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I'm worried because if he spends all his money by the time he is 60 years old, life is going to be tough not only for him, but for his future wife and his family myself included, I guess. What other concerns should I raise in order to confirm if he knows what he is doing and also to not get my parents as worried as I am? As requested, I'm adding a USA tag, even though he has dual citizenship and plans to live in west Europe after retirement not in the near future, though. Healthcare is indeed a clear advantage there. My sister already lives and works there. The question is "personal relationship" as much, if not more, than personal finance.
It's one thing for a single person to make this decision, but another thing altogether to make such a decision pre-couple. And that's the piece that isn't fully addressed in the question. You seem afraid he expects her support, but where does she stand? Has he created the budget he expects to live on? He is likely missing some important details. He should understand that the rule offered a probability of money lasting 30 years, coinciding with a retirement at 65 or so, and lasting till In Bro's case, he will have enough savings so his child ren probably won't qualify for aid, but he'll also not have set aside anything to help them out.
My wife and I didn't have our full 35 years working, but had high enough income to get a decent Social Security check. And it will get more expensive each year until medicare kicks in at Again, it was part of our retirement budget, and at 65 Just over 9 more years it will lessen greatly as we go to Medicare. Does he expect she'll pay for childcare? And leave Dad at home to just hang out? This will make for one very unhappy wife. Disclosure - we both worked, had childcare during the day, and at night, I was an equal partner, both in the house chores, and in parenting. My concerns are about the finances and the personal issues your brother seems to be getting into.
Unfortunately, when people are set on a plan, they also aren't likely to be open to listening to the objections. But I not only had to deal with a major market crash, but also dramatic life changes that increased my living costs dramatically. We had two kids, one of whom who turned out to require hundreds of thousands in medical care that wasn't covered by my self-employed insurance. I found it's really hard to cover all the eventualities that can occur in decades years of retirement without having a substantial margin of safety in your retirement accounts.
And that wasn't the worst part. One of which was the boredom. Even though I pursued all the interests I had, they never fulfilled me like my career did for me. It's also much harder to motivate yourself to achieve personal goals when you don't have to get up early, can finish your projects whenever you want, leave on vacations at the drop of a hat, etc, etc. And even when things were going well, it was frustrating to know that I was unlikely to ever be able to increase my standard of living. And a decade later when I was forced to return to work I had to take jobs with significantly lower responsibilities and paying far less than what I had been used to.
That way he has a chance of continuing to grow his net worth and deal with unexpected problems. And he's not that far away. If he invests well and continues to save at a high rate, it could be as little as years away. If that's too frustrating for him, I'd recommend he develop a transition plan to ease into retirement, focused on making life more enjoyable, instead of maximizing income.
If he can work fewer hours start devoting the extra free time to getting his side interests going. It's a great test of how much he'll enjoy them in retirement. And if any start generating income then quitting his job becomes more reasonable. Assuming your brother dies at 90 and retires now 37 , he has to be able to live off his investments for 53 years.
Assuming he can indeed live of 40K a year inflation adjusted for the rest of his life, it is realistic but slightly risky. After he has already made a budget, is there anyway he can take a long term leave work, about 6 months without pay? This will allow him to try to live off of 20k and see if he can stay within his budget. Even if he is able to live of 20k if he is anywhere close to spending that much he will need more because theres a low chance he will hit any long term expenses like home maintenance.
This will also give him a chance to see if he would miss having the structure of work, people do, if he would be willing to see if he can work part time that would make things easier. He needs to be sure he has budgeted in normal living costs: It's definitely possible to live off that much but he needs to make sure he can stay within that amount of money since he wont have anymore coming in. To make sure of that he needs a very detailed budget.
Since there are so many less than optimistic answers here, I'm going to suggest something different. With your brother doing his hobbies, if he gets really good at them, like wood working, model building, sculpture, whatever, he might be able to turn that into a decent small time business. Personally, I'm trying to transition away from a day job to the business I run at night, which is basically using my hobby skills to make and sell things on Etsy. In fact, I'm currently working on buying a larger small business in a similar industry so I can merge with it and do it as my only job.
It'll be hard work for me, and your brother if he goes this route, but it's possible.
There's a very real and huge difference between work you love and work you do just for a paycheck. My dad doesn't understand how I can give up a job that pays as well as it does, and I find it hard to believe I'm doing it, but I've set realistic goals for me to hit before making this plunge and I'm going for it.
It sounds as if your brother has made goals and is also going for it, too. I wish I was able to hit goals like his. There's another possibility, one where your brother gets bored after years of retirement and goes back to work. Really, the worst thing you can do is to fight him on this.
It's his life, even if there's a fiance involved, and you need to accept his decisions. He is an adult and has been making decisions for himself for quite a few years as an adult. You just need to accept this as another of his decisions. Fighting him will only make him want to retire more and stay retired, even when he knows it's the wrong decision. He'll want to "prove that he can do it", even in 10 years if his marriage is failing, his car and house are being repossessed, and is on the verge of bankruptcy. There's also the possibility that he could retire now, sell those books of his, which 1 might become a best seller, and not have to worry about money ever again.
I would, however, avoid loaning him any money. He made his decision and needs to live with it. Of course, if it's life and death, give him some help, but never rub it in his face. Offer suggestions, but also never make ultimatums or try to tell him what he has to do. Those just make a bad situation much worse. Something I haven't read in other answers is any calculations on how much the OP's brother is currently saving. I remember at least one job I had where I thought I couldn't afford to continue working for that company, since I wasn't getting paid much more than I was spending to remain working at that job, including all the other bills I was paying.
Those costs can really add up to massive savings when they are gone. As an added tip for the brother, even if he's already frugal, is to get a copy of "America's Cheapest Family". I'm in no way connected to the book or getting paid for it's advertising, I'm simply another satisfied customer. I've used the ideas in that book to help me remove debt, stay out of debt, and remain sane. I still say early retirement is doable, it just takes self control and planning to be able to make it happen. I would say your brother is overly optimistic, but not drastically so.
Your brother should be planning for 60 years, so he should probably shoot for a 3. I would recommend having an in-depth discussion with your brother about his plans, while trying to keep an open mind. Does he have a plan for health care after it is no longer employer-subsidized? Will his asset allocation sustain his withdrawal rate? Is his portfolio too risky e. Does he have strategies for accessing retirement funds before traditional retirement age, if necessary? That would change things considerably. If he needs to go back to work after several years, is he willing to take a relatively low-level job?
He is overly optimistic. Which sucks if you have to live with the results of that for 50 years or more - life expectancy of people with money is going up. Sadly as is health care cost. I also would challenge him to live on 40k USD per year. See, basic faulty errors: Kids cost money, as will his house. To give you a counter idea. I am 50 next year. I figured out that in order to retire, I need: Which I likely will overshoot significantly - and still not sure I will retire because I actually love my work , and I rather think of spending k on cars for my 50th birthday.
But that is another story. He needs to focus. Sadly his hobbies are all the "well, year, dream on" style that have little chance to earn significant income.
He also really needs to think about all the crap that WILL happen in the next 30 years that he is not prepared for. So, no - he is on a great way. He is significantly ahead of the curve. But no, he is totally not ready to retire.
Under those circumstances, I would probably work another decade or two. It sounds like your brother is very conservative with his spending to have saved as much as he has. There's no reason he couldn't get by on a frugal lifestyle, but there is a good possibility that medical expense inflation not accounted for in the aforementioned study due to medicare eligibility at age 65 would eat away at his planned lifestyle enough that he would have to return to work after a couple of decades when his currently marketable skills are less marketable. Many families also have mortgages, car payments, children, etc.
So if his spouse were to contribute to the family budget then they would likely be doing better than half of American households. The biggest financial concern with not working is healthcare. If his future wife has a job that provides benefits, he will be covered. If he finds some part time work as a hobby then he's just padding his income. Lastly, depending on his field, getting a job after a lengthy sabbatical may not be that hard if he decided to go back. As others have said, the social interactions at work are also part of the equation but many moms and dads stay at home every day and have fulfilling lives.
There's no reason he couldn't do the same. So, to the title question: To your next question, "is he realistic? To your last question, what concerns should you bring up? Knock on wood, some children are born or come down with very expensive maladies which could very quickly increase his financial commitments. I give this problem out to students when I teach financial planning. The easy answer is "yes" it can work. Are there sizable risks from what you have posted, "yes. If it were me, I would do one of three things. The more likely choice for me would be to go to a bank trust department and open up a spendthrift trust.
Legally, he would irrevocably be giving the money away without recourse to get at it. Spendthrift trusts have to be created with great caution and care because you cannot fix a mistake or a misunderstanding. The bank will do exactly what you wrote in the document, not what you intended the language to mean. The advantage of doing this, turning himself into a trust baby, is that if he were sued he legally owns nothing. Indeed, if he had to go to a nursing home, then he would legally be destitute. Previous Article Next Article. Journal of Materials Chemistry. Fabrication of pH-sensitive graphene oxide— drug supramolecular hydrogels as controlled release systems.
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His aid shrugged hopelessly. Even weakened and distracted, we can't do anything to China while we still have the EU to worry about The whole world will just avert their eyes and pretend that they haven't noticed anything until the whole mess settles down. Wealth is very binary there- you are rich or you are poor, with very little in between. And this makes for a very large population that would like to see change.
It would not surprise me if these 'rebels' spoke for a majority of China. Their 'empire' stands on pillars of sand, that much is clear. Go get some rest. I will see you tomorrow. Kanon rose, and bowed slightly. So much to do Things have gotten busy around here rather rapidly. He reached down to his phone, and hit the intercom. I'll get her from the waiting room!
She'd only been working there for a week, and she was still quite energetic about her job. It's good to see her taking such passion in her work. The double doors open, and Cecile strode in timidly. Croomy," said Schneizel warmly, rising to greet her. You must have been here a dozen times by now. Perhaps this is a reaction to Lloyd's overly casual nature- she feels the need to be exceedingly formal just to contrast him, he thought.
After a moment, she sank into one of the chairs, and Schneizel sat back down as well. With the Lancelot and Gawain, that makes ten. The scientist frowned, considering the question. That's just the premise, however- we haven't actually had twelve at any one time in more than half a century. A few skilled fighters here and there have earned the title- like Lady Marianne, of course- but for the most part, the organization has fallen into disuse.
Merlin's job, then, would be to design and maintain Frames for the Knights. One for each Knight. And the Knights of the Round would become a true force to be reckoned with. The problem, of course, Dr. Croomy, was that the Knights became rather irrelevant. With the advent of jet fighters, and then eventually Knightmares, the difference between a skilled and average pilot became smaller, and smaller.
In the area of swords and armor, one exceptionally skilled warrior could change a battle In essence, it made the Knights of the Round unexceptional. Their skill was wasted on the machine, because it had a hard skill cap. We are finally seeing machines that are powerful enough, fast enough, strong enough, that it takes a truly skillful pilot to master them. We couldn't possibly afford to make these standard issue.
Even making twelve such Frames is going to cost us a fortune. I really don't know how the Black Knights afford all their technology. But that's neither here nor there. How go things with the team? They've even offered some ideas for the Lancelot, which we may need to act on. Mariel and Bradley are making some great progress on our control systems, and Nina It's hard to tell if she's making progress, because her work is pretty cut and dry- either she's got a fission reaction, or she doesn't. At the moment, she doesn't. Frankly, sir, we need to get her a better testing area. There was no menace to the question- he wanted his scientists to have whatever they needed.
If they didn't have it, he would get it. Cecile shook her head. She needs somewhere to experiment where if it goes off, there will be no casualties.
Schneizel raised an eyebrow. I will find a place for her, then. You think she can do this, though? We are used to working on a She's working with the elements themselves. It's not a field I'm very experienced with, and thus I have a hard time judging. But she knows what she's doing. He reached down to his desk, and picked up a simple manilla folder of papers. Cecile held it, and glanced at it hesitantly, uncertain whether to look at it now or later.
The researcher nodded, and flipped it open. One by one, she pulled out the personnel files and examined them. It was interesting to watch her face, Schneizel thought- quite a few of them were recognizable names, well known ace pilots from various divisions of the Britannian military. Some of them had been in the newspaper He just wanted skilled pilots. Cecile's mouth twisted into a frown at a few of the files, but at one of them she stopped, and her eyes opened wide.
The Lancelot dances in his hands. And the law states quite clearly that an Honorary Britannian should be treated no differently than a natural-born one. Consider this part of a campaign of his to fix the inequality. He'll make Britannia proud. She was a professional- she would do her job whether she liked them or not. Technically, that was all the business he needed with her They were all small things, nothing he would have thought twice about with a subordinate It wouldn't do for her to have a breakdown, after all.
That kind of delay was the last thing they needed. Schneizel blinked- she was angry.