Can I Retire at 45 With $10 Million?

Retiring at 45 with $10 million gives you the financial flexibility to shape almost any kind of lifestyle— from minimalist living to frequent international travel. The real question becomes how you’ll allocate that wealth over a 40-plus-year retirement, factoring in investment returns, taxes, and rising expenses. With the right setup, the numbers can work in your favor.

For help managing your own retirement, consider working with a financial advisor.

Early Retirement, Medicare and Social Security

The first thing to consider is that age 45 is a very early retirement. In this case you have gone full FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Ideally you will live around half your life as a retiree.

This is fantastic, but it also raises some very important issues. First, as always, make sure to plan for health care spending. You won’t be eligible for Medicare for another 20 years. Without an employer-sponsored plan, your health insurance costs may be considerable. If you have millions of dollars in the bank this most likely won’t be an issue, but it’s important to plan for.

Second, account for Social Security in your long-term plans. As with Medicare, if you retire at 45 this program is decades away.

You can begin collecting Social Security any time between ages 62 and 70. Delaying your first check increases your monthly benefit. The longer you wait, the higher your payments. Just as an example, while the average Social Security benefit for retired workers is approximately $23,770 per year at time of writing, you can collect up to $5,108 per month or $61,296 per year if you retire at age 70.

Either way, though, the truth is that Social Security probably won’t factor much into your planning. If you plan on needing this money to pay your bills, the much better option is delay retirement a little longer. By contrast, if you have the flexibility to retire at 45, almost by definition you have enough financial breathing room not to rely on Social Security.

How Much Income Will You Replace?

As with all retirement funds, the question is one of income replacement. Every year you will need to receive money from this portfolio. So the question is, how much money can you get? And how much will you need to draw down from the account’s principal?

Now, the truth is, we cannot answer that for you. Income replacement depends entirely on your investment strategy, so the numbers will vary based on your personal approach. However there are a few representative models that we can look at, and they all point in the same basic direction: With a $10 million portfolio, you can live a very comfortable lifestyle without ever touching the underlying principal.

Bonds

Let’s say you make the safest possible bet you can. You take all of your money and put it into the bond market. As with all investments, the numbers can range, but on average you can expect to receive interest payments of around 3% – 4% per year.

This is just interest, not the return you would make by selling or cashing out these bonds. With $10 million in bonds, your annual interest income would range from $300,000 to $400,000. And it’s important to remember that the only uncertainty here would come when your bonds mature and you need to buy new assets. Otherwise, your interest payments are locked in for the lifetime of the asset.

Stocks

It’s generally not a good idea to sink your retirement account into individual equities, but many investors do like to keep their money in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is more volatile than safer assets. But if you can weather downturns, it has historically delivered strong long-term returns.

On average, the S&P 500 has returned approximately 11% per year since it first began. That’s the return you can expect if you put your money into an S&P 500 index fund. Again, this will involve volatility. Some years you will get significantly more, other years you may lose money, but this has proven to be the long-term result.

With a $10 million portfolio, entirely invested in the S&P 500, you could average $1.1 million per year in returns. Of course, your investment returns will vary widely from year to year, but the long-term You will have to do more active management to transfer those returns into cash, but that’s what you can expect over the long run.

Annuities

Annuities are a contract that you typically make with an insurance company. In exchange for an initial investment, generally either made in a lump-sum or over time, they guarantee you a structured payout in the future. The idea here is security. Annuities typically pay less than stock investments, but you’ll get more than you would make from a bond and it’s backed by the insurance company’s credit. As long as they’re solvent, you get paid.

Annuities are specific products, so exactly what you will receive depends entirely on the company and your situation. However, they can generate a lot of income for the right investor. For example, if you put half of your savings – $5 million – into a single life immediate annuity on your 45th birthday, you could lock in $281,000 per year for life, according to Schwab’s income annuity estimator. Furthermore, you’d still have half of your nest egg to invest in other ways.

Costs and Lifestyle

As we noted up top, with $10 million you can generate more than enough income to live a very comfortable life. Even without investment growth, $10 million allows you to withdraw $100,000 per year for 100 years.

With even some modest financial management, you can generate between $400,000 and $1.1 million per year in income without even touching your underlying principal.

The question of whether or not that’s enough for you will depend on your personal situation.

Among other things, if you’re retiring at 45, there’s a good chance that you still have a family and minor children to consider. Make sure that you continue planning for their expenses and needs, and particularly keep on top of any college funds. Higher education continues to get more expensive every year, so be prepared for that.

Next, look carefully at your finances and lifestyle. If you’ve saved up $10 million, odds are that you’re a very high-income household. What do you want, and what do you need? If you want to retire at 45, then prepare to make that a priority. Skip the boat shows and hold off on that vacation property — at least until you’re living on retirement income.

Work hard to avoid the golden handcuffs that keep so many high-earners trapped in jobs they kind of hate. On the other hand, if you have a lifestyle that you truly enjoy, then don’t force yourself to give that up. You have decades left.

Bottom Line

At age 45, $10 million is more than enough to fund a very comfortable retirement. Whether it’s enough to fund your retirement will depend entirely on your own, personal needs. If you’re considering trying to retire at 45, take the time to consider your life and your budget to decide if you’re able to make it work.

Retirement Tips

Whether you need help managing a $10 million nest egg or simply want to afford retirement despite having modest assets, a financial advisor can help. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Use SmartAsset’s budgeting tool to get a sense of what your spending should be to retire early.