$1M is not FU money for someone in a major metropolitan US city with kids.
$1M is about 20 years of coast on a modest bay area mortgage + family healthcare.
To me, FU money is passive investments which yield a couple hundred thousand a year from businesses that can keep up with inflation.
If someone doesn't feel comfortable leaving a job to bet on a startup project with 20 years of mortgage payments in the bank, it is unlikely they ever will.
It should be possible to live in the Bay Area on that, given that the place still has cashiers, cleaning personnel and maintenance workers. It won't be a middle-class lifestyle, but you'd have to make _some_ sacrifices in order to indefinitely work at whatever you want in the most expensive place in the world.
So I'll just give you some simple answers.
If you don't already own a house, it's not a functioning area for families, or those wanting to own a house, aka "priced out forever."
Commuting farther is an option in other parts of the USA, but not the Bay Area, since it's constrained by hills and the Bay.
The non-owners living here need a gaffe of some kind:
* shared accommodation
* fly into a city airport with a private plane
* know a Prop 13 owner (ultra-low property tax) who wants to rent to a friend
* find an in-law unit coming onto the rental market
* navigate the Sunset area flop houses
* connections to ethnic communities with below-market asks
* get employer to chip in
* homestead a sketchy area of Oakland
* be a multi-unit superintendent (those used to offer a free apt. on-site, but recently I heard of almost market rent being charged)
There’s no reason pay for cashiers, cleaning personnel, and maintenance workers can’t rise, or to meet the demand of labor with a little bit of automation also. Making $40k per year as a cashier means $80k as a couple or roommates.
[1] https://smartasset.com/retirement/average-salary-in-san-fran... [2] https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/public-scho...
Assuming this is investment income of course, and not just spending down the principal, which obviously wouldn't work.
So probably under 2k, and it's not fun money, it's everything but housing starting with food and transportation.
Doable? I guess. Fun? Eye of the beholder, I'd say. And that's assuming kids don't enter the picture, say goodbye to every part of this plan if they do.
>I feel like it is hard for people to say what they truly love before they have at least $1M in their bank account. If you have FU money, your view on working at a FAANG vs building a startup can change. You will find it easier to know what you truly LOVE
The question wasn't if you can retire, or live of the investment income, but one of perceived finical security. If someone is too afraid to try working at a startup with $1M cash in the bank, it is unlikely they ever will.
Even if someone has kids and family, $1M provides a huge buffer to find a new job if the startup doesn't work out. Maybe 20 years is a stretch, but I am utterly baffled that other posters think this would only cover 2 years of spending...
Not in the Bay Area.
Looking at an excel for a million-dollar+ home is truly frightening. So many zeroes!
I'd consider $5M closer to FU money.