At what net worth would you work less?

[huruta]

Is the choice based on stage of life or size of the savings (NW)?
I get the feeling NW is going to be whatever it is. Good for you.

Life stage, and getting used to the fact that we are actually now a position with some flexibility. We'd like to move, but I'd like to keep my academic job which was all in person pre-COVID. I want to see how that plays out post-COVID normalization in terms of work from home expectations before we move, working 50% FTE kind of sounds dreamy - one more 5-year R01/NIH grant and I'm done with the grant game. And I think a slightly bigger investment portfolio would also make us feel a bit more secure in our ability to have the lifestyle we want when we retirement (travel is a life long love), and then there's the dream of boating the Inner Passage from Seattle to AK.....which requires a boat ($)!

[GlassPusher]

I'm not sure that it is net worth driven, at least for me. The FIRE movement has raised social consciousness around the idea of dropping full time work to live some better life, but again I see nothing wrong with happily pursuing a career in research, medicine, innovation, etc. and enjoying every minute of it. At 61 I am starting to get a bit bored with my particular career path, which is my second full career, so I am thinking about another one that may or may not be paid. I'm sure being FI helps make that an easier decision. But I could have done it years ago and instead have generally taken on more, not less.

Similarly, not based on net worth for me...part of the reason I chose the field I did. [removed unnecessary details of my laziness]. I believe the avg age of practicing pathologists is around 64...

Maybe if I worked harder and longer hours in a different specialty, I could reach FI earlier, but I'd still need something to do while my kids are in school. Having to go to work frees me from any obligations my wife could dream up for me.

[gap55u]

I would cut back as burnout prevention & to tend to a relationship regardless of net worth. I ended up divorced and not as present for kids when they were little. Working too hard wasn’t the only reason for the divorce. But, going to 0.9 has been dramatic, plus I’m just not as nose to the grindstone. Your kids are only young once. Money isn’t everything.

[Brains428]

10 MM? I don't really know. I'd keep .6 FTE for healthcare and because I like what I do. I'm also a busy body and tinkerer, so I don't think I'd be any less busy.

[WizardOfGauze]

3.5MM. That’s the number I came to in my personal investment policy doc. Depending on market returns that could be in the next 5 years. I’d be in early 40s and haven’t considered whether I’d just walk away or go fewer days a week but I’m punting that decision until the reality is imminent.

[CM]

7 mil if 40 years old.
5 mil if 50 years old.
3 mil if 65 years old.

If I thought about this when I was in my 30s I might have written something similar. However, at nearly 63, I can tell you that $3M doesn't provide a warm, fuzzy feeling, even though my wife and I don't spend as much as most here.

[FireFox]

If I thought about this when I was in my 30s I might have written something similar. However, at nearly 63, I can tell you that $3M doesn't provide a warm, fuzzy feeling, even though my wife and I don't spend as much as most here.

I agree with our comment but also depends on COLA for your situation. By 4% rule you should be okay to spend 120k every year if market remains steady. If you have no mortgage or loans to pay, I guess 120K ( pretax) income with some good tax planing is good enough for me.

[StarTrekDoc]

I would think $1m is more in track to $30k annual budget these days than $40k.

Per recent polls here 150-200k annual seems to be the post retirement mean. So $5m current day is the around the general target and adjust from there.

[Tim]

If I thought about this when I was in my 30s I might have written something similar. However, at nearly 63, I can tell you that $3M doesn't provide a warm, fuzzy feeling, even though my wife and I don't spend as much as most here.

Long term care risk leaves a couple greatly exposed. The second or healthy partner.
Alzheimers, dementia, stroke just to mention a few. Cost of living explodes.
https://www.morningstar.com/articles...e-2019-edition
Most underestimate the likelihood and cost.
Significant toll on the surviving spouse emotionally and financially. You don’t think much about this at 30. Different perspective at 60. 50% chance roughly. Largely ignored on this Forum.

[White.Beard.Doc]

When I realized that work had become optional from a financial perspective, I made adjustments in my work to better suit my needs. The realization that work might perhaps become optional kind of hit me as a sudden surprise mind shift at a net worth of around 5 million.

The first thing I did was to give up nights because I hated being tired and emotionally drained with the loss of sleep. I stopped working nights about 8 years ago.

More time passed, the net worth increased, and I later cut back my work hours to part time.

Most recently, I upped my vacation time given the flexibility I have. I like to take a week off work each month.

Despite financial independence, I still work one weekend a month because I don't mind it and I like sharing that responsibility with my colleagues. It is a privilege for me to continue part time work as a physician. I left the more stressful parts of the work behind and I now thoroughly enjoy myself most days at work.

Personally, I feel tremendous gratitude for the flexibility to continue working on my terms. The optional nature of work represented a huge mind shift from, "I need to go out to work, to tolerate both the good and bad, to support the family," to "I go to work to contribute and make a difference, hopefully making the lives of others better."

Despite financial independence, I definitely receive great psychological benefit from my work. Overall, it is a good investment of my time.

[FireFox]

When I realized that work had become optional from a financial perspective, I made adjustments in my work to better suit my needs. The realization that work might perhaps become optional kind of hit me as a sudden surprise mind shift at a net worth of around 5 million.

The first thing I did was to give up nights because I hated being tired and emotionally drained with the loss of sleep. I stopped working nights about 8 years ago.

More time passed, the net worth increased, and I later cut back my work hours to part time.

Most recently, I upped my vacation time given the flexibility I have. I like to take a week off work each month.

Despite financial independence, I still work one weekend a month because I don't mind it and I like sharing that responsibility with my colleagues. It is a privilege for me to continue part time work as a physician. I left the more stressful parts of the work behind and I now thoroughly enjoy myself most days at work.

Personally, I feel tremendous gratitude for the flexibility to continue working on my terms. The optional nature of work represented a huge mind shift from, "I need to go out to work, to tolerate both the good and bad, to support the family," to "I go to work to contribute and make a difference, hopefully making the lives of others better."

Despite financial independence, I definitely receive great psychological benefit from my work. Overall, it is a good investment of my time.

I am not there yet but your idea seems very reasonable to me. I am late 40's and gave up night shifts 10 years back. Working part time clinical 0.5 FTE and part time admin( WFH) which still makes 1 FTE salary. Night shifts is brutal on body and mind for most docs, unless you are young or have tons of loans to pay off. I am very fortunate to be in a group where people work what ever they want. I mean I can pick extra shifts( day shifts) as ML if I need to as we have lots of room there.
Our NW is close to 4M+ ( nest egg about 3M). I would like to work till I am 60 or 62 if I can for the pure joy of psychological benefit, specially what we have gone through as a society in last 2 years.

[Ronan]

At what net worth would you work less?

Hard to answer as I enjoy my work. I'm 54 and plan to continue for quite a bit. I've had friends tell me you will know when the time has come to leave.

[Auric goldfinger]

I quit at 20 million. Not really any slowdown. Hit a wall, working more didn’t make sense financially. Could have slowed up much earlier, but selling a solo practice when you aren’t working full time is much harder. A potential buyer actually asked me to restart doing some cosmetic procedures that I’d stopped. Didn’t matter much, I ended up selling the practice for way less than half of initial projections from my CPA. Never trust practice valuations.

[Ronan]

Does anyone else have a hard time envisioning cutting back? I go to several satellites. Cutting back means the other days are going to be busier and my really busy days are the ones I dread the most. I also wonder if a taste of more free time will make me dread my working days even more, accelerating burnout instead of extending my career. Cutting clinic is an option, but I take pride in being efficient and it seems like a waste to see fewer or leave early. I’m 4 years into practice and I like what I do a little bit less and less every year, even as the income continues to grow. I still like my job, but I can see now that I don’t want to be doing it for a lot longer than I have to.

(Thank you for coming to my TED Talk)

I don't. Several years ago I began taking 6 weeks off plus on the months I didn't have a week off the last Thurs of the month I took off for a four day weekend. So every month I have a decent size break and something to look forward to.

[Ceychu]

Well, I'm thinking about it at around a bit north of 5. Problem is figuring out a way to do a "glide path". Not a lot of that in my subspeciality (IC)