MW 'I'm a realist': I'm 50 with $6.5 million saved. Should I quit my $200,000 job and retire early?
By Quentin Fottrell
'I have been considering leaving my job so that I can focus on my trading activities full time'
"We have two daughters. One is in her third year of college, and the other is a junior in high school." (Photo subjects are models.)
Dear Quentin,
I am a 50-year-old woman, and I have been debating whether I can - or even should - retire at this point in my life.
My husband and I own a property in California with a remaining mortgage balance of $250,000. The house is currently valued at $1.5 million. Our monthly mortgage payment is $3,000, although we have been paying $5,000 per month. Our combined annual income is about $500,000, with my husband earning $300,000 of that amount.
We have an investment account valued at $3 million, which I manage myself and which has generated annual returns of approximately 10%-15%. I also manage my own IRA account, which is currently worth $2 million. My husband has a 401(k) account valued at $1.5 million. Our monthly expenses, excluding the mortgage, are around $10,000.
We have two daughters. One is in her third year of college, and the other is a junior in high school. Both have their own college investment accounts, which are more than sufficient to cover their tuition expenses. I have been considering leaving my job so that I can focus on my trading activities full time.
I'm a realist, so I would like to know whether this is a realistic option and what other factors I should consider before making this decision.
Possible Early Retiree
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You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com. The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually.
You need to leave room for systemic risk of a market downturn.
Dear Possible,
It's more than possible. It's eminently doable.
Believe me when I tell you that people will be reading your letter and wondering, "Why on Earth would anyone with $6.5 million be worried about not retiring early?" Well, one reason is your expenses are $10,000 a month. You will need $180,000 after taxes to keep up, which includes your existing mortgage.
Even at a 3% withdrawal rate, you could sustain your lifestyle. At your age, you should plan for at least 40 or 45 years of retirement. A 3%-3.25% withdrawal rate is very conservative for that time horizon, so if you did take 3% a year from your $6.5 million retirement funds, you'd get $195,000 a year, and likely still withdraw less than your annual returns.
It would be folly to assume your 10%-15% annual return will continue indefinitely; assume a more conservative return of 5%-7% a year, especially if you wish to stress test your finances. Account for a dip in the market in the early years of retirement, which would disproportionately impact your investments if you need to take money in a downmarket.
A word of warning: trading individual stocks can be perilous.
There's a lot to think about: (1.) setting aside emergency savings (more than a year, if possible); (2.) stress testing your monthly expenditure; and (3.) deciding whether to claim Social Security at 67 or waiting until 70 (and get roughly 8% a year more), which would be ideal. Create a "tax map" to estimate your brackets and time any Roth conversions.
If you retire, that raises another issue: You're sitting pretty in retirement while your husband works. No doubt you two have discussed this, but you will also need to talk about what happens if/when he stops working. That will add more pressure on withdrawals from your investments, and also add healthcare premiums to your already sizable monthly expenses.
Focusing on your trading activities, assuming your success is not relying on day trading or buying/selling individual stocks, is not a bad idea, if you've a proven track record. Just be aware that you will also be drawing on those investments, and losing the future return on that capital. A word of warning: trading individual stocks can be perilous.
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Systemic risk
Leave room for systemic risk of a market downturn. The U.S. is three years into this latest bull market, and there's no guarantee that it will continue unabated. History has also taught us that the gods like to dish out nasty surprises every few years: dot-com bubbles, subprime mortgage crises, pandemics, etc. The market today is very reliant on AI stocks.
After the tariff-related market correction in April 2025, stocks recovered. You will find analysts who predicted a "bloodbath" for stocks in 2025, screaming blue murder about the U.S. trade war and expressing concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East and/or Russia's increasingly unpredictable foreign policy, only to change their minds later.
In 2025, Nvidia became the world's first $5 trillion company. Some retail investors, like this videogame aficionado, made a killing, but there are reasons to take a sobering look at AI. Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft $(MSFT)$, Apple $(AAPL)$, Google $(GOOGL)$ parent Alphabet and Amazon (AMZN) make up almost one-third of the S&P 500. That's a lot of concentration.
The question is how you protect what you have.
Don't underestimate healthcare costs if your husband decides to join you in retirement and you don't have the benefit - or luxury - of his workplace healthcare plan, assuming he has one. In such a case, you will have to wait for Medicare at 65. Big questions hang over deductibles, premiums and availability of the Affordable Care Act's marketplaces.
You are in an excellent financial position, so the question is really how you protect what you have. Your main priorities should be ensuring your investment strategy is sustainable, mapping out what happens if your husband leaves his job, and managing the real-time risks of full-time trading so it does not jeopardize everything you have built.
So, yes, you can retire early. And, yes again, your story will be informative to some because they will face many similar challenges if they wish to retire before they're 65, and frustrating to others who are wondering why you need advice with $6.5 million saved between you and your husband. But you do need advice whether it's $6.5 million or $650,000.
You have plenty of loot to enable you to leave that $200,000-a-year job behind. The question is how much do you really want to?
Related: I'm 60, retired with $3 million. My fiancée, 55, only has $1 million and plans to keep working. Are we compatible?
More columns from Quentin Fottrell:
'I feel like he may be taking advantage of us': Our adviser pushes annuities after we already said no. Do we fire him?
I'm 55 and earn $100,000. Should I take a $2,900 monthly pension - or $2,200 with 3% annual hikes?
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-Quentin Fottrell
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June 16, 2026 06:52 ET (10:52 GMT)
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