house in the crazy-expensive Bay Area, is around $2.5M. Assuming you get ~5% annual real returns (which isn't insane), $11M is giving you over half a million dollars a year. You can't live on that? I sure could!

Granted, he's probably got less than that, but say he has $5M in the bank, that's still ~$250k a year! My wife and I make a bit over half that. It's plenty to live on.

If you can find a way to make a guaranteed 5% after-tax real return then you should be on Wall Street because you'd make Donald Trump look like a pauper.
[/quote]

There's considerable evidence that Donald Trump under-performed the S&P: http://www.economist.com/news/united-sta...ower-white

It's obviously really sensitive to your end-points, but the historical return of the S&P is about 5% real. And it's not uncommon to see higher, IIRC Stanford's endowment investments see about 7% currently (though this may have been nominal, which ends up being a bit more than 5% real given our current inflation levels).

The article I linked actually suggests living on 4%, and the actual level is obviously going to depends on the volatility of your investments. But living on $5M, even in an expensive place like the Bay Area, is clearly quite doable.

[stupac2]

[quote author=stupac2 link=topic=14712.msg158173#msg158173 date=1457547400]
$11M is absolutely enough to retire on, unless you want to lead a stupidly extravagent lifestyle. My wife and I have calculated it and our number, including our house in the crazy-expensive Bay Area, is around $2.5M. Assuming you get ~5% annual real returns (which isn't insane), $11M is giving you over half a million dollars a year. You can't live on that? I sure could!

Granted, he's probably got less than that, but say he has $5M in the bank, that's still ~$250k a year! My wife and I make a bit over half that. It's plenty to live on.

If you can find a way to make a guaranteed 5% after-tax real return then you should be on Wall Street because you'd make Donald Trump look like a pauper.
[/quote]

There's considerable evidence that Donald Trump under-performed the S&P: http://www.economist.com/news/united-sta...ower-white

It's obviously really sensitive to your end-points, but the historical return of the S&P is about 5% real. And it's not uncommon to see higher, IIRC Stanford's endowment investments see about 7% currently (though this may have been nominal, which ends up being a bit more than 5% real given our current inflation levels).

The article I linked actually suggests living on 4%, and the actual level is obviously going to depends on the volatility of your investments. But living on $5M, even in an expensive place like the Bay Area, is clearly quite doable.