You only need 1/4 million to retire in the US, if you single, childless and intend to stay that way. If you are young, and (foolishly) want a dependent wife and kids, one million probably wont do the trick, cause you'll need to gross on the order of 300k per year in order to properly raise some kids, have the wife not work, and afford the tutors, babsysitters, nannies, etc, needed to keep your wife reasonabley sane. Making 30% per year, every year, without fail, on investments is not at all easy to do, guys. So you need more like 4 million bux to do the trick, knowing no more than young guys know about the world. That's 4 million left after you pay the tax on the original money. So you'd really need more like 6 million. That's what kids and a non-working wife cost you. Choose, stay childless and retire after working 5-6 years, or keep working for 50 years. and about 20 years into it, the deck is heavily stacked that some disaster will occur, like alimony, child payments, etc, which ruin most hubbies/dads for another 20 years (at least)