If you have a handle on your annual spending, and you know how much you need to live on, all you need to do is save up 25 times that amount —and on the very, very conservative side let’s say 28 times that amount — in conservative investments like a giant vanguard index fund, and that’s enough to fund you with passive income with a high degree of safety for the rest of your life. So, if you have — let’s just keep the numbers simple — if you need $30,000 to live on, multiply that by 25 and — ah darn, I’m giving myself a tricky math question — I’m thinking that’s like $750,000 you’d need saved up or something like that to quit forever. And that’s a lot less than most people think. Most people, at least in my age group — they’re shooting for the tens of millions type of range if they were to ever quit work early, and they haven’t really done the math on how easy it really is.
Mr. Money Mustache (Pete Adeney)