re: What to do when you are officially a multi-millionaire?

As a person who came from struggling with young children to making more money than an orthopedic surgeon, I can say that whatever point you feel that you theoretically are comfortable with hanging it up, it won't be enough. When you have that amount of assets all you can think about is how to lose those assets, and address it by working harder and making more money.

There is a point where it is no longer worth it, but I find that if I have $1K today I could grow it to $10K tomorrow if I maintain the course.

Keep working. Your new goal is $5M.

Don’t hire a financial planner. If you figure you can’t live without one, pay me the $30K a year and I’ll click the mouse twice a year for you. Do it yourself.

And get your wife’s spending under control. She can and will spend every nickel you have saved if you allow her to do that.

Congrats on the savings.

Were you invited to the official multi-millionaire ice cream social later this month? If not, sorry to tell you but you aren't truly there yet. If you are, great advice there as well as some great sundaes.

Your problem is your wife. You could stop working now, move your brokerage account to low risk income producing investments, and live of the interest from your brokerage account. With no debt, $4k a month is a doable budget for living simply if you can rein her in.

We have nowhere near enough info to give good advice. But I would assume, since you mentioned it multiple times, that your wife’s budget exceeds the cash flow which could be generated by the accounts you mention. Therefore, with limited info, the most important thing would be to reduce her spending. Keep saving, maybe at a higher rate without the spending. That will eventually get you to where you are able to retire earlier.

Your budget in retirement, with inflation built into it, is an exceedingly important piece of info. You will need to draw funds from the accounts to meet that budget.

still going to work daily.

Realize that due to unrealized taxes, you probably have 20-30% less than you claim.

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explore passions you put off earlier in life

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This is the problem with retirement that many people find themselves facing....those passions were really not all that interesting, at least over a very long period of time for someone who retires in their 40's and will most likely be pretty healthy and viable into their late 70s early 80s.

Seriously, consider this - you have the sex drive and physical ability of a 21 year old man and you retire at 40. You have the money and the time to pursue the international buffet of women. You are passionate about this (you have the drive and ability of a 21 year old, nothing would take a back seat). Would you be passionate about it after 12 months? Most likely not...It'd be a LOT like working for a living after a while. You still have 29 years to go. Most people DREAM of having as much time to do what they want to do and the funds to do it....and most of them find that they really weren't that creative and find they have an awful lot of time on their hands.

Hobbies are enjoyable in part because we have to make time and find funding for them. If you have plenty of both it is akin to working....you have all the time for working and all the funding for working that you will ever have every day of your life. If you need more time or funding for working you let other things go...sleep less, spend less on other things, whatever it takes making your nut while working is your number one passion because it has to be, you have little choice in the matter. Thats one reason it becomes a chore and not a passion - it is what you do. The same is true of any passion....if you are able to pursue it without limit, at least in most instances, you will find it wasn't really a passion after all, just like earning a living.

Retirement would be great at 65 say and you do not have 40 years to seek meaning....most of our passions or hobbies will sustain our interests over a few years or so and if you have several such passions or hobbies that could mean 10 - 15 years. At that age you will, most likely, be passionate about merely existing. At 40 that would mean you were 55 and still had 25 years or so to seek meaning. That leads many people to making all manner of ill decisions like divorcing, chasing younger women, all sorts of shite.

People are built to labor. Most of us were not born into a life of leisure and those who are lead pretty boring existences. Having time and funding seems like the perfect scenario but most will find it wanting for meaning in a short period of time. We just aren't as creative as we like to think we are....we are creatures of habit who thrive on routine and regularity. Unless you were born into a life of leisure making the transition is not as easy as it seems.

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Realize that due to unrealized taxes, you probably have 20-30% less than you claim.

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Certainly a big blind spot in some folks' perception of wealth.

But, the bigger issues:

1. The younger you retire, obviously, the longer you will be in retirement.

2. Conversely, the longer you work, it preserves your retirement/savings because you're contributing, contributing longer and generally more as your final years working tend to be at the highest earnings, as opposed to drawing down those savings

3. If you don't have a job to occupy your time, you tend to acquire expensive hobbies - nothing wrong with that, in principle, but you're literally on a fixed income - essentially you are trading earning/saving years with spending years

Even retiring in your mid-50s would be "early". 60 is a nice target - a sweet spot between retiring "too young" and working until you're too old/sick to enjoy it.

Obviously, YMMV, some people have defined benefits in addition to retirement savings which will complicate all those calculations.