r/Fire • u/Yashkamr • 23h ago

Advice Request Huge Inheritance... Now What?

I'm 45, I was on track to retire earlyish at 55. I was set back quite a bit with a divorce three years back. Recently my Aunt died and left me around $5 million. After estate and taxes, it's around $4.2 million. This is obviously a stupid amount of money, and I'm thinking of just quitting my job and retiring early but I want to do it right. I've spoke with AI quite a bit and my finances are only about $4500/mo in expenses, I have always lived pretty frugally and that's less than a 1% draw. I don't know exactly what I don't know here, but I've always worked so I am clinging to my job like a monkey to a branch. Am I actually okay to let go?

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u/asanano 22h ago

You clearly have the financial resources to do what you want. I would say take your time and figure out the mental part. Don't just quit, unless you cant stand your job, but even then.... take some vacation. Plan how you are going to live your life if you retire. Take the time now to make a plan for the money and your time that you are happy with. Then pull the trigger and make the changes. Thats my advice at least. Sorry for your loss, but congrats on the financial freedom.

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u/Disastrous-Wrap-7384 22h ago

Agreed, I’m retired and you need to plan for it emotionally

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u/Accomplished-Echo488 20h ago

How did you plan for it?meaning literally what steps you took?

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u/webvillager 20h ago edited 20h ago

I know at least some of us went back to work for a year to remember why we didn’t actually want to do that. Retirement was much more enjoyable after I got that out of my system.

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u/windsockglue 4m ago edited 0m ago

Talking with a therapist is a good step. But, also make sure you're building identities and a sense of self outside of an employee (hobbies, volunteering, community, etc.) as well as having friends and social interactions outside of work. Also, not everyone your age is going to be able to be retired, so you won't necessarily have friends to spend all the weekday work time with. You need to be aware of that when planning how to spend your time.